NOAA and the Schmidt Ocean Institute installed a new carbon dioxide sensor on the research vessel Falkor (too), the agencies said September 11, 2026. The ship is scheduled to run several cruises through the South Atlantic over the next few years.
The system compares the pressure of carbon dioxide in the air with the pressure in the surface water as the ship sails. Few research vessels cover the South Atlantic, so data from these cruises should help fill a gap in tracking how much carbon the ocean there absorbs.
The ocean absorbs roughly 8 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide a year, according to NOAA. The more it absorbs, the more acidic the water becomes, which affects fish and coral reefs over time. Read more from NOAA AOML.
Research vessel Falkor (too) alongside a quay. Photo: Embajada de EEUU en Argentina, CC BY 4.0. License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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