On 31th October 2019 S.V. TravelEdge will set sail from The Azores to Antigua. The voyage will sail through the North Atlantic Gyre, led by eXXpedition’s science lead – Dr. Winnie Courtene-Jones.

We are very excited to have CMEMS onboard with eXXpediton as our voyage leg sponsor for Leg 2.

The Copernicus Marine Service (also referred to as CMEMS) is a component of the European Union Copernicus program. It is dedicated to ocean monitoring and forecasting for the global ocean and the European regional seas.

The service is implemented by Mercator Ocean International, a centre for global ocean analysis and forecasting and one of our science partners for eXXpedition Round the World. The Copernicus Marine Service provides a reliable and sustainable response to user needs in application areas such as maritime safety, marine resources, the marine and coastal environment and climate and seasonal forecasting. 

Using the drift maps and data provided by CMEMS, we’re able to estimate where accumulation zones of microplastics might be occurring, and plan our routes accordingly.

 

The animation above has been depicts the global oceanic convergence zones and has been created specifically for eXXpedition. This graphic has been estimated using 10 years of daily global ocean current data from the EU Copernicus Marine Service implemented by Mercator Ocean. Tools like this can help raise awareness and educate people about the movements of marine debris and plastic waste, helping develop solutions to stop the plastic crisis at the source.

Throughout the next two years, we will be visiting four out of five global accumulation zones, starting with the North Atlantic Gyre during Leg Two with Copernicus Marine Services, sharing our findings along the way.

Find out more about Copernicus Marine Service and follow along the second leg of our journey setting sail October 31st. 

 

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