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Blue Observer : a legendary sailing ship, a unique platform dedicated to science
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A unique sailing boat, an international low-carbon campaign, that is a world first: it was under these favourable winds that the French sailing boat Blue Observer returned to the port of Brest in March after 96 days at sea in the North and South Atlantic.
After starting with a transatlantic voyage to Woods Hole (Massachusetts, USA), the course was set for the South Atlantic towards the island of St Helena, off the coast of Namibia.
Under the coordination of OceanOPS* (International centre of the World Meteorological Organisation and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO), Blue Observer has deployed a hundred Argo floats on behalf of the United States, Canada and Europe (France, Germany and the Netherlands on this mission).
Temperature, salinity, atmospheric pressure…These Argo floats, which are truly autonomous underwater robots, can be used to measure the structural elements of the ocean’s heat balance.
Low carbon campaigns with a huge potential
For 96 days, the six-man crew led by Eric Defert, the founder of Blue Observer, travelled more than 17,500 miles to collect meteoro-oceanographic measurements and biological samples useful to scientists and industry.
“To contribute to the understanding and protection of the oceans as well as to the development of a respectful and sustainable blue growth”,is the reason why this maritime scientific operator created in 2021 in Brest offers a range of services throughout the world for all oceanic studies related to the climate.
All this while making a concrete commitment to decarbonisation of all its processes and to diversity in the recruitment of people on board the adventure.
The world’s first library of phytoplankton strains from aerosols
The third foundation of Blue Observer, alongside innovation and the decarbonisation of expeditions, is microbiology.
As Eloise Le Bras, biologist and sailor who was part of the campaign, explains, research on plankton has so far shown only a tiny fraction of its possible interactions and applications.
“Le projet, c’est de revenir à terre avec des souches vivantes”, (The plan is to return to land with living strains), and thus form the world’s first aerosol strain library.
As the first sailing vessel to have deployed instruments on this scale, the first voyage for Blue Observer is not only an inauguration but also a turning point in more energy-efficient oceanographic expeditions.
Heading for the heart of the North Atlantic subpolar gyre!
British scientists from the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) in Southampton and Scottish scientists from SAMS (Scottish Association for Marine Science) in Oban have embarked on a new expedition to the North Atlantic.
A life-size floating university
The RESILIENCE campaign is the site of an important innovation as for the first time, the Marion Dufresne is taking on board a floating university for the 35 days at sea. 21 Master's students from the Université de Bretagne Occidentale, the Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale, the Université Côte d'Azur, and the Nelson Mandela University (South Africa) will be supervised to experience life-size scientific work and experimental manipulations.
35 days of RESILIENCE in the heart of the Mozambique Channel
The RESILIENCE oceanographic campaign, led by Jean-François Ternon, a researcher from the IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement) and his partners, left Reunion Island on 19 April 2022 and reached the south-western Indian Ocean for 35 days at sea. On board the Marion Dufresne, the legendary ship of the French Oceanographic Fleet, seventy international scientists embarked to better understand the interactions between physics and biology on a small scale in the particular ocean structures of the Mozambique Channel.
That’s a wrap on PIRATA 2022
A collective human adventure, an exceptional amount of data collected and the beginnings of a science of the sea concerned with its environmental impact: this is how we can sum up the success of this 2022 edition of the 32nd PIRATA oceanographic campaign.
Blue Observer : a legendary sailing ship, a unique platform dedicated to science
A unique sailing boat, an international low-carbon campaign, that is a world first: it was under these favourable winds that the French sailing boat Blue Observer returned to the port of Brest in March after 96 days at sea in the North and South Atlantic.
PIRATA: Valuable measurements around St Helena Island
More than 28 days since the departure, and the tiredness can be read on all faces. The scientists of the PIRATA-FR32 campaign have not had a single minute to keep a logbook or to send us some "live" news...it doesn't matter: the focus is on watches and measurements!
PIRATA campaign: updates from the deck!
For several days now, the 14 scientists have been sailing for the 32nd edition of the oceanographic programme PIRATA ("Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic"). From the ship "Thalassa" of the French Oceanographic Fleet on which they have embarked, they gave us some news about their journey.
Studying ocean-atmosphere interactions: the 32nd edition of an ambitious oceanographic campaign
For the 25th consecutive year of the programme, the PIRATA oceanographic campaign left the port of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands on 28 February 2022.
Spring SAGA: in the heart of the South Atlantic Ocean!
In the spring of 2021 and despite a still complicated health context, scientists spent 42 days criss-crossing the South Atlantic Ocean with the aim of quantifying the most important marine current in the ocean circulation and climate system of our planet.
Phytoplankton Study: Taking water samples to study tiny, precious particles
One of the scientific objectives of the SWINGS campaign was to understand the evolution and development of phytoplankton in the Southern Ocean.
Heading for the Southern Ocean: SWINGS on video!
48 sailors on board and 2 months at sea to collect, sample and filter water, with this main objective: to understand how the ocean helps regulate the climate by absorbing atmospheric CO2.
[Podcast] SWINGS deciphered by “La Terre au Carré” on France Inter
In his programme "La Terre au Carré" on France Inter, Mathieu Vidard looks back at the SWINGS expedition.
Interview with two women scientists at the helm of the SWINGS campaign
Leaving Reunion Island in January 2021, they have been together at the helm of the SWINGS mission for 8 weeks in the heart of the Southern Ocean.
SWINGS: an oceanographic expedition to unlock the mysteries of the Southern Ocean
For 8 weeks, 48 scientists and crew members crossed part of the Indian Ocean, passing through the Marion, Crozet, Heard and Kerguelen islands, before returning to Reunion Island 57 days later.
After 54 days spent at sea, the PIRATA team is finally back in port in Brest!
This year, 12 scientists and 25 crew members embarked on the 31st mission of the PIRATA oceanographic programme from the port of Brest (France) instead of the usual port since 2015 of Mindelo (Cape Verde), due to the pandemic.
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