#techielife

Have you joined the FathomVerse yet? 📱🌊💥

For the first time, the team is pushing data to #FathomVerse while an expedition is still underway. If you play FathomVerse right now, you will see images from the Designing the Future 3 expedition on R/V Falkor (too). Highlights include a galaxy siphonophore and Solmissus jelly!

Members of the Bioinspiration Lab at MBARI are on an expedition with Schmidt Ocean Institute to use advanced imaging systems to visualize delicate deep-sea drifters.

Led by Dr. Karen Osborn of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, a multidisciplinary team of researchers is deploying a diverse suite of advanced technologies to study the biodiversity and ecology of midwater communities. They are making data from this expedition available in the FathomVerse mobile game to engage a global community of ocean enthusiasts and accelerate analysis of expedition observations.

Play now: www.fathomverse.game 

Join the FathomVerse Discord: https://discord.gg/QZ2wtPBpxa

Testing MBARI tech beneath the Arctic ice 🧊🤖

Engineers from MBARI’s CoMPAS Lab recently returned from an expedition to the Arctic, where they deployed the MOLA AUV under the ice for the first time, marking a major milestone in the development of this nimble technology platform. 

Working with collaborators from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the North Slope Borough Department of Wildlife Management, and Michigan Technological University, CoMPAS Lab engineers operated the MOLA vehicle beneath about two meters (nearly seven feet) of sea ice in shallow, confined conditions.

Across multiple dives, the vehicle demonstrated reliable navigation and high-resolution mapping with onboard imaging and sonar, highlighting the maturity and potential of compact, easy-to-deploy platforms for under-ice operations.

Funded by the North Pacific Research Board, this expedition reinforces the value of applying advanced robotics to impactful science and underscores the utility of MOLA vehicles for conducting research in extreme environments.

You can read the full story on our website.

Did you catch our recent expedition logs? 🚢🔬🌊⁠

Follow along with the Carbon Flux Ecology Team as they dive into the science of marine snow and study the ocean's role in regulating carbon. During their five-day expedition aboard MBARI's flagship research vessel David Packard, the team leveraged a diverse suite of technologies to study carbon export in a productive coastal upwelling ecosystem.⁠

Autonomous robots carrying advanced microscopes photographed plankton in the ocean's sunlit surface waters. Drifting camera systems, a camera-equipped CTD instrument deployed from the ship, and MBARI's remotely operated vehicle Doc Ricketts helped the team visualize particles sinking through the water column. Together, these tools help scientists better understand the complex calculus of ocean carbon transport.⁠

Chasing marine snowstorms—MBARI’s Carbon Flux Ecology Team embarked on a recent expedition to study marine snow and measure the transport of carbon to the depths of Monterey Canyon. ❄️🚢🌊

During their five-day expedition aboard MBARI’s flagship research vessel David Packard, the team leveraged a diverse suite of technologies to study carbon export in a productive coastal upwelling ecosystem.

Innovative imaging systems developed by MBARI engineers helped them observe marine snow—tiny bits of organic material sinking from the Monterey Bay’s productive surface waters to the floor of Monterey Canyon—to quantify how much carbon is locked away in the deep sea. 

The ocean and its inhabitants play an important role in cycling carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Determining how much carbon is locked away in the ocean is critical to understanding Earth’s changing climate. Led by MBARI Scientist Colleen Durkin, the Carbon Flux Ecology Team is studying the ocean’s role in cycling carbon.

Monterey Canyon connects productive coastal waters to the ocean’s depths, making it an ideal location for the team to study how carbon is transported from the atmosphere and locked away in the deep sea. Their research will help answer fundamental questions about the ocean’s role in cycling carbon.