UW oceanographer dropping robotic floats on voyage to Antarctica

Steve Riser (left) helps deploy a float Jan. 9 that was named after climate scientist Michael Mann.

A University of Washington oceanographer is chief scientist on a voyage in the waters around Antarctica as part of a major effort to monitor the Southern Ocean.

Stephen Riser, a UW professor of oceanography, embarked Dec. 24 as part of the Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling, or SOCCOM, project to collect better data about the planet’s most remote ocean.

The expedition is two-thirds of the way through a monthlong voyage from Punta Arenas in southern Chile to McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Along the way, researchers are deploying robotic floats built at the UW as part of the six-year, $21 million National Science Foundation effort. The multi-institutional project, based at Princeton University, will gather detailed observations of the Southern Ocean to understand its role in the global climate.