After a long hiatus, the epic Ocean Race is back – but this year the teams are gathering crucial data from places even research vessels rarely reach
But while the Ocean Race is sometimes known as the toughest, and certainly the longest, professional sporting event in the world – an event that began in 1973 as the Whitbread Round the World Race then became the Volvo OceanRace, and which attracts professional sailors of the highest level who join mixed crews every few years on sponsored teams to vie for an overall trophy – this year scientists have smelled an opportunity for them to benefit as well.
Justine Mettraux of the 11th Hour Racing team takes a final look at the sail setup before ducking back into the cockpit Meanwhile, 11th Hour Racing Team and Team Malizia are using OceanPacks to take regular water samples to measure the levels of carbon dioxide, oxygen, salinity and temperature, to be analysed in Germany and fed to Socat, the Surface Ocean COTanhua says the fresh data reveals new patterns. For example, it shows how carbon dioxide varies over a year – higher when the water warms up in summer, lower during a phytoplankton bloom.
They are also studying oxygen. Dr Véronique Garçon, senior scientist for France’s National Centre for Scientific Research at the Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées at the University of Toulouse, France, wants to better understand ocean deoxygenation, which is being caused by global heating.“Boats sail through remote parts of the world ocean where observations are really scarce,” she says.
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