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X-change at sea

October 29, 2015

WHOI researchers and engineers deployed an X-Spar (expendable spar) buoy for sea trials in June 2015. Made of low-cost components like commercial plastic tubing and modified, commonplace sensors, X-Spar buoys are designed to take autonomous measurements of the ocean-atmosphere interface in inhospitable environments like the Southern Ocean. Using a fleet of low-cost drifting X-Spar buoys to evaluate the exchange of water, carbon, or heat between the atmosphere and the surface of the ocean will help fill data gaps and allow scientists to make predictions about weather variability and changes in Earth’s climate system. (Photo by Ken Kostel, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution).