An impressive moment at sea: students, science, and the scenery of Iceland

Sometimes a short video truly captures the essence of a larger mission. European Space Agency – ESA shared a 60-second look at the Advanced Ocean Synergy Course in action during the One Ocean Expedition.

The scene: students visibly enjoying their teamwork on the deck of the Statsraad Lehmkuhl as they recover a MELODI wave drifter. (check the amazing video below)

This particular MELODI drifter had been deployed in a Ouest Icelandic Fjord a few hours prior to calibrate its wind slippage. Drifters like these are subsequently used on legs such as Reykjavik to Nice to help validate Copernicus Sentinel-1 wave spectra and Doppler velocities.

Our thanks also to CNES for equipping the mission with these drifters.

As part of an ongoing effort to improve ocean monitoring, 16 MELODI drifting buoys have been deployed in the Southern Ocean during the Vendée Globe. This initiative, carried out in collaboration with Fabrice Amedeo, the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), and the Laboratoire d’Océanographie Physique et Spatiale (LOPS), aims to collect valuable data on waves, currents, and sea surface temperature in remote and challenging oceanic regions.

These deployments contribute to a better understanding of ocean circulation patterns and the mechanisms leading to the accumulation of plastic debris in large oceanic gyres. The data gathered will support ongoing research on ocean dynamics and improve numerical models used to study transport and convergence processes in subtropical regions.

The results from this initiative will provide new insights into how surface currents influence the movement of floating particles and contribute to refining oceanographic models.

More updates will follow as the MELODI drifters continue their journey across the Southern Ocean.

 

eOdyn has been awarded a 5-year contract with SHOM (Service Hydrographique et Océanographique de la Marine) for the provision of our MELODI drifters.

This partnership is a significant milestone in advancing ocean monitoring and data collection, further demonstrating the value and precision of eOdyn innovative technologies.

This long-term collaboration solidifies eOdyn’s commitment to delivering high-quality, real-time ocean data solutions that meet the evolving needs of maritime organizations.

MELODI’s development was supported by Région Bretagne, Ifremer, Centre National d’Études Spatiales and hubraum and we are grateful for their contributions to this success.