Gliders: Excellent New Tools for Observing the Ocean (GENTOO)

我们都喜欢有一个机器人来执行我们的命令的想法。科学家们意识到，机器人技术现在提供了令人兴奋的可能性，可以用我们梦寐以求的方式观察我们的环境。我们将使用一支由三个机器人组成的舰队在南极洲附近的海洋中漫游，回答科学问题，这些问题对于我们在一个前所未有的变化时代预测和管理海洋及其生物资源的能力至关重要。我们将使用的机器人被称为海洋滑翔机。就像我们熟悉的空中滑翔机一样，它们没有螺旋桨。电池驱动一个泵，在滑翔机内部的一个区域和船体外的另一个区域之间移动流体，从而改变滑翔机的密度是比海水高，还是比海水低，所以它升到海面上。它上下滑行，每次浮出水面时都会通过手机与控制它的科学家进行交流。近年来，油价大幅上涨，船舶消耗大量石油。使用滑翔机作为我们未来海洋和气候观测系统的一部分，将为纳税人节省资金，因为遥控滑翔机可以更有效地完成一些海洋观测。滑翔机还可以在我们不愿与船只在一起的时候观察海洋，例如在冬天或在强风和波涛汹涌的大海中。这个项目计划表明，这些可能性都在我们的掌握之中。我们已经组建了一个由多学科科学家组成的团队，他们正在共同努力解决南极洲周围海洋系统如何运作的谜题。当冷风吹过水面时，稠密的冷水在南极洲大陆周围下沉，有助于海冰的形成。近100年来，我们一直知道这种情况发生在威德尔海南部。我们认为，由于最近拉森冰架的坍塌，这可能正在一个新的地区发生。我们的滑翔机将测量从大陆架溢出的致密水的数量。这一点很重要，因为气候模型表明，这种稠密水的数量和性质可能会影响控制我们气候的全球海洋颠覆环流；我们需要知道这些是否正在改变。这种溢出到大陆斜坡上的致密水可能也会影响洋流的位置。因此，随着高密度水的变化，这些洋流可能会向岸上或离岸更远的方向移动。我们将努力衡量和理解这一点。洋流的这些变化也影响到生活在南极洲附近水域的动物。磷虾是虾类生物，是鲸鱼、海豹和企鹅等动物的猎物，更不用说支撑着数百万磅的磷虾渔业(吃过磷虾披萨吗？)。磷虾在南极半岛周围产卵，然后被洋流带过斯科舍海到达南乔治亚州。虽然对南极半岛西部进行了很好的调查，但我们不知道在半岛东侧的韦德尔海有多少磷虾，可能在海冰下过冬。洋流的变化是否会影响这些磷虾是否到达南乔治亚州？如果我们能确定磷虾在冰层下存活，并可以迁徙到南乔治亚州，海洋哺乳动物和磷虾捕鱼业可能不会像我们担心的那样容易受到气候变化的影响。在这种情况下，磷虾在不确定的未来也可能成为我们人类更重要的食物来源；你永远不会知道，磷虾披萨可能很快就会出现在你当地的超市！

We all love the idea of having a robot to do our bidding. Scientists are realising that robot technology now offers exciting possibilities to observe our environment in ways we have only dreamt of. We will use a fleet of three robots roaming the ocean near Antarctica to answer science questions that are critical to our ability to predict and manage the ocean and its living resources in an era of unprecedented change. The robots we will use are called ocean gliders. Much like the familiar airborne gliders, they do not have a propeller. Batteries drive a pump to move fluid between one area within the glider and another outside its hull, thus changing whether the glider is denser than seawater, so it sinks, or less dense than seawater, so it rises to the sea surface. It glides up and down, communicating via mobile phone with the scientists controlling it each time it comes to the surface. Oil prices have risen sharply in recent years, and ships use a great deal of oil. Using gliders as part of our future ocean and climate observing systems will save tax-payers' money since some ocean observations can be done much more efficiently by remotely controlled gliders. Gliders can also observe the ocean when we'd really rather not be there with ships, such as in winter or in strong winds and heavy seas. This project plans to show that these possibilities are within our grasp. We have assembled a multidisciplinary team of scientists who together are grappling with puzzles about how the ocean system works around Antarctica. Dense cold water sinks around the continent of Antarctica when cold wind blows over the water and helps sea ice to form. We've known for nearly 100 years that this happens in the southern Weddell Sea. We think that this might now be happening in a new region, because of the recent collapse of the Larsen Ice Shelf. Our gliders will measure the amount of dense water spilling off the continental shelf. This is important because climate models suggest that the amount and properties of this dense water are likely to impact on the global ocean overturning circulation that controls our climate; we need to know if these are changing. This dense water spilling over the continental slope probably also affects where the ocean currents are. So these currents might be moving further onshore or offshore, as the dense water changes. We'll try to measure and understand this. These changes in the ocean currents also affect the animals living in the waters near Antarctica. Krill are shrimp-like creatures that form the prey for animals such as whales, seals and penguins, not to mention underpinning a multi-million pound krill fishing industry (ever had a krill pizza?). Krill lay their eggs around the Antarctic Peninsula, and are then carried across the Scotia Sea to South Georgia by the ocean currents. Whilst the west Antarctic Peninsula is well surveyed, we don't know how many krill are in the Weddell Sea, on the eastern side of the Peninsula, possibly spending the winter under sea ice. Might the changes in ocean current affect whether these krill reach South Georgia? If we can establish that the krill are surviving under the ice and could travel to South Georgia, it may be that marine mammals and the krill fishing industry will be less vulnerable to climate change than we have feared. In which case, krill may become a more important food resource for us humans too in an uncertain future; you never know, the krill pizza may find its way to your local supermarket before long!