Sailing for Science: A 50-Day Mission to Study the Southern Ocean
NASA
Published: 1 April 2026
NASA PlanktoSpace team sailed 7,200 miles across the Southern Ocean aboard the Perseverance to study plankton health, validate PACE satellite ocean color data, and assess marine protected areas using low-carbon sailing methods.
Keywords: Southern Ocean, plankton, PACE satellite, marine protected areas, phytoplankton, ocean color, microplastics
Accidental discovery reveals grim future for emperor penguins
British Antarctic Survey
Published: 25 February 2026
Satellite images revealed emperor penguin moulting colonies in Marie Byrd Land for the first time. As Antarctic sea ice hit record lows between 2022-2024, penguins were forced onto shrinking ice patches, threatening their survival.
Keywords: emperor penguins, Antarctica, sea ice, satellite imagery, moulting, Marie Byrd Land, climate change
AI Reveals Global Ocean Sediment Carbon Cycling
University of Manchester
Published: 26 March 2026
Physics-based AI models provide first global predictions of dissolved organic carbon cycling in ocean sediments, revealing 11% of arriving organic carbon returns to seawater as dissolved carbon.
Keywords: ocean carbon cycle, artificial intelligence, marine sediments, dissolved organic carbon, deep sea, carbon storage, machine learning, biogeochemistry
