WE will examine how the storms that roar through the region mix the ocean, allowing carbon transfer from the deep sea to the atmosphere.

Scientists hypothesize that the Southern Ocean acts like a sponge, absorbing human emitted CO2 into its surface layers and that as humans emit an increasing quantity of CO2, this sponge is becoming saturated.

At the same time, scientists expect that increasingly strong winds tearing through the region churn up the ocean, bringing natural CO2 up from the sea bed and transferring it to the atmosphere.

By measuring the amount of CO2 in the water, scientists onboard the Gould will gather valuable data to help test these hypotheses. If these phenomena are observed, scientists believe this will provide further evidence of human induced climate change.

I will write more on the science from the ship using our low-bandwith twice-daily satellite-based email system.

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