"A foundation created by Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, will fund a project to send drone boats out into the rough ocean around Antarctica to collect data that could help solve a crucial climate puzzle. The project is part of a suite of funding announced today from Schmidt Sciences, which Schmidt and his wife Wendy created to focus on projects tackling research into the global carbon cycle."
"The world's oceans are its largest carbon sinks, absorbing about a third of the CO2 we put into the atmosphere each year. One of the most important carbon sinks is the Southern Ocean, the body of water surrounding Antarctica. Despite being the second smallest of the world's five oceans, the Southern Ocean is responsible for about 40% of all ocean-based carbon dioxide absorption."
"Scientists, however, know surprisingly little about why, exactly, the Southern Ocean is such a successful carbon sink. What's more, climate models that successfully predict ocean carbon absorption elsewhere in the world have diverged significantly when it comes to the Southern Ocean. One of the biggest issues with understanding more about what's going on in the Southern Ocean is simply a lack of data."
A foundation created by Eric Schmidt and his wife Wendy will spend $45 million over five years to fund climate-focused projects, including Antarctic research using drone boats. The drones will operate in the rough Southern Ocean to collect data needed to clarify why that ocean absorbs about 40% of ocean-based CO2 despite its small size. Current climate models diverge on Southern Ocean carbon uptake, partly because extreme conditions like the Drake Passage limit data collection. The funded research aims to expand observational coverage, improve quantification of the ocean carbon sink, and refine carbon-cycle models.
Read at WIRED
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