SolOceans

The OceanoScientific Campaign to serve humanity

Since its origins, in 2005, the SolOceans was created with two parts. On one side, a sportive part: a round the world single-handed race on equal footing and on the other side a scientific part: the OceanoScientific Campaign. The vocation of this campaign is to help the scientists around the globe to better understand the evolution of the global warming phenomenon

The SolOceans one-designs were created as OceanoScientific sailing yachts. Thus, each euro invested in the SolOceans contributes to the scientific discovery of our planet, to a better understanding of the global warming phenomenon. As a consequence, it contributes to its preservation to serve humanity.

The scientists around the world model the evolution of the climate in order to precisely determine the causes and consequences of this warming. But those models sometimes need more support, as there is a real lack of scientific data efficiently validated. In this domain, satellite observation is very helpful as it allows the scientists to monitor all the oceans nearly continuously. Nevertheless, the number of parameters available is limited.

In order to validate the accuracy of the measurement instruments that equip the satellites, the satellite data have to be compared to in situ data. And yet, those in situ information are: either unevenly collected on the surface of the Globe, with for example few data from the Southern Hemisphere (40% of the SolOceans course). Or those measures are too few, not collected frequently enough, and irregular. As a summary, Scientists around the world lack quality data.

In collaboration with IFREMER (French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea), INSU-CNRS (National Institute of World Science - National Scientific Research), and METEO FRANCE, the OceanoScientific Campaign team has defined its observation campaign of the atmosphere and of the ocean. Scientists who are specialised in the evaluation of the climate warming factors and who are partners of the OceanoScientific Campaign have identified eight types of data. Those data will be collected onboard the SolOceans one-design:

• True wind direction - True wind speed
• Air Humidity - Air Temperature
• Atmospheric pressure
• Sea temperature on the surface - Seawater salinity on the surface
• Partial pressure of carbon dioxide in seawater (pCO2) on the surface

"The climate change has been proved now", explained Fabienne Gaillard, researcher IFREMER at the LPO (Oceans Physics Laboratory) and in charge of the GLOSCAL (GLobal Ocean sea surface Salinity: CALibration and validation) for SMOS (Soil Moisture & Ocean Salinity). "In order to carry out realistic forecast concerning its evolution and to precisely evaluate its impacts, we (scientists) need to be able to describe each aspects of these changes and to understand its mechanism. The ocean is one component of this system and its surface plays a key role in the climatic system. To identify and qualify the variableness, we combine observation at long range thanks to satellites and in-situ measures collected from different types of means: ships, drifting buoy, fixed station, autonomous device. In those circumstances, the OceanoScientific Campaign is a real opportunity for us researchers."

In this context, every year from 2011, the SolOceans one-designs’ fleet, sailing round little explored areas south of the three continental capes (Good Hope - Leeuwin - Horn), where our climatic future is at stake, could indeed serve humanity to better understand our planet and thereby protect it.

The design and construction of the SolOceans one-design hull and mast instruments will include various scientific captors. Specialized firms will perfect this measurement equipment. The marine adaptation of the scientific equipment will be carried out with the aid of the engineers involved, depending on their fields of research. The scientific captors are part of the series equipment and will be installed on each SolOceans one-design.

The data acquisition will be fully automated so that there will be no need for the solo-sailor to intervene on onboard equipment during the race. The acquired scientific data will be digitized and transmitted automatically by satellite to METEO FRANCE and to the data base CORIOLIS, a European project with several organization with the participation of the CNES (French Space Agency), IFREMER, INSU-CNRS, IPEV (Institut Polaire Français Paul-Emile Victor), IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement), METEO FRANCE and SHOM (Service Hydrographique et Océanographique de la Marine). All together they form one of the element of the European operational system to forecast oceanic currents as well as the climatic variations on the scale of the Globe.

“The rate of acquisition of those data will vary between every minute to every hour depending on the variable”, clarified Fabienne Gaillard. “An automatic transmission between the sea and the shore will be scheduled and sent to the operational centres for an immediate use: short and middle term forecast, seasonal forecast, validation of the satellites measures. The other part of information collected at sea will be passed on to data banks for the long term study of the climatic system behaviour."

CORIOLIS and METEO FRANCE will guarantee a worldwide visibility of the collected data through the OceanoScientific Campaign. They will distribute the data from the OceanoScientific Campaign to all scientific projects requesting such information, to world forecasting models of oceanic circulation as well as to the European SMOS (Soil Moisture & Ocean Salinity) satellite calibration / validation centres.

The OceanoScientific Campaign first started with operations which took place in Northern Atlantic (2009 - 2010). This start coincided with the start of the SMOS program. In fact, the launch of the satellite of the SMOS programme by ESA (European Spatial Agency) is scheduled in summer 2009. It will be the very first time ever that salinity measures will be made from a satellite. The results will have to be calibrated with in situ measures and will have to go through a long and complex validation process. SMOS will map soil moisture and ocean salinity on a planetary scale. Through ocean salinity and its changes one can monitor the main fronts associated with the largest sailing currents. They mainly provide access to the fresh water balance, which plays an essential role in the exchanges occurring between the ocean and the atmosphere. These are the exchanges that govern climatic change and global warming.

Jacqueline Boutin, researcher at LOCEAN (Oceanography and climate Laboratory) and Fabienne Gaillard, confirms the following: “The scientific data collected by SolOceans one-designs from OceanoScientific Campaign will represent a significant contribution to the already existing observation network. This approach will open the way to the participation of new communities in the observation of our Earth.”

If IFREMER, l’INSU-CNRS and METEO FRANCE have been since its very beginning the partners of the OceanoScientific Campaign imagined by Yvan Griboval, CEO of SailingOne and designer of the SolOceans and of its one-design, other international organizations are joining the work team created in France. Those organizations are European but also New Zealander as the SolOceans is strongly linked to its port-of-call Wellington the Capital of New Zealand.