An opportunity to contribute to the collective global effort to understand the world’s oceans: we’ve had the chance to deploy one of the Argo program’s autonomous floating temperature and salinity probes. These devices are part of a network around the world and periodically traverse the top layers of ocean by pumping water into and out of a reservoir to gradually alter their buoyancy. During these trips through the water column, they record the temperature and salinity as these values vary with depth and ultimately report their findings via satellite phone.
More information on the Argo project can be found at their website http://www.argo.ucsd.edu/How_Argo_floats.html