The Southern Ocean is key to Earth's climate, but the same gusting winds, big waves, and strong currents that are important to ocean physics make it perilous for oceanographers. Instead their job is increasingly being given to ocean drones, the autonomous floating vehicles that collect data from the world's oceans. With an urgent need to better understand climate to predict how it will shift with more heat-trapping gases, scientists are developing new tools to measure waters below where satellites can penetrate and in places that are too dangerous or expensive to reach regularly by research ship. They are also sending those instruments on increasingly ambitious missions.
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