Glider technicians, Nicole Waite and Kaycee Coleman, traveled to Sitka, AK last week to deploy glider RU26d. RU26d is our first deep glider with a pH sensor and will be out in the southeastern Gulf of Alaska through August collecting measurements on ocean pH. This deployment, led by Dr. Grace Saba, is part of a larger ocean acidification monitoring project and is funded by the Alaska Ocean Observation System (AOOS, https://aoos.org/). Our glider will supplement ocean acidification measurements in the region, in conjunction with a research cruise next month.

Nicole and Kaycee were hosted by the Sitka Sound Science Center (https://sitkascience.org/) while they made final preparations to and deployed RU26d. While in Sitka, Nicole and Kaycee joined the local radio station, KCAW, to talk about the pH glider mission. They also hosted a meet and greet with the Sitka community to talk about RUCOOL, ocean acidification, and RU26d – where everyone was very excited for and welcoming to our cool ocean robot!

You can listen to the full radio interview here:

https://www.kcaw.org/2022/07/12/rutgers-university-to-deploy-ocean-acidification-observation-robot/