southernocean.ai

#Southern Ocean AI Meta

#Southern ocean | Encircles Antarctica | Waters south of 60° S latitude | Covers ca. 21.96 million square kilometers | The fourth largest ocean basin | Antarctic Circumpolar Current (AAC) flows through it | ACC significantly influences global ocean circulation by connecting Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans | Average depth of approximately 3,270 meters (10,728 feet) | Maximum depth of 7,434 meters (24,390 feet) at Factorian Deep

#Supergyre

#Super ocean current

#Ocean circulation

#Connecting main ocean basins of Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean

#Antarctic Circumpolar Current

#Marine biodiversity

#Isolating Antarctic fauna

#Weddell gyre

#Ross gyre

#Gyre distributes heat between equator and poles

#Gyre playspart in upwelling of deep, cold ocean waters to surface

#Southern Ocean is shaped like ring and not bounded by land

#Weddell and Ross gyres are part of aomplex global ocean circulation

#Machine learning algorithm

#Seamount

#Identifying icebergs

#Iceberg calving

#Tracking icebergs throughout their lifecycle until their demise

#Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)

#Microwave signal transmitted from space

#Intensity of reflected radiation measured

#Crystalline structure of ice and snow on iceberg surface show up as strong, bright signals in satellite images

#Images collected day or night and through cloud cover

#AI algorithms performed on different satellite images taken over12-month period

#Amundsen Sea Embayment

#Thwaites Glacier

#West Antarctic Ice Sheet

#Calving of icebergs from ice sheet into Southern Ocean

#Increasing levels of calving signal increasing contribution to sea level rise

#AI approach to identify changes in numbers, size and pathways of icebergs as consequences of climate change

#Digital Twins

#Automated underwater vehicles

#Polar science

#Artificial intelligence (AI) combined with physical oceanography

#More acidic water from deep sea rising to surface

#Sea snails susceptible to aciditation

#Shells are made of aragonite

#Ross Sea

#Digital Twin of Southern Ocean

#Cryosphere

#Vulnerable Marine Ecosystem (VME) | One nautical mile in radius | Hub of biodiversity | Made up of organisms especially vulnerable to bottom-fishing gear | Refuge for life forms stressed by rapidly warming ocean

#Fast ice | Stationary sea ice remaining attached to coastline or among grounded icebergs | Covering extensive areas of Southern Ocean

#Algae growing in fast ice

#Very large currents found in Southern Ocean can tilt ocean layers allowing warm surface waters to more easily slip down deep

#Agentic AI | Artificial intelligence systems with a degree of autonomy, enabling them to make decisions, take actions, and learn from experiences to achieve specific goals, often with minimal human intervention | Agentic AI systems are designed to operate independently, unlike traditional AI models that rely on predefined instructions or prompts | Reinforcement learning (RL) | Deep neural network (DNN) | Multi-agent system (MAS) | Goal-setting algorithm | Adaptive learning algorithm | Agentic agents focus on autonomy and real-time decision-making in complex scenarios | Ability to determine intent and outcome of processes | Planning and adapting to changes | Ability to self-refine and update instructions without outside intervention | Full autonomy requires creativity and ability to anticipate changing needs before they occur proactively | Agentic AI benefits Industry 4.0 facilities monitoring machinery in real time, predicting failures, scheduling maintenance, reducing downtime, and optimizing asset availability, enabling continuous process optimization, minimizing waste, and enhancing operational efficiency

#Global ocean warming

#Rising ocean heat content | Profound impacts on almost every aspect of the ocean, from physical processes, to biogeochemical balances, to marine biodiversity and ecosystems

#Earth energy imbalance | Grew by 0.29 watts per square metre per decade between 1993-2022 | Earth is out of energy balance | Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are trapping excess heat and preventing it from being released into space | Heat building-up of heat in the Earth climate system | Most of building-up is absorbed by ocean

