How to Watch NOAA’s ‘Voyage to the Ridge’ Deep Sea Expeditions in Real Time

An expedition to map and survey a little-understood area of the Atlantic Ocean is underway this week. Researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and companion teams are sending a two-part, remotely operated automobile (ROV) on a sequence of deep ocean dives as a part of a mission known as “Voyage to the Ridge 2022.”

The ROV carries sensors and cameras, and is recording every thing it finds on the seafloor alongside sections of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge—one of many largest geological features on Earth. The better part: You can observe alongside, watching discovery happen in real-time by way of a set of livestreams on the NOAA web site.

The footage up to now, from the first of many deliberate dives, is already astounding, and extra is about to come back. Today’s dive reached the seafloor round 7 a.m. ET and wrapped up simply previous 2 p.m. If all goes nicely, the present, general expedition will proceed by July 29, with dives streaming on-line every day from about 6:45 a.m. to five p.m. ET.

Then, a follow-up expedition to a extra southern part of the ridge has dives deliberate from August 7 to August 28. Each of these is predicted to seem on the livestream too, whereas scientists, ROV pilots and others concerned within the voyage present dwell narration and rationalization of what’s occurring.

An unexplored frontier, closer to home

Earlier this month, the James Webb Space Telescope delivered the highest resolution images of our universe ever captured. The “final frontier” got a little less fuzzy and a little more fleshed out. But closer to home, lots of mysteries still remain. And in a way, the NOAA expedition might as well be taking place in a galaxy far, far away.

“Most of the deep sea is not explored. Most of it’s not even mapped at a reasonable resolution. It’s literally an unknown frontier on our own planet,” said NOAA oceanographer Derek Sowers in a video call with Gizmodo. “That merits all the excitement and sharing of discoveries that space exploration would [prompt],” he added.

Sowers spoke to me from the expedition ship, called the Okeanos Explorer. For this leg of the mission, he will be at sea for 21 continuous days as an expedition coordinator and voyage manager, along with the whole crew—collecting data and helping to shed light on the deep, dark seafloor.

The ROV dives

In an earlier segment of the voyage, the ocean exploration team mapped a geologic hotspot known as the Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone. They didn’t deploy any ROV’s, instead they used a multi-beam system below the ship to create a detailed map of the landscape. But even without the cameras, the scientists still gleaned a new understanding of the region’s underlying geology, geography—and got a better picture of the type of life the area might support, said Sowers.

Yet he explained that the ROV dives are a particularly exciting opportunity and aspect of the mission. “Each one of these ROV dives is basically a very tiny window into the seafloor ecosystem,” Sowers said, and the deep ocean holds “a tremendous treasure trove of unknowns.”

The two-body ROV system is controlled by pilots from a control room aboard the ship. The command center is full of large monitors displaying all of the camera views and data from the ROVs’ many sensors. The rover is maneuvered via “a series of very high-end joysticks,” said Sowers. Pilots can also use a remote controlled, manipulator arm to reach out and collect samples to bring back up to the surface.

Today’s first dive focused on a large underwater mountain called a sea mount. The ROV began at a depth of about 850 meters (2,789 feet) and headed upslope, capturing footage of deep-sea corals, sponges, fish, sea stars, mollusks, and more along the way. “We’re all climbing this mountain together. We’re the first humans ever to see this,” said Scott France, a marine biologist on the University of Louisiana, whereas narrating the livestream. “So that’s pretty special,” he added. “Nobody’s been here before.”

Already, the researchers have noticed attention-grabbing geology and life types, a few of which they’ve been unable to determine on the spot. At least two totally different corals and a sponge have been collected by the ROV’s robotic arm for extra evaluation. “Often we’ll find new species or new range extensions [of known species],” Sowers stated.

Later on within the expedition, the researchers will goal the bottom of the identical sea mount, sending the ROV hundreds of meters farther down. At the deepest dive throughout all the ridge voyage, the ROV is slated to journey as much as 6,000 meters (19,685 ft) into the depths.

Understanding Earth and past

On prime of the corals and sponges, there are different organic wonders in retailer. “One of the sites we’ll be visiting [later this week] is a vent site—a hydrothermal vent. Some of these areas support life that does not rely on sunlight,” stated Sowers. Through commentary of maximum environments like undersea hydrothermal vents, we’ve expanded our understanding of the situations that make life doable, on Earth and past.

“It used to be thought that only living things that are ultimately derived from the sunlight can exist on Earth,” Sowers defined, however hydrothermal vents proved that concept incorrect. “And that’s kind of changed the paradigm of how we think life can exist in outer space,” he added. “From deep sea exploration, we gain some insights into the possibility of [extraterrestrial] life in the universe.”

Plus, in fact, there’s the chance to get to know our personal planet higher. From its baseline geology to the interconnected biology. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is the place tectonic plates meet.

“This area we’re exploring is where new sea floor is actually made and pushing apart tectonic plates—so [it has] huge ramifications for understanding how planet earth works,” Sowers defined. “We’re still learning and trying to understand how ocean sea floor forms, and how these geologic processes work,” he stated.

“On top of that geology, what is the biology that lives in all these variety of habitats that are created? We’re really trying to just get our first understanding of the biodiversity of the deep sea,” stated Sowers.