Crossing the Equator and navigating icebergs: The A13.5 GO-SHIP returns after 52 days at sea

An iceberg floats near the Research Vessel Marcus Langseth. Credit: NOAA

Wind, waves, and icebergs pierced through morning fog – the A13.5 GO-SHIP cruise proved both tumultuous and rewarding with vast amounts of new data that bring the promise of groundbreaking future research.

After 52 days at sea, the A13.5 GO-SHIP cruise (short for “Global Ocean Ship-based Hydrographical Investigations Program”) returned to Cape Town, South Africa on March 23rd, successfully completing the voyage across the Equator and into the South Atlantic. Heading south from Cabo Verde on February 1st, the international team of researchers spent weeks collecting data essential for investigating global changes in ocean physics and chemistry – most notably, the uptake of atmospheric carbon under a changing climate.

Through orange sunsets and wild seas with waves that rocked the 235-foot R/V Marcus Langseth, scientists at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, and the Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, and Ecosystem Studies were among the crew leading efforts to analyze water samples.