Robot-Sub 'Boaty McBoatface' Completes 55 Days of Underwater Climate Research (bbc.com) 12
"Battling choppy waves and high winds, three engineers pulled ashore a yellow submarine in Scotland this week," reports the BBC. "With sheets of water pouring from its body, the UK's most famous robot — Boaty McBoatface — was winched up after 55 days at sea."
Boaty has completed a more-than-2,000km scientific odyssey from Iceland [the longest journey yet for its class of submarine, and major test of its engineering]... "Boaty has absolutely passed. It's a massive relief," says Rob Templeton [from Southampton's National Oceanography Centre]... It is exciting technology but the science that Boaty was doing could be part of a game-changer in how scientists understand climate change...
Cruising at 1.1metres per second and diving thousands of metres, Boaty had more than 20 sensors monitoring biological and chemical conditions like nutrients, oxygen levels, photosynthesis and temperature... "We are measuring what's been happening in the upper ocean with the phytoplankton, the plants that grow there. We are looking at the little zooplankton, the animals that eat them. And we've been measuring the fecal pellets, the poo that the animals produce," explained Dr Stephanie Henson [chief scientist on the research project "BioCarbon" run by the National Oceanography Centre, the University of Southampton and Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.] "Our climate would be significantly warmer if the carbon pump wasn't there," Stephanie said. Without it, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels would be about 50% higher, she says. But current climate modelling does not get the carbon pump right, she says. "We want to know how strong it is, what changes its strength. Does it change from season to season, and year to year?" she says...
There are tentative signs from the research that the carbon pump might be slowing down, the scientists explain. The team recorded much smaller "blooms" of the tiny plants and animals that feed on them than they expected in spring. "If that trend were to continue in future years it would mean the biological (carbon) pump could be weakening which could result in more carbon dioxide being left in the atmosphere," Stephanie said.
It's really nice to see photos of the yellow submarine coming ashore after 55 days underwater, "on its way home to Southampton."
But according to the article, Dr Adrian Martin (running the BioCarbon project) "explains the research aims to better understand how the oceans are storing carbon because of a controversial field of study called geoengineering." Some scientists and entrepreneurs believe we can artificially change the ocean, for example by altering its chemistry, in the hope it would absorb more carbon. But these are still very experimental and have lots of critics. Opponents worry geoengineering will do unexpected harm or not address climate change quickly enough. "If you're going to make interventions that could be global disturbances of the ocean ecosystem, you need to understand the consequences. Without that, you are not informed to make that decision," he says.
Cruising at 1.1metres per second and diving thousands of metres, Boaty had more than 20 sensors monitoring biological and chemical conditions like nutrients, oxygen levels, photosynthesis and temperature... "We are measuring what's been happening in the upper ocean with the phytoplankton, the plants that grow there. We are looking at the little zooplankton, the animals that eat them. And we've been measuring the fecal pellets, the poo that the animals produce," explained Dr Stephanie Henson [chief scientist on the research project "BioCarbon" run by the National Oceanography Centre, the University of Southampton and Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.] "Our climate would be significantly warmer if the carbon pump wasn't there," Stephanie said. Without it, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels would be about 50% higher, she says. But current climate modelling does not get the carbon pump right, she says. "We want to know how strong it is, what changes its strength. Does it change from season to season, and year to year?" she says...
There are tentative signs from the research that the carbon pump might be slowing down, the scientists explain. The team recorded much smaller "blooms" of the tiny plants and animals that feed on them than they expected in spring. "If that trend were to continue in future years it would mean the biological (carbon) pump could be weakening which could result in more carbon dioxide being left in the atmosphere," Stephanie said.
It's really nice to see photos of the yellow submarine coming ashore after 55 days underwater, "on its way home to Southampton."
But according to the article, Dr Adrian Martin (running the BioCarbon project) "explains the research aims to better understand how the oceans are storing carbon because of a controversial field of study called geoengineering." Some scientists and entrepreneurs believe we can artificially change the ocean, for example by altering its chemistry, in the hope it would absorb more carbon. But these are still very experimental and have lots of critics. Opponents worry geoengineering will do unexpected harm or not address climate change quickly enough. "If you're going to make interventions that could be global disturbances of the ocean ecosystem, you need to understand the consequences. Without that, you are not informed to make that decision," he says.
Go Boaty! (Score:2, Insightful)
Makes you proud.
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Boaty McBoatface is kind of whiny sometimes and gets miffed if you don't refer to her as "Ms McBoatface.
However, after spending 55 days in the dark, she may soon be referring to herself as "mom".
Very cool ships! (Score:5, Informative)
TFA describes the RRS Discovery [noc.ac.uk], which has a very good virtual tour that explains some of the instruments used and their purpose. Such as the many other deep underwater sensors measuring current, salinity, etc.
As cool as that ship is, it is worth mention Google's Mr. Schmidt's research vessel, [schmidtocean.org] with a video. [youtube.com]
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Hopefully one day, 55 days under the sea will be seen as "a quick PoC" for craft that stay under pretty much permanently, roving around and figuring out what's going on and what's changing. The oceans are pretty incomprehensibly large, and the amount of energy they contain, consume and release is similarly mindboggling. Say nothing of the billions of living things in them, all contributing to the mechanisms which make the Earth work.
Whomever is doing the work, good on 'em - keep it up.
Remember this wasn't the original (Score:5, Informative)
The name "Boaty McBoatface" wasn't intended for this sub at all.
In case people forgot, the ship which was named "RRS Sir David Attenborough" was named that after a public vote to select its name - and Boaty McBoatface won by a very large margin. The people running things totally disregarded the public choice though and went with a name that actually got 5th place in the vote.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-... [bbc.co.uk]
They named this little sub "Boaty McBoatface" instead as a cheap cop-out.
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Somebody should be Canned McCanfaced for this travesty. They violated the Internet Ten Commandments.
Couldn't the sub be Subby McSubface instead?
Re: Remember this wasn't the original (Score:2)
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