A group photo of approximately 40 people from the TRICUSO consortium gathered in Bergen, Norway for the first Annual Meeting. They are grouped together on the stairs of a hotel and smiling at the camera, with the branded TRICUSO-banner standing on the left of the bottom of the stairs.

The TRICUSO consortium gathered in Bergen, Norway January 13-16th, for the project’s first annual meeting. Falling on the project’s year one milestone, the meeting offered a chance to review progress and achievements made in the first year, share insights and expertise, and take a look at the key activities needed to support TRICUSO’s objective of enhancing every level of the Southern Ocean carbon observation system.

Sensors in the Spotlight

The three day programme kicked off with partners presenting their collaborative work to improve data quality gathered from measurements via the CaPASOS, LoC sensor, the OceanPack™ RACE and wind sensors for floats. The updates included results from trials, lab experiments and plans for future deployment on autonomous platforms, sail boats and RVs through 2026 and 2027. Discussion centered on where and when to deploy platforms to trial the various advanced sensor technology and how best to tackle challenges stemming from logistics, regulations, time and budget.

A collage of sensors used in TRICUSO: three close-up photos of the Lab-on-Chip sensors from the National Oceanography Centre, a photo from the OceanPack RACE instrument from SubCtech which has been branded with a TRICUSO sticker, and two photos of acoustic wind sensors that are being deployed at sea.

The International Context

To understand what key activities are involved in framing an international observation system for the Southern Ocean, it is important to learn what activity is currently taking place by organisations outside Europe. International guests who attended the Annual Meeting were happy to share the work their organisations are involved in.

Sandy Thomalla from Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Cape Town, South Africa gave a presentation about Southern Ocean Carbon-Climate Observatory (SOCCO), its tradition of putting robots in the ocean and driving sensor development among other innovations in support of science and ocean observation. She also discussed its data products, tools and models and the graduate program it is supporting to ensure the next-generation of scientists.

A collage of three speakers at the TRICUSO annual meeting. On the bottom left and upper left are a man and a woman presenting a PowerPoint slide, and on the right is a close-up of a woman presenting.
Sandy Thomalla, CSIR (upper left), Bronte Tilbrook, CSIRO Oceans (bottom left), Adrienne Sutton, NOAA (right).

Bronte Tilbrook of CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere and Australian Antarctic Program Partnership discussed the impressive operations of the Australian Observation System, which included both ship and moored carbon observing, quality assurance, maintenance practices and calibration testing; and data contributions to SOCAT. He highlighted the evolving Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS), which was established to support offshore observations and which allows sustained funding for 20 years.

Adrienne Sutton from NOAA: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) discussed how autonomous platforms are being deployed in the Southern Ocean via the CoCO2 project which is piloting new ways to optimise observation.

A picture taken from the audience of a man presenting. His PowerPoint presentation behind him is titled "Antarctica InSync: International Science & Infrastructure for Synchronous Observation", and it features a picture of the continent of Antarctica.
Andrew Meijers, (BAS)
A close-up of a woman presenting in front of the TRICUSO-branded roll-up banner.
Oksana Tarasova, (WMO)

Andrew Meijers of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) shared the work going on in the Antarctica InSync programme and outlined its Carbon Cycling and Air-Sea flux working groups as most relevant to TRICUSO. He also discussed the rapid sea ice decline – with potential regime shift in seasonal melt dynamics in relation to upcoming workshops and whitepapers.

Oksana Tarasova, of the WMO provided an update on the WMO Global Greenhouse Gas Watch, highlighting the spectrum of WMO activities related to greenhouse gas watch activities and reminded the audience of the initiatives two key principals: data is scientifically objective, based on consensus and a free and unrestricted data exchange. She also described the progress of the G3W technical implementation within the Network Design Workshop, which was attended by task force members Richard Sanders, Dorothee Bakker and Maciej Telszewski.

It was clear that this international community has a common objective to better understand carbon flux in the Southern Ocean and that TRICUSO can help and benefit from the work going on. It is also critical  to learn from the experiences of existing operations to inform TRICUSO’s action plans and a strong connection to this international community is vital.

European Research Infrastructure Engagement

At the heart of the TRICUSO consortium are three Research Infrastructures: Euro-Argo, ICOS and EMBRC. Identifying the key actions needed to plan for how they can contribute to the Southern Ocean element of the WMO G3W brought forth a spirited conversation with the consortium agreeing on three key areas for further, ongoing discussion in support of this task:

  • Determining how RIs can operate together to deliver the G3W
  • Identifying latent capacity and optimise its usage
  • Envisioning an observing system substantially delivered by autonomous vessels

More Highlights

The rich programme also included updates from initiatives TRICUSO is supporting, recent papers, and the work going on in data management and mapping. Highlights included:

  • An update from Bio-GO-SHIP about the community building in progress and the initiative’s ambition to develop a pathway for delivering a European contribution to Bio-GO-SHIP. News from SOCONET and its plans for the first steering committee, to be held on the heels of the annual meeting with relevant stakeholders from the TRICUSO consortium, amongst others.
  • A look at how the integration of sailboat data improves estimates of ocean carbon uptake via the use of observing system simulations and novel sailboat tracks, based on results from a recent TRICUSO paper: Improved Air-Sea CO2 Flux Estimates from Sail Boat Measurements
  • An opportunity to revisit the Southern Ocean CO2 sink with insights from BGC-Argo observations.
  • And the nitty, gritty of lots of micro details and macro planning required to address the model-data mismatch concerning ocean carbon, and to establish an international, sustainable observation system in the Southern Ocean.

Among the members of the consortium there was a consensus that the meeting fostered great connections, knowledge sharing and future planning. The world clouds below reflect responses to what attendees felt the best thing they learned was, what their favourite ocean pastimes are and areas of the Ocean they most like to visit.

A word cloud collecting answers to the question: "what did you learn during this Annual Meeting?"
A word cloud collecting answers to the question: "what is your favourite ocean-related activity/marine area?"
A small vector illustration of a wave.

“It was exhilarating to see the passion that our consortium members brought this week for delivering this critical project in benefit of science and society.”

Richard Sanders

Thank you Bergen for the sparkle and reflection.
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