Experimental Argonautica buoys built by high-school pupils will be launched this year during a number of expeditions to the Antarctic. The aim is to track their movements and use data from the Jason-1 satellite to study ocean circulation.

How many people know that oceans play a key role in the climate system, particularly the southern oceans?

To answer schoolchildren’s questions about this topic, CNES’s Space Culture office is currently conducting an outreach operation on its Education & Youth website.

This operation gives classes the opportunity to:

1. Track the progress of science and adventure expeditions:

2. Track movements of Argonautica buoys released during these expeditions, particularly those built by high-school pupils with assistance from CNES.

3. Track the migration paths of king penguins and elephant seals tagged with Argos transmitters.

All this material will be freely available on the website, along with complementary water temperature and salinity data, some acquired by satellite.

These tools will help them to work on a class project and present it to scientists at the end of their school year at a special meeting organized by the Argonautica team.


CNES Youth & Education website (french only): www.cnes-edu.org