#Ocean surface heat | Satellite measurements of gravity and surface height | Space geodesy | Accurate, long term and broad estimates of changes in amount of heat stored in ocean

#Critical minerals in Artificial Intelligence | At the core of AI transformation lies a complex ecosystem of critical minerals, each playing a distinct role | Boron: used to alter electrical properties of silicon | Silicon: fundamental material used in most semiconductors and integrated circuits | Phosphorus: helps establish the alternating p-n junctions necessary for creating transistors and integrated circuits | Cobalt: used in metallisation processes of semiconductor manufacturing | Copper: primary conductor in integrated circuits | Gallium: used in compound semiconductors such as gallium arsenide (GaAs) and gallium nitride (GaN) | Germanium: used in high-speed integrated circuits and fibre-optic technologies | Arsenic: employed as a dopant in silicon-based semiconductors | Indium phosphide: widely used in optical communications | Palladium: used in production of multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) | Silver: the most conductive metal used in specialised integrated circuits and circuit boards | Tungsten: serves as a key material in transistors and as a contact metal in chip interconnects | Gold: used in bonding wires, connectors, and contact pads in chip packaging | Europium: enables improved performance in lasers, LEDs, and high-frequency electronics essential to AI systems and optical networks | Yttrium: improves the efficiency and stability of materials like GaN and InP, supporting advanced applications in photonics, high-speed computing, and communications technologies

#Southern Ocean Heat Burp in a Cooling World | Simulating several hundred years of net-negative emissions and gradual global cooling | Abrupt discharge of heat from Southern Ocean modeled | Global mean surface temperature increase of several tenths of degrees lasting for more than a century modeled | Ocean heat burp reasoned to originate from heat previously accumulated under global warming in deep Southern Ocean | Multi-centennial scale climate simulations | Question of the durability of oceanic storage of heat and carbon more urgent as ocean warming is accelerating | As atmospheric CO2 strongly decreases and atmospheric temperature declines, carbon and heat stored in the ocean start to return to the ocean surface | The majority of interior ocean waters ultimately returns to Southern Ocean surface and is reexposed to atmosphere in Southern Ocean | In Southern Ocean density layers outcrop at ocean surface, directly connecting surface to interior ocean thereby regulating oceanic exchange with atmosphere | Combined with persistent large-scale upwelling, Southern Ocean is prominent candidate for release of heat and carbon from ocean interior under reversal of atmospheric CO2 and global cooling | 40% of oceanic uptake of carbon | 80% of oceanic uptake of heat | Earth system model | Mass and energy conserving University of Victoria model UVic | Simulations of long time scales and carbon cycle feedbacks | UVic features atmospheric energy-balance model, ocean circulation and sea-ice model, land biosphere and ocean biogeochemistry with two plankton groups | Horizontal resolution: 3.6 × 1.8 | Ocean model; 19 vertical z-layers with increasing thicknesses over depths from 50m to 500m | Ocean Heat Release Causes Warm Period | Accumulated Heat Pushing up in Southern Ocean | Large-scale upwelling of deep waters in Southern Ocean keep surface temperatures comparatively cool | Southern Ocean serves as window to atmosphere, abruptly releasing heat during event and driving global surface warming and top of atmosphere energy loss, causing heat burp | Climate and Earth system models do not simulate changes in ice sheets and consequently miss the effect of freshwater input to ocean associated with ice sheet mass loss under global warming | Melt water discharge from Antarctic ice sheet triggered by global warming will have an additional, long-lasting freshening effect | Model used lacks a full response of the wind | Model also misses cloud feedbacks | Research underlines both importance of Southern Ocean in climate system and its response to changes in climate system beyond heat and carbon uptake under contemporary rising global temperatures | It is important to continue to improve process understanding of how waters return from interior Southern Ocean and what determines their properties | Interactive ice sheets needed | Observational data collection needed | Deep Argo observing waters below 2,000 m depths needed | Ack: research-unit Biogeochemical Modeling and funding by European Research Council (ERC)

