PML unveils advanced buoy
The UK’s Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) has unveiled a new near surface ocean profiling buoy, which it says will be critical for boosting our understanding of our oceans and climate.
The buoy has been developed by PML scientists as an effective solutions to measuring gas moving across the sea surface being absorbed or emitted by the ocean, which are said to be crucial to our understanding of global chemical cycles that drive life and other processes on our planet.
“We are confident we have got an instrument vehicle that is up to the job and we look forward to gathering some more precise data over the coming weeks, data that will further our understanding of the water close to the sea surface that is so critical to the way our planet functions,” said Dr Tom Bell, who led the team developing the buoy.
It acts as an instrumentation platform that can be lowered into the sea and left to drift away from the mother ship. Instrument sampling depth is remotely-controlled by a winch and tubing back to the vessel, enabling sample seawater to be pumped aboard for analysis.
By Rachael Doyle
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