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

我们都喜欢让机器人为我们做事的想法。科学家们正在意识到，机器人技术现在提供了令人兴奋的可能性，以我们梦寐以求的方式观察我们的环境。我们将使用一个由三个机器人组成的舰队在南极洲附近的海洋上漫游，以回答科学问题，这些问题对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大，所以它会下沉，还是比海水小，所以它会上升到海面。它上下滑行，每次到达地面时都通过移动电话与控制它的科学家进行通信。近年来，石油价格急剧上涨，船舶使用大量石油。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节省纳税人的钱，因为一些海洋观测可以通过远程控制的滑翔机更有效地完成。当我们不想和船在一起的时候，比如在冬天或强风和波涛汹涌的大海里，滑翔机也可以观察海洋。这个项目计划表明，这些可能性都在我们的掌握之中。我们组建了一个多学科的科学家团队，他们正在一起努力解决南极洲周围海洋系统如何运作的难题。当冷风吹过水面时，稠密的冷水在南极洲周围下沉，帮助海冰形成。近100年前，我们就知道这种情况发生在威德尔海南部。我们认为，由于拉森冰架最近的崩塌，这种情况现在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高密度水的数量。这一点很重要，因为气候模型表明，这种致密水的数量和性质可能会影响控制我们气候的全球海洋翻转循环；我们需要知道这些是否在改变。这种溢出大陆斜坡的密集水可能也会影响洋流的位置。因此，随着海水密度的变化，这些洋流可能会进一步向岸上或离岸移动。我们会试着去测量和理解它。洋流的这些变化也影响着生活在南极洲附近水域的动物。磷虾是一种虾状生物，是鲸鱼、海豹和企鹅等动物的猎物，更不用说支撑着价值数百万英镑的磷虾捕捞产业了（你吃过磷虾披萨吗？）磷虾在南极半岛附近产卵，然后被洋流带过斯科舍海到达南乔治亚岛。虽然南极半岛的西部已经得到了很好的调查，但我们不知道在半岛东部的威德尔海有多少磷虾，它们可能在海冰下过冬。洋流的变化是否会影响这些磷虾到达南乔治亚岛？如果我们能确定磷虾在冰下存活，并能游到南乔治亚岛，那么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，在不确定的未来，磷虾也可能成为我们人类更重要的食物资源；你永远不知道，磷虾披萨可能很快就会出现在你当地的超市里！

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!