Research Areas

Scientific and technical lead: Philippe GAUTIER (Météo France)

On board the PERSEVERANCE, seven drifting buoys will be deployed as part of a mission conducted in partnership with Météo-France. These buoys play a crucial role in marine meteorology and climatology: they allow for the calibration of satellites measuring sea surface temperature, and provide atmospheric pressure measurements in situ—an essential parameter for analyzing and forecasting depressions that is inaccessible by satellite.

Unlike moored buoys, drifting buoys (photo) are mobile: they drift freely with ocean currents, allowing coverage of remote or poorly instrumented areas, particularly on the high seas. They notably measure atmospheric pressure, sea surface temperature, and surface current. Lightweight and easy to deploy (approximately 22 kg, 40 cm in diameter, with a 15 m sea anchor), they transmit their data in real time via the Iridium network.

Météo-France currently operates a network of approximately 70 active drifting buoys, primarily distributed across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The deployments carried out from the PERSEVERANCE will strengthen this observation network, which is essential for marine weather forecasting and climate monitoring.

Since it entered service, the PERSEVERANCE has also acquired and sent 4,618 (2023) and 3,858 (2024) meteorological observations to Météo-France (via the Mercury autonomous station, see Appendix) as part of the World Meteorological Organization’s VOS (Voluntary Observing Ship) surface observation program.

• WMO VOS program website: https://www.ocean-ops.org/sot/vos/index.html

• Ship data monitoring: http://esurfmar.meteo.fr/vos-monitoring/info.php

• Official Météo-France website: http://www.meteofrance.com