The TRICUSO consortium gathered in Bergen, Norway for the project’s first annual meeting offering a chance to review progress and achievements made in the first year, share insights and expertise, and look at the key activities needed to support TRICUSO’s objective of enhancing every level of the Southern Ocean carbon observation system.

Thanks to some good luck and dedication, Lucie Knor (GEOMAR) was able to take advantage of an exciting opportunity that involved a mad-dash to the Falkland Islands just in the nick of time to install the OceanPackTM RACE instrument on a ship of opportunity.

During the first year of TRICUSO, the Surface Ocean CO₂ Observing Network (SOCONET) experienced a significant acceleration towards the development of its international governance, coordination and communication capacity. This aligns with TRICUSO’s work package 6 objective to establish a governance structure for international surface pCO₂ observations building on ICOS experiences that incorporates stabilising SOCAT.

TRICUSO colleagues Maciej Telszewski, Richard Sanders, Dorothee Bakker (pictured above) and Lucie Knor joined experts from different scientific communities to discuss what a greenhouse gas observing network for the WMO G3W needs to look like to reach the initiative’s main goal: the creation of a sustained infrastructure that delivers monthly CO₂ flux estimates for the whole Earth.

The newly minted consortium kicked off the project and the new year with a meeting at partner NOC’s headquarters in Southampton. Through a series of informative sessions, we learned about the technical advancements partners have previously achieved of which we will be building on to innovate and trial new sensors on autonomous platforms, floats and racing yachts.