#Recognition of the rights of Antarctica | Antarctica, including the Southern Ocean south of the Antarctic Convergence, consists of a unique environment and dependent and associated ecosystems that play indispensable roles in maintaining conditions conducive to the flourishing of life on Earth, including climate stability | ACK: Antarctica Treaty system & 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection to Antarctic Treaty & Commission for Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) & their recognition & protection of Antarctic environment &dependent & associated ecosystems, intrinsic value of Antarctica, its wilderness & aestheticvalues & dedication of Antarctica to peace &science | ACK: existence of global initiatives which aim to to recognise Antarctica & Southern Ocean & many Antarctic biota, to exist, to be wild, and to continue their regenerative cycles and processes free of human disruption or control, in order to enable them to fulfil their roles within larger Earth community | REC: international community addressing Antarctic governance through Antarctic Treaty System & work & recommendations of IUCN Task Force on Antarctica & Southern Ocean & 2025 IUCN Strategy, Policy & Programme on Antarctica & Southern Ocean | NB: current & projected deterioration of Antarctic environment & dependent & associated ecosystems due to activities within & outside area regulated byAntarctic Treaty System (ATS), inc activities contributing to degradation of ecosystems, such as climate change, plastic pollution, Illegal, Unreported & Unregulated (IUU) fishing | RECALL: IUCN long-standing commitment to protecting Antarctic ecosystems, species and unique wilderness values | ASKS Director General, IUCN Antarctic & Southern Ocean Task Force, IUCN Commissions & IUCN Members to thoroughly evaluate concept of fundamental rights of Antarctica and corresponding duties of humans | RECOMMENDS Director General, in collaboration with WCEL, IUCN Antarctic and Southern Ocean Task Force, IUCN Commissions & IUCN Members, submit report to IUCN Members on evaluation progress by IUCN, IUCN Members & partner stakeholders to implement this Resolution | ENCOURAGES IUCN Members to advance cooperation under Antarctic Treaty System to protect intrinsic value of Antarctica & its dependent & associated ecosystems

#Equipping yachts to aid in research | Y.CO | Full service Luxury Yacht Company | Bringing together a dynamic and ever-evolving network of crews, captains, yards, clients, and thought leaders to keep excellence in yachting moving forward | Managing over 100 large yacht operations, from traditional operations to private fleets, special purpose yachts, exploration vessels and regatta racing teams | Yacht Charter | Luxury yachts | Crafting experiences | Waterdports experiences | Bringing on board specialist instructors | Moonen partnership | Moonen Martinique deal

#SmartGyro stabilization technology | Smartgyro stabilizers effectively reduce boat roll through force created by spinning of flywheel inside vacuum-enclosed sphere, which is then transferred into hull structure to counteract wave motion | Gyroscope is spinning wheel (flywheel) or disk that maintains its orientation and resists changes in its axis of rotation | Gyroscopic effect | The law of conservation of angular momentum | Precession motion | Moment of inertia | Gyro stabilizers are mounted in such a way that force that disturbs axis of orientation of flywheel is (mainly) force caused by rolling | When vessel rolls due to wave motion, on-board gyroscope responds by generating forces that oppose these movements | Antiroll effect can be increased by installing more gyros | Precession motion must always be carefully controlled, continuously adjusting and synchronizing its amplitude and its time correlation with incoming sea waves | Motion control system takes care of this important task by means of hardware computing platform, and series of sensors distributed on different parts of machine | Based on data acquired by sensors, (including boat state - roll, pitch and precession rotation angle), algorithms precisely regulate braking effect of hydraulic pistons mounted on side of sphere containing flywheel, and ultimately, synchronize precession motion with rolling wave | Control system is capable of responding to different, ever changing sea conditions rapidly, and maximum antiroll torque is always generated, whatever sea state | Smartgyro modular approach splits stabilizer into smaller, easy-to-handle components | Modular design allows for opening of sphere containing flywheel, to inspect, extract or replace internal components