Robots probe the ocean to help better understand climate change

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Data provided by Argo floats has helped improve climate control systems weather and ocean forecasts worldwide.

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A research center for #x27;University of Victoria uses robotic sensored buoys in the deep waters of the northeast Pacific Ocean to track climate change.

Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) says five of these autonomous underwater instruments, known as Argo floats, have been deployed to record climate indices on the ocean floor.

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Float data is accessible on the Internet in real time.

Argo floats, equipped with sensors for temperature, pressure, conductivity and oxygen levels in the water, have a lifespan of four to five years. They are submerged for around ten days before returning to the surface to transmit data. They then dive again, repeating the process until their battery runs out.

The data provided by the floats makes it possible to ;Improve weather and ocean forecasting systems around the world, says ONC President and CEO Kate Moran.

Although these monitoring devices have been around for several years, the new ONC floats are the first to explore the Northeast Pacific at depths greater than 2 kilometers.

The average depth of the ocean is 4 kilometers, and these floats reach that distance, she explained. They will allow us to better understand changes inside the oceans.

In 2015, unusually warm waters off the coast of British Columbia caused toxic algae blooms that killed several marine species.

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Using data collected by Argo floats, scientists can better understand ocean heat waves. These devices will help us understand these extreme global warming phenomena, how they change the ocean and at what depth they occur, says Kate Moran.

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Argo floats will help Ocean Networks Canada study the depths of the Northeast Pacific.

What remains surprising, for Kate Moran, is that the world knows more about the surface of the moon and Mars than about the depths of the oceans, despite the fact that our planet is made up of water. about 70%.

Some 4,000 of these robots are plying the world's oceans as part of the global Argo program, launched in 1999. According to Kate Moran, the &x27; ONC plans to roll out more floats in the coming days.

With information from the show< em>All Points West

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