[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/6245\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EEurope\u2019s underwater glider readied for 5 km ocean plunge\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESEAEXPLORER, an underwater drone that is fitted with small fins and can stay out for months, gives researchers an alternative to expensive ship-based diving expeditions.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018You have a buoy in the shape of a torpedo, and it has wings,\u2019 said Dr Mario Brito from the University of Southampton, UK, who is working as part of the EU-funded BRIDGES project to improve the glider.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt uses an oil-filled bladder to adjust buoyancy and moves its battery pack forward and back to control whether the glider is pointing up or down.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018So as the body moves forward, you have this buoy going down, and because it has wings, it eventually glides in the water,\u2019 said Dr Brito.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUnderwater gliders can already reach depths of 1 000 metres, the cusp of the so-called midnight zone which is in permanent darkness, and stay at sea for months. One even crossed the Atlantic Ocean recently.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENow, the BRIDGES project is working out how to make gliders reach depths of 5 000 metres, which would enable them to explore everything but the deepest ocean trenches.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGoing deeper with a variety of sensors, including new ones that BRIDGES is also developing, is important in order to expand the gliders\u2019 applications.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The oil and gas industry, like sea mining, they\u2019re quite interested in quantifying the environmental impact of certain activities. These gliders will allow us to do that,\u2019 said Dr Brito.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe\u0026nbsp;SEAEXPLORER glider is developed by French company ALSEAMAR and it is currently the only European rival to those produced by US companies. Expanding its underwater range will help it compete in a fast-growing market that covers both industry and research.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018There are a number of (other) applications,\u0027 said Dr Brito. \u0027For example, people are interested in observing the behaviour of cetaceans, of marine mammals. There are many interests and new ideas for the potential applications of the vehicles.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGreater control\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPreviously, researchers who wanted to monitor underwater conditions have had to book expensive ship time. Gliders are not only a cost-effective solution to take long-term measurements, including in remote areas, but they also offer greater control as they can be programmed to move exactly as the scientists want.\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018Gliders are affordable and are becoming easier to use for doing complex missions.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EProfessor Laurent Mortier, ENSTA ParisTech, Palaiseau, France\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018A typical mission is where you give a glider a number of waypoints - points it must reach - and then you change to other ones as you discover something interesting from the measurements you get from the glider in real time on your desktop,\u2019 said Professor Laurent Mortier, \u003Cspan\u003EENSTA\u003C\/span\u003E\u0026nbsp;ParisTech\u0026nbsp;in \u003Cspan\u003EPalaiseau\u003C\/span\u003E, France, who coordinates the BRIDGES project.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe also worked on the EU-funded GROOM project to work out how best to set up dedicated gliderports,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.ego-network.org\/dokuwiki\/doku.php\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Eintegrate gliders into existing ocean monitoring systems\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;and manage the collected data, in order to help scientists use gliders for research and monitoring.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProf. Mortier says that gliders are currently being used to investigate dead zones \u2013 areas of the ocean with zero oxygen and therefore no life \u2013 in the eastern Atlantic and Pacific oceans.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018GROOM has established a quite huge and dynamic community of scientists and engineers both in research institutions and companies, which enabled them to carry the BRIDGES project I\u2019m now coordinating,\u2019 he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018There are a lot of (other) research projects going on at the moment because gliders are affordable and are becoming easier to use for doing complex missions like the ones needed to understand the dead zone behaviour.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe BRIDGES team is also working to make gliders commercially available for small- and medium-sized companies which have ideas that require ocean exploration but who might not be able to afford ship time or other expensive data collection methods.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne way that they do this is by placing a propeller on the new glider. This will ensure that it can hover in one position and take measurements, for example, close to the bottom. Gliders haven\u2019t done this to date, meaning researchers had to use more expensive equipment to take these kinds of measurements.\u0026nbsp;\u003Cdiv class=\u0022moreinfoblock\u0022\u003E\n \u003Ch3\u003EDead zones\u003C\/h3\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EThe zero-oxygen areas in lakes and oceans, known as dead zones, occur beneath areas of water that are heavily populated with a type of organism known as phytoplankton. As the phytoplankton die, the decomposing particles sink through the water, sucking up the oxygen, meaning that no creatures can live in these areas.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile dead zones usually occur in lakes and coastal areas, researchers from the EU-funded CARBOCHANGE project recently found evidence of dead zones in the open Atlantic Ocean. They came across these results by chance while measuring levels of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the water, as part of CARBOCHANGE\u2019s work to model how carbon dioxide levels in the ocean would vary under different climate change scenarios.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile dead zones can exist naturally, human behaviour could be causing them to become more common. For example, fertiliser run-off can cause blooms in phytoplankton, which rely on nutrients such as phosphates and nitrates, as well as light from the sun, to produce energy.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor more information on CARBOCHANGE: \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/carbochange.b.uib.no\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Ecarbochange.b.uib.no\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/textarea\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n \u003Cdiv id=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 class=\u0022ecl-help-block description\u0022\u003E\n Please copy the above code and embed it onto your website to republish.\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cinput autocomplete=\u0022off\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022form-twnv75jws2lk-zuzj5-9lrux7ehiu2q66zrhvyddtlc\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_build_id\u0022 value=\u0022form-twNV75jWS2LK_zuZj5_9lRUX7EhiU2q66ZRhVyddTlc\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003Cinput data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_id\u0022 value=\u0022modal_form_example_modal_form\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003C\/form\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E","dialogOptions":{"width":"800","modal":true,"title":"Republish this content"}}]