Expanding Fleet of Autonomous Floating Robots Targets Deeper Understanding of Global Ocean Dynamics
Expanding Fleet of Autonomous Floating Robots Targets Deeper Understanding of Global Ocean Dynamics
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DOI：
10.1016/j.eng.2023.01.001
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发表时间：
2023-01
期刊：
影响因子：
12.8
通讯作者：
Chris Palmer
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Chris Palmer
2023年，海洋学家将部署数百个自由漂流的机器人浮标，配备一套定制的传感器，这些传感器旨在测量世界海洋的多种生物地球化学(BGC)特征，包括pH值、氧气、硝酸盐和叶绿素水平。这个名为BGC-ARGO的项目借鉴了国际ARGO项目的成功，该项目在过去20年里通过数千个自主的圆柱形机器人浮标跟踪地球海洋的温度和盐度(图1)。随着更先进的深水船队和BGC-Argo浮标的加入，该计划的研究人员和合作者旨在回答关于海洋生产力、碳循环、酸化和生态系统变异性的更复杂和关键的问题[1]。海洋产生了地球一半以上的氧气[2]。它还将人类对气候的影响降至最低；事实上，科学家们估计，海洋吸收了人类活动释放的大约四分之一的二氧化碳[3]。此外，随着地球变暖，大部分额外的热量被困在海洋中，这推动了海洋的扩张和海平面的上升。然而，尽管海洋覆盖了近14亿立方公里，约占地球表面的71%，但技术和后勤方面的挑战有限，无法了解海洋的动态，提供关键数据，以便更好地为气候和天气模型提供信息，以及潜在的缓解全球变暖的努力[4]。位于美国加利福尼亚州的蒙特利湾水族馆研究所(MBARI)的高级科学家肯·约翰逊(Ken Johnson)负责监督一些BGC-Argo传感器的开发。他说：我们需要知道海洋在做什么。令人尴尬的是，我们对它的观察和理解是如此之少。
In 2023, oceanographers will deploy hundreds of free-drifting robotic floats equipped with sets of custom-built sensors engineered to measure multiple biogeochemical (BGC) characteristics of the world’s oceans, including pH, oxygen, nitrate, and chlorophyll levels. The project, BGC-Argo, piggybacks off the success of the international Argo program, which over the last 20 years has tracked the temperature and salinity of the planet’s oceans with thousands of autonomous cylindrical robotic floats (Fig. 1). With the addition of fleets of more advanced deep water and BGC-Argo floats, the program’s researchers and collaborators aim to answer more complex and vital questions about the ocean’s productivity, carbon cycling, acidification, and ecosystem variability [1]. The ocean generates more than half of Earth’s oxygen [2]. It also minimizes humanity’s impact on the climate; indeed, scientists estimate that the ocean absorbs about a quarter of the CO2 released by human activity [3]. Furthermore, as the Earth warms, most of the extra heat is being trapped in the ocean, which is driving ocean expansion and sea-level rise. However, while the oceans cover nearly 1.4 billion cubic kilometers, or about 71% of Earth’s surface, technical and logistical challenges have limited efforts to understand their dynamics and provide critical data needed to better inform climate and weather models, as well as potential mitigation efforts for global warming [4].‘‘We need to know what the ocean is doing,” said Ken Johnson, a senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in California, USA, who oversees the development of some of the BGC-Argo sensors.‘‘It is three quarters of the planet’s surface, and it is embarrassing how little we observe and understand it.”