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News 2016

Tuesday 26 July 2016

Southern Ocean: Rapid Change

A half-grey sky, a half-grey sea and waves capped by a strong westerly breeze. Daily life in the Southern Ocean... when the weather's good! Photo Nicolas Metzl (LOCEAN).

After the discussions during the thematic workshop "Interaction at the Air-Sea - Cryosphere interface in the Southern Ocean / Observation, modelling and impact analysis", which was held during the 12th Scientific Days of the French National Committee for Arctic and Antarctic Research (CNFRA) from May 25 to 27 in Villeurbanne (Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1), a forward-looking memo was drafted with input from the numerous scientists at the meeting, representing almost all of the major research sectors. No less than 45 communications were also presented to a hundred participants. These high-level discussions were attended by Yvan Griboval, our President, and a new member of CNFRA, as an enthusiastic and attentive spectator. Here is an excerpt from the forward-looking memo.

"The southern climate system has changed rapidly in recent decades: regional warming of the atmosphere; reorganization of the winds associated with an intensification of the "Southern Annular" climate mode; spatial reorganization of the sea ice; acidification, warming and desalination of the ocean; reduction in the krill population; melting of certain floating glaciers; acceleration in the outflow of major glaciers in West Antarctica and the Peninsula.

These changes in the southern climate system have a global impact. For example, ocean changes may affect the future ability of the Southern Ocean to absorb heat and carbon from the atmosphere and, ultimately, its ability to buffer climate change. At present the Southern Ocean absorbs about 50% of anthropogenic ocean carbon and more than 75% of anthropogenic ocean heat. The change in the mass balance of the Antarctic continent has a major impact on future sea level rise. This is one of the main uncertainties in the predictions of the societal impact of climate change associated with rising sea levels. It is suspected that such changes have occurred in the past in response to natural paleo-climate forcers, causing major imbalances in the Earth's climate. We urgently need to understand the current trends, forced today by anthropogenic phenomena, in the light of paleo-climate events.

Atmospheric, oceanic and cryospheric changes are intrinsically coupled / interrelated and must be jointly addressed. This represents a major challenge for research in Antarctica since the study area to be treated in order to address the entire system covers a wide range of latitudes, from subtropical regions to the South Pole. In this sense, France has a major and unique asset with which to study the southern climate system, thanks to a long-standing distribution of national bases enabling virtually continuous climate monitoring from North to South in East Antarctica, from the Island of New Amsterdam at 37ºS, to the Dome C base, at 75ºS. This distribution of bases makes it potentially possible to monitor the climate system as various oceanic fronts pass by to the coast of Antarctica, and then the entire continent (coast, plateau and the transition between these two areas).

 

We believe that this unique potential for French research must be recognized and promoted at all costs. To advance the understanding of the southern climate system and its global impact, it is urgent to support interdisciplinary integration projects. The projects should involve all of the environmental factors (ocean, ice, and atmosphere) because the system can only be understood if it is studied in its entirety. The analysis of the processes and recent changes need to be put into perspective in relation to previous paleoclimatology data.

 

East Antarctica (45°W - 168°E) is an extremely interesting natural laboratory for such an integrated analysis of the southern climate system. The region and the surrounding oceans offer a wide range of dynamic systems, regions with extremes in terms of the intensity of the oceanic and atmospheric currents and turbulence, associated with a high level of biological activity (Crozet, Kerguelen). The air-sea-ice interactions are intense in this key region for the formation of bottom water and for ecosystems (marginal ice zone, Adélie Land, Mertz Glacier).

 

Finally, although supposedly stable, the ice cap of East Antarctica represents a potential contribution to the global mean sea level rise much higher than the rest of the continent. France's unique access to this vast natural southern laboratory will allow us to address a series of pressing issues...

 

In this context, the existence of perennial human resources enabling observations including in winter should be supported. This being said, there is a large community in France, active in the high southern latitudes, with an internationally recognized wide range of approaches. We wish times and places for discussion to be favoured in this community, in order to foster the emergence of and support for ambitious research projects."

 

 

To access the full report on the 12th Scientific Days of the French National Committee for Arctic and Antarctic Research (CNFRA)

Tuesday 24 May 2016

World Oceans Day - Paris 8  June 2016

For the third consecutive year, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC-UNESCO) in collaboration with the Ocean and Climate Platform, of which OceanoScientific is a member, will host its annual World Oceans Day programmes featuring scientific gatherings, high level round tables and youth events. This event will take place at the Headquarters of UNESCO in Paris.

 


 

Tuesday 19 April 2016

Southern winds at the Maison des Océans

Wednesday the 13th April, Yvan Griboval, chairman of OceanoScientific, has presented the OceanoScientific Campaign in the big amphitheatre of the Institut Océanographique, at the Maison des Océans of Paris.  

