There was no way to measure Arctic water temperature under the ice at scale. A Scripps team used acoustic thermometry across 2,600 km from Alaska to Svalbard. Signals propagated over 2,500 km, capturing seasonal temperature patterns beneath the ice.
GEOMAR completed a 1.4km pipeline connecting the Kiel Fjord directly to its labs. Delivering 20 cubic metres of Baltic seawater per hour for climate change experiments. WWII munitions removal added unexpected challenges.
Japan's AUV MONACA became trapped beneath Antarctic sea ice during navigation tests. After 6 days missing, an iridium beacon transmitted GPS coordinates, enabling recovery by icebreaker Shirase. The technology aims for Europa ocean exploration.
Schmidt Ocean Institute redesigned R/V Falkor (too)'s bow for science and introduced 'The Childlike Empress,' a state-of-the-art AUV capable of diving to 6,000m for 72 hours. Achieved 2 million km² of seafloor mapping, equivalent to Greenland.
The SWOT satellite observed the 2025 Kamchatka M8.8 earthquake tsunami from space, mapping fault slip distribution within 10km of the trench. A revolution transforming tsunami observation from 'points and lines' to 'surfaces.'
MBARI's portable ROV 'MiniROV' tackled challenging currents at 1,230m depth on Sur Ridge for deep-seafloor mapping. The 2017-discovered 25m rock structure 'Big Dinosaur Rock' was surveyed with impressive results.
