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New Zealand scientists are seeking a world first in studying some of the earth's deepest ocean waters this month with cutting-edge technology that could improve understanding of global climate change.
The government's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) said Friday that it will deploy two plastic- encased glass balls, each 35 cm in diameter in the Kermadec Trench, to the northeast of the North Island.
The Deep Argo floats contained sensors to measure temperature and salinity between the surface and about 6,000 meters deep along with devices to transmit the data to satellites.
It would be the first time these measuring instruments would be tested at such depths and represented the next stage in the international Argo program, which had more than 3,000 Argo floats monitoring the top 2,000 meters of the world's oceans, according to NIWA.
"This is really leading-edge emerging technology that will, for the first time, allow us to fill in the gap in data between 2,000 meters and the sea floor," NIWA oceanographer Dr. Phil Sutton said in a statement.
Argo floats worked by first sinking down to about one km below sea level, and every nine days they sank to two km before rising up to the ocean surface, measuring temperature and salinity through the water column.
On the surface the data and position of the float were transmitted by satellite before the float repeated the process.
The data collected was helping to improve understanding of the oceans' role in climate as well as weather and climate prediction systems, said Sutton.
The deep ocean could play a crucial role in shaping the earth climate and not enough was known about what happened below 2,000 meters.
