Media Invited to Preview Expedition to Ocean Twilight Zone

Media are invited to Seattle on Thursday, Aug. 9, to preview a seaborne
expedition to study microscopic organisms in the dark depths of the sea
that play a critical role in removing carbon dioxide from Earth’s
atmosphere.

Led by NASA and the National Science Foundation, the
Export Processes in the Ocean from Remote Sensing (EXPORTS) expedition
is the first effort of its kind to study microscopic plankton and their
impact on Earth’s carbon cycle – important information for climate
modeling.

Media will hear from EXPORTS scientists and tour the
University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory, home of the
Seaglider autonomous underwater vehicle that will be used in the
expedition.

Research Vessels Roger Revelle and Sally Ride,
operated by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of
California San Diego, also will be open to media for tours. These
seaborne laboratories are equipped with an array of scientific
instruments, from high-resolution microscopes to underwater robots, to
explore the properties of the ocean as far as a half-mile down into a
region with little or no sunlight, referred to as the twilight zone. At
these depths, carbon produced by plankton can be confined in pockets and
kept out of Earth’s atmosphere for decades, or even thousands of years.

Media
interested in attending this event must send their full name (as it
appears on a government-issued photo identification), media affiliation
and phone number to Steve Cole at stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov no later than
Monday, July 16.