CEREM Executive member Dr. K. Ajith Joseph participated in the OneOcean Expedition

Dr. K. Ajith Joseph, Consultant Scientist and Executive Member of CEREM has completed an historic voyage in Statsraad Lehmkuhl ( https://en.visiterouen.com/list-of-the-sailing-ships-during-the-armada-2023 ), the tall and oldest Norwegian Sailing ship as part of the #OneOceanExpedition from Maputo, Mozambique to Cape Town, S.Africa from January 3 to January 13,2023. The overall aim of the expedition which was supported by #UNESCO, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and #UNDecade of Ocean for sustainable Development is to create attention and share knowledge about the crucial role of the ocean for a #sustainable development in a global perspective. A befitting contribution to the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for #SustainableDevelopment and its slogan “The science we need for the ocean we want”. This sailing ship was equipped with modern instrumentation and the researchers had the opportunity to collect high-quality data of ocean physics, chemistry and biology along the Agulhas current , the world’s strongest ocean current and so called the Heat pump! to the Atlantic from the Indian Ocean, a topic of great scientific interest to Oceanographers and Climate Scienitsts.

The Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre based in Bergen, Norway and European Space Agency lead the delegation of marine scientists and students from 30 countries and around 128 participants in this extraordinary expedition as part of a summer school which is connected to the “Partnership for Education and Cooperation in Operational Oceanography” (PECO2) project led by Dr. Johnny Johannessen, Project leader of PECO2 project of NERSC.

During this voyage which was around 1335 nautical miles took around 10 days. The Nansen Environmental Research Center (India), a partner in the PECO2 project and having collaboration with CEREM is the lead research Institute participated from India and Dr. K. Ajith Joseph, Principal Scientist & Executive Director of NERCI and Executive Member of CEREM participated in this historical expedition. He got this unique opportunity in analyzing satellite data in comparison to onboard collected data of ocean variables from Agulhas current regime of two dipole eddies and ocean model fields. In addition, he actively participated in crew-related tasks (Watch keeping) making the combined summer school and voyage an unforgettable experience passing through a storm with winds above 50knots and high towering waves of the roaring forties with significant waves touching 7m!


The route of Statsraad Lehmkuhl during the One Ocean Expedition. PECO2 partners will be onboard between Maputo and Cape Town in January 2023. Source: https://oneoceanexpedition.com/route-and-tickets