◼ TECHNOLOGY23DRONE: COURTESY SAILDRONE. ILLUSTRATION BY CHRIS PHILPOT
Tilbrook, a scientist who studies the region on behalf
of CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency. This
process helps in removing carbon dioxide that
causes warming in the atmosphere, although it also
contributes to increasing ocean acidity. The truth,
though, is that scientists know precious little about
exactly how the Southern Ocean operates, because
it’s been such a difficult spot to measure.
Each year, a few ships make journeys to points in
Antarctica and take measurements along the way.
Their routes are limited, and they typically sail only
in the warmer months. Over the past few years,
more data has been gathered from scientific floats
that measure the acidity of nearby water to estimate
carbon dioxide levels. As with the ships, the data
points are sparse and provide a vague picture of the
environmental conditions around the entire conti-
nent. “We have such a limited amount of data to
assess the Southern Ocean,” Tilbrook says. “There
are vast areas where no measurements have ever
been made.” The idea of sending something like a
drone to take continuous measurements in all areas
and across all seasons had been thought impossible,
because of weather and ocean conditions, until now.
Founded in 2012, Saildrone operates a fleet of
dozens of bright orange robotic sailing vessels.
Rather than having a cloth sail, they rely on some-
thing more akin to a plane’s wing. The company
gives each drone a destination, and off it goes, sail-
ing and tacking on its own. The drones are packed
with hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of sci-
entific equipment to measure things like currents,
dissolved oxygen levels, water temperature, acid-
ity, and salinity, and they operate for a fraction of
the cost of traditional research vessels. Meanwhile,
sonar and other gear pinpoint animal life and pro-
duce data on fish stocks, for example. Saildrone’s
ultimate goal is to have as many as 1,000 drones pro-
viding a real-time accounting of what’s happening in
the oceans, plus invaluable information about the
weather and the environment.
On Jan. 19, Saildrone released three drones from
the southern tip of New Zealand to attempt the voy-
age around Antarctica. Storms soon battered two
of the drones, forcing them to struggle back to New
Zealand for repairs. But #1020 was designed with
a shorter, squatter, rectangular sail rather than the
usual lofty, triangular shape. The craft measures
23 feet long with an 8-foot-high sail. “We had been
there before and learned to engineer something
specifically for the Southern Ocean,” says Richard
Jenkins, the company’s co-founder and chief exec-
utive officer. “It’s like a brick shithouse and incredi-
bly strong.” During its journey, the drone withstood
50-foot waves and 80 mph winds. At one point, itTHE BOTTOM LINE The Saildrone expedition around Antarctica
offers climate researchers tantalizing new data, but remains a first
step in resolving a debate about the continent’s carbon storage.▲ The startup recovered
its Antarctic research
vessel, and the precious
data inside, on Aug. 3rammed into an iceberg, which killed some atmo-
spheric sensors and the onboard camera.
Even without the camera, Jenkins could moni-
tor #1020’s path via location-tracking devices. The
drone crossed every line of longitude and on Aug. 3
returned, bruised and battered, to New Zealand,
where Jenkins and his team retrieved it and down-
loaded huge stores of data gathered by its car-
bon dioxide sensor, designed by the U.S. National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Recent data-gathering has led to a big debate
among researchers, with some claiming the
Southern Ocean might not store nearly as much
carbon as believed. Based on preliminary Saildrone
data, NOAA scientists observed the Southern Ocean
actually releasing carbon dioxide during the win-
ter months—a fact that could have major implica-
tions on climate models. “Over the next 20 years,
we can expect very big changes in the Southern
Ocean ecosystems,” says Tilbrook, the Australian
scientist. “The message is that the Saildrones work
and can survive and that now we need more data.”
The Li Ka Shing Foundation, a charitable orga-
nization backed by the Chinese billionaire, paid for
this mission. Moving forward, Jenkins expects to
have a fleet of drones constantly circling Antarctica,
measuring not only carbon dioxide but also things
like krill stocks and temperature. The plan then is
to make the data available to the public and run a
contest with a $1 million prize for “the most trans-
formational work” done with it. “We need a mathe-
matical model than can predict the ocean’s uptake
of carbon,” Jenkins says. “It’s freaking 38 degrees
centigrade in London. This is not a coincidence.
Are we experiencing a runaway effect from car-
bon? We need to know the answer, and we really
have to accelerate the rate at which we do the
research.” �Ashlee Vance▲ The “sail” on
Saildrone #1020 is
8 feet tall