Massive Underwater Lab Will Allow for Long-Term, Continuous Study of Ocean

When it launches in 2016, the SeaOrbiter will be the only underwater lab in the world that allows researchers to spend countless time beneath the waves of the ocean.

When the SeaOrbiter comes to life in 2015, it will be the only vessel in the world to allow long-term study of the ocean for months at a time.

At nearly 200 feet high (with 100 feet below the ocean’s surface and 90 feet above) and made of 2,600 tons of recyclable aluminum, the floating lab will be able to house up to 22 crew members — scientists, vessel operators, media, astronauts-in-training — for as long as those people want to stay below the undulating surface. A typical mission will last three months.

The goal is scientific advancement and education, Ariel Fuchs, the project’s executive director, told weather.com. “We’ve monitored the ocean from the outside, from the surface,” he said. “Observing the ocean on a 24-hour basis day and for an extended period of time, it has never been done. This really [will close] the gaps into understanding the ocean ecosystem and how it works.”

One of the projects, for example, will study rain in the middle of the ocean, something scientists have little data on to this point.

The project is a collaboration with institutions in France and other European countries, the United States, Japan, Korea and China. An international science committee will decide which missions will happen when.

http://www.weather.com/news/science/massive-underwater-lab-will-allow-long-term-continuous-study-ocean-20131206