How to Watch NOAA's 'Voyage to the Ridge' Deep Sea Expedition in Real Time

An expedition to map and survey a poorly understood region of the Atlantic Ocean is underway this week. Researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a partner group sent a two-part, remotely operated vehicle (ROV) on a series of deep-sea dives as part of a mission called “Voyage to the Ridge 2022.”

The ROV carries sensors and cameras, and records everything it finds on the ocean floor along parts of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge — one of the largest geological features on Earth. The best part: you can follow along, watching discoveries happen in real-time via a series of live streams on the NOAA website.

The footage so far, of the first of many planned dives, has been astounding, and more to come. Yesterday’s dive reached the seabed at around 9pm AEST and just finished at 4am this morning (July 21). If all goes well, the current overall expedition will continue through July 29, with daily online dive streaming from approximately 8:45 p.m. to 7 a.m. AEST.

Then, a follow-up expedition to the more southern part of the ridge was planned from August 7 to August 28. Each is expected to appear on the livestream as well, while scientists, ROV pilots, and others involved in the voyage provide the live stream. narrative and explanation of what happened.

Unexplored borders, closer to home

Earlier this month, the James Webb Space Telescope sent out the highest resolution image of our universe ever captured. The “final border” has become a little less blurred and a little more refined. But closer to home, many mysteries still remain. And on the one hand, NOAA expeditions may also occur in galaxies very far away.

“Most of the deep sea is not explored. Most are not even mapped at reasonable resolutions. This is truly an unknown frontier on our own planet,” NOAA oceanographer Derek Sowers said in a video call with Gizmodo. “It deserves all the excitement and sharing of discoveries that space exploration will bring about [prompt]he added.

The Sower spoke to me from the expedition ship, called Okeanos Explorer. For this part of the mission, he will be at sea for 21 continuous days as expedition coordinator and cruise manager, along with the rest of the crew — collecting data and helping to shed light on the deep, dark seabed.

ROV . Dive

In a previous segment of the trip, the marine exploration team mapped a geological hotspot known as the Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone. They don’t use any ROV, but instead use a multi-beam system under the ship to create detailed landscape maps. But even without cameras, scientists are still gathering new understanding of the region’s underlying geology, geography — and getting a better picture of the kind of life the area might support, Sowers said.

But he explained that ROV diving was a very interesting opportunity and aspect of the mission. “Each of these ROV dives is essentially a very small window into the ocean floor ecosystem,” Sowers said, and the deep sea holds “an incredible treasure trove of the unknown.”

The two-body ROV system is controlled by the pilot from the onboard control room. The command center is full of large monitors showing all camera views and data from the ROV’s many sensors. The rover maneuvered through “a very sophisticated array of joysticks,” Sowers said. Pilots can also use a remotely controlled manipulator arm to reach out and collect samples to bring back to the surface.

The first dive of the day focused on a large underwater mountain called a seamount. The ROV starts at a depth of about 850 meters and heads upward, capturing footage of deep sea corals, sponges, fish, starfish, molluscs and more along the way. “We all climbed this mountain together. We’re the first humans to ever see this,” Scott France, a marine biologist at the University of Louisiana, told the livestream. “So it’s quite special,” he added. “Nobody’s been here before.”

Researchers have seen interesting geology and life forms, some of which they could not identify on the spot. At least two different corals and sponges have been collected by the ROV’s robotic arm for additional analysis. “Often we will find new species or new range extensions [of known species]said Sower.

Later in the expedition, the researchers will target the base of the same seamount, sending the ROV thousands of meters further down. On the deepest dive during the entire ridge voyage, the ROV is scheduled to travel up to 6,000 meters to depth.

Understanding Earth and its surroundings

Above the corals and sponges, another biological wonder lies hidden. “One of the sites we will visit [later this week] is a ventilation site — hydrothermal vent. Some of these areas support life that doesn’t depend on sunlight,” Sowers said. Through observing extreme environments such as underwater hydrothermal vents, we have expanded our understanding of the conditions that make life possible, on Earth and beyond.

“It used to be thought that only living things ultimately derived from sunlight could exist on Earth,” explains Sowers, but hydrothermal vents prove that idea wrong. “And it kind of changes the paradigm of how we think life can exist in outer space,” he added. “From deep-sea exploration, we gained some insight into the possibilities [extraterrestrial] life in the universe.”

Plus, of course, there’s the opportunity to get to know our own planet better. From basic geology to interconnected biology. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is where tectonic plates meet.

“This area we’re exploring is where new seafloor is actually being created and pushing up tectonic plates — so [it has] huge consequences for understanding how planet Earth works,” Sowers explains. “We’re still learning and trying to understand how the seafloor formed, and how these geological processes work,” he said.

“Besides that geology, what is the biology that lives in all this diversity of created habitats? We’re really trying to get our first understanding of deep-sea biodiversity,” Sowers said.

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