Photo OceanosScientific

Wenesday 13th April, the Institut Océanographique - Fondation Albert 1er, Prince de Monaco has welcomed the scientific Hervé Claustre and the explorer Yvan Griboval at the Maison des Océans of  Paris as part of the cycle of monthly conferences. Both of them has presented two faces of "New Austral Ocean Observation Methods". Hervé Clau

stre, Research Director at Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche-sur-Mer (CNRS) has presented the importance of the Antarctic circumpolar current in the climate change machine. He then has detailed the differents tools to collect information to study the oceanographic phenomenoms. One of those main tools is a floationg profile from Argo Programme. After this detailed scientific presentation, Yvan Griboval has presented the OceanoScientific Campaign and its sailing expeditions planned around the Antarctic from Cape Town to Cape Town. These explorations are carried out onboard a sailing boat equipped with a unique material: the OSC System, which automatically collects every six seconds data of about ten parameters. These data are then automatically transmitted every hour by satellite, in almost real-time, to international scientific platforms (CORIOLIS). These expeditions will not only take place during austral summer (December - February), but also during austral winter (June - August). The first one is scheduled for december 2017.

 

Monday 18 April 2015

The IPCC emphasizes the ocean as a major issue and dedicates a Special Reports to the latter

 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), gathered in Nairobi from April 11 to 13 during its 43rd plenary session, set its work program for the 6th assessment cycle. The Ocean is a major priority, with a Special Report, dedicated to interactions between climate, ocean and the cryosphere.A great success for the Ocean & Climate Platform  of which OceanoScientific is a member.

 

This Special Report on the Ocean, one of the major lines of the Ocean & Climate Platform’s advocacy, was officially requested by Monaco to the IPCC in February 2015 during its 41st session. Prior to COP21, for over a year, the Ocean & Climate Platform gathered approximately 70 international scientific and economic stakeholders and civil society and supported this proposition by developing a number of initiatives based on this advocacy.

 

The World Oceans Day, organized on June 8 2015 in collaboration with UNESCO via its mobilization reached a milestone for Ocean and Climate issues. The “Ocean’s call for climate” ,launched for the occasion, collected over 30.000 signatures in order to engage member states to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in positioning the ocean at the heart of climate issues.

 

The actions continued during COP21 with over 70 events organized on the topic and key events, such as the Ocean and Climate Forum, the ocean included in the Paris Agreement Preamble and the signature of the “Because the ocean” declaration by 22 states, calling for a Special Report on the Ocean.

 

The Ocean & Climate Platform is pleased with this work conducted in collaboration with Monaco, the French government and large international prestigious scientific organizations. The achievement of an IPCC Special Report on the Ocean will enable for the first time, the development of an integrated vision of climate change impacts on the ocean and its role in the climate system. It should also assess solutions and public policies to implement for the most vulnerable coastal areas and islands.

 

The Ocean and Climate Platform is pursuing its action, in order for the Ocean to be included in the implementation of the Paris Agreement, and is preparing new proposals for COP22 which will be held in Morocco. The Platform will actively participate in the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Marine Environment Protection Committee, which will be held in London from April 18 to 22. The Platform urges all IMO member states to implement an international surveillance system, declaration and verification of carbon dioxide emissions in compliance with their commitment at COP21, in regards to the Lima Paris Plan of Action.

 

Source: The Ocean and Climate Platform statement of the 18th April 2016

Thrusday 7 April 2016 

Thursday March 31, 2016

Back to service

The OSC System restart has been quite dynamic as the OceanoScientific Explorer "Boogaloo" faced a solid eastern breeze of  25 to 35 knots when heading outside the Baie de Seine haven. Photo Jean-Sébastien Pouet (V1D2)

The OceanoScientific Explorer "Boogaloo" returned sailing on Saturday the 27th of February after a long period of scientific inactivity and a eight months maintenance carried out at the V1D2 yard headed by Marc Lefebvre. In the meantime, the OSC System has been checked in Kiel (Germany) at SubCtech, the company headed by Stefan Marx. Stefan is the developer of a particularly performing pCO2 sensor and the creator of the OSC-Waterand OSC-Core, vital parts of the OSC System which have been developed in collaboration with the historical partners of the OceanoScientific Programme: IFREMER (oceanographic data) and Météo-France (atmospheric data). During the winter, the OSC System has also made a stopover in Port-La-Forêt, at Mer Agitée headquarters the company of Michel Desjoyeaux, where PhD Dimitri Voisin has controlled the OSC-Software and corrected minor bugs of the current used version. After this sailing test, the preparation has carried on in Caen in prevision of the expedition program.

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