On the Côte d’Azur, an underwater robot probes the seas to better understand the climate

2 meters high for 70 kilos. Un robot profile equipped withe multiple analytical sensors is deployed and tested by thehe Villefranche-sur-Mer oceanography laboratory.

Able to dive up to 1000 meters deep, cThe robot performs measurements throughout its descent into the abyss before rising to the surface to transmit several results. This goes through the rate of odissolved oxygen in water, fluorescence rate of chlorophyll, irradiance, nitrates, PH as well as plankton images.

The Villefranche-sur-Mer scientists asked themselves the main question: by what mechanism and to what extent do the seas and oceans store, in their depths, CO², the gas responsible for global warming? To unlock this secret, a vast European study called Refine and managed from Villefranche-sur-Mer will begin by May. This state-of-the-art float, which is one of the first in a long series, has the mission of measuring the level of carbon in the oceans: a good indicator of the effects of climate change.

“We hope that the ocean still has the capacity to transfer some of the CO² from the surfaceconfess Hervé Claustre, research director at the CNRS and head of the European project Refine. Will this transfer mechanism be amplified or attenuated by climate change and global warming?

About twenty of these robot-divers will be deployed on all the seas of the world as part of the European project, led mainly by the Villefranche-sur-Mer laboratory.