7.3.3

Section 3 Thanks to all of you for coming along today to hear about how the robotic float project is helping with ocean research.

Well, first of all we’ll look at what a robotic float does and its use.

So let’s start with the device itself.

It looks a bit like a cigar and it’s about one and a half meters long.

More importantly it’s full of the equipment that’s designed to collect data.

So, it can help us in building a profile of different factors which work together within the world’s oceans.

Sounds like a big project. Isn’t it too big for one country to undertake?

That’s quite true but this project is a really good example of international co-operation.

Over the last five year scientists from thirteen countries have been taking part in the project and launching floats in their area of ocean control.

And next year this number will rise to fourteen when Indonesia joins the project.

That’s impressive.

But let’s move onto how floats work, the operational circle goes like this.

Each of the floats is dropped in the ocean from a boat at a set point and activated from a satellite.

Then the float immediately sinks about 2, 000 meters. . .

That’s two whole kilometers down in the water.

It stays at this depth for about ten days and is carried around by the currents which operate in the ocean at this level.

During this time it’s possible for it to cover quite large distances but the average is fifty kilometers.

So, what is it actually recording?

Well, at this stage nothing.

But as it rises to the surface it collects all sort of data.

Most importantly, variations in salinity, that’s salt levels, and changes in temperature, a bit like underwater weather balloons.

Then when it gets back to the surface all the data it’s collected is beamed up to the satellite.

After about five hours on the surface the float automatically sinks, beginning the whole process again.

What happens to the data?

Well the information is transferred direct to onshore meteorological stations. . . like our in Hobart. . . and within four hours the finding can be on computers and them can be mapped and analysed.

You say you’re building models of the world’s ocean systems but how’re they going to be used, and more importantly, when?

Some of the data has already helped in completing projects.

For example, our understanding of the underlying causes of Ei Niro events is being confirmed by float data.

Another way we are using float data is to help us to understand the mechanics of climate change, like global warming and ozone depletion.

That’s a part of an ongoing variability study but the results still a long way off.

However, this is not the case with our ocean weather forecasting.

Because we know from the float what the prevailing weather conditions will be in certain parts of the ocean, we can advise the Navy on search and rescue missions.

That’s happening right now and many yachtsmen own their lives to the success of this project.

In addition, that float data can help us to look at the biological implications of the ocean process.

Would that help with preserving fishing stocks?

Yes, and advising the government on fisheries legislation.

We’re well on the way to completing a project on this.

We hope it will help to bring about more sustainable fishing practise.

We will be seeing the results of that quite soon.

It sounds like the data from floats has lots of applications.

Yes, it does. It’s also a powerful agricultural tool.

If we were aware of the weather would like, say, next next year, we could make sure that the famers planted appropriate grain varieties to produced the best yield from the available rainfall.

That sounds a bit like science fiction especially when now we can’t even tell them when a drought will break.

I agree that this concept still a long way in the future but it will come eventually and the float data will have made a contribution.