{"id":8740,"date":"2026-04-01T15:56:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T15:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/godshand.link\/ground_post\/sailing-for-science-a-50-day-mission-to-study-the-southern-ocean\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T15:56:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T15:56:20","slug":"sailing-for-science-a-50-day-mission-to-study-the-southern-ocean","status":"publish","type":"ground_post","link":"https:\/\/godshand.link\/en_gb\/ground_post\/sailing-for-science-a-50-day-mission-to-study-the-southern-ocean\/","title":{"rendered":"Sailing for Science: A 50-Day Mission to Study the Southern Ocean\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Emmanuel Boss, Ph.D., University of Maine<\/p>\n

For 50 days\u00a0during the 2026 Austral\u00a0summer\u00a0(January to March),\u00a0the\u00a0PlanktoSpace<\/a>\u00a0team of 18 scientists, crew members, and passengers set sail on a unique mission.\u00a0Our\u00a0expedition traveled 7,200 miles across the\u00a0Southern Ocean\u00a0aboard the\u00a0Perseverance<\/em>, a sailing vessel owned by a French non-profit dedicated to science and education.\u00a0Because the\u00a0Perseverance<\/em>\u00a0uses sails for most of its journey,\u00a0the expedition was\u00a0environmentally friendly\u00a0and cost-effective.\u00a0In fact, the fuel used for our entire 50-day trip was\u00a0roughly the\u00a0same amount a\u00a0typical\u00a0large research ship burns in just a single day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

PlanktoSpace\u00a0included scientists from NASA, the\u00a0European Space Agency, Centre national de la recherche\u00a0scientifique\u00a0(CNRS), and the University of Maine.\u00a0Our main goal was to study the health of\u00a0the\u00a0marine\u00a0protected\u00a0areas. While we kept a close eye on famous locals\u2014like leopard\u00a0seals and penguins\u2014we were\u00a0also there\u00a0to study the \u201cbase\u201d of the ocean\u2019s food web:\u00a0plankton<\/a>. These tiny, drifting organisms are the lifeblood of the sea.\u00a0Just as different trees change the look of a forest, different plankton communities change the color of the water.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0why data from NASA\u2019s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, and ocean Ecosystem<\/a> (PACE) mission can be used to distinguish different phytoplankton in the ocean.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During this expedition we\u00a0used\u00a0a suite of\u00a0instruments to measure the\u00a0color of the ocean,\u00a0helping\u00a0us to\u00a0better\u00a0understand how sunlight interacts with plankton and other\u00a0materials\u00a0in the ocean. In the map below, you can see the concentration of\u00a0chlorophyll,\u00a0the\u00a0green pigment\u00a0found\u00a0in all phytoplankton (and\u00a0land plants), and how it changed\u00a0along our path.\u00a0\u00a0The map\u00a0color scale\u00a0shows\u00a0that the amount of life in the water changed dramatically\u2014up to 100 times over\u2014as we traveled between New Zealand, Antarctica, and Australia. We had to weave through sea ice and navigate around the most dangerous winds and waves to keep the ship and crew safe.\u00a0Rough seas\u00a0can be seen in our data; the little breaks in the colorful\u00a0track lines mark\u00a0the periods when the seas were so rough that air bubbles got into our sensors, making\u00a0accurate\u00a0readings impossible.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition to instrument measurements,\u00a0we collected additional water samples, including material for\u00a0genetic\u00a0analysis,\u00a0during\u00a0the\u00a0period\u00a0when PACE, a NASA satellite\u00a0launched in 2024,\u00a0passed overhead.\u00a0Our\u00a0samples\u00a0will be used for\u00a0PACE\u00a0validation,\u00a0the process of comparing in situ measurements with what PACE observes from space.\u00a0The entire crew pitched in\u00a0to collect\u00a0this important dataset, especially on those clear-sky days when the satellites had the best view of our work from above.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

This was\u00a0not all.\u00a0Perseverance<\/em>\u00a0was equipped with instruments that allowed us to track microplastics and other manmade changes in the water and air. We also tested a\u00a0new\u00a0smartphone app\u00a0(iSPEX\u00a0Water<\/a>) and attachment designed\u00a0so that\u00a0citizen scientists\u00a0can\u00a0take\u00a0surface-level\u00a0water measurements that\u00a0integrate with\u00a0those\u00a0collected by NASA\u2019s\u00a0satellites.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ultimately,\u00a0the majority of the\u00a0data collected during the\u00a0Perseverance\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0expedition to\u00a0the\u00a0Southern Ocean\u00a0will be\u00a0submitted\u00a0to\u00a0the relevant\u00a0NASA databases\u00a0to\u00a0allow\u00a0scientists\u00a0from all around the world\u00a0to\u00a0better\u00a0use space technology to\u00a0monitor\u00a0the health of our oceans from\u00a0Earth orbit.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Earth Science Division Editorial Team<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n