The always-on ocean
Of the three great earth systems - land, atmosphere, and oceans - the latter is the least observed at scale. Land-based ecosystems - forests and grasslands - are much more accessible to humans and our technology. We can return to the same place, the same tree, and the same prairie over and over again - to find an environment that varies on human time scales of days to months to years, not seconds to hours as in the aquatic environment.
The other great system of the Earth is its atmosphere. Like the ocean, it too changes rapidly on small time and space scales, but because the atmosphere has such huge daily impacts on human life, we have expended considerable effort to develop observing systems and computer models to understand and predict its future behavior. Today, we take for granted that we will have access to high-resolution real-time maps of rainfall and reliable weather forecasts on our smartphone. Crucially, data from both exquisite observing systems as well as backyard weather stations are now being assimilated into models to provide neighborhood-scale weather forecasts.
The path to greater climate security, food security, energy security, and national security passes directly through our oceans.
Although the ocean covers 70% of the Earth’s surface, it remains largely inaccessible to the persistent and widespread observing tools that we have at our fingertips for atmosphere and land systems. Our ocean observations are crowded along the coasts and along established shipping lanes that are relatively easy to get to. Even the Argo system, one of the most successful international global ocean observing systems, is still the equivalent of having two weather stations for the entire state of Nebraska.
Most of the important data in the ocean is simply not observable from the land or sky. We have to be in the ocean to acquire it.
One major challenge to understanding the ocean at scale is, quite simply, cost. New oceanographic measurement capabilities have enabled new ways to observe, monitor and predict ocean processes, but these instruments generally rely on expensive, bespoke, one-of-a kind designs. The time it takes to get a usable solution into the field - often after years of trial and error - is also a barrier. In much the same way that satellite remote sensing of the Earth has been revolutionized over the last decade with new launch vehicles and microsatellites, new approaches that emphasize scalability and cost are urgently needed for ocean data collection.
We are working on new approaches to acquire data from ocean at the time and space scales that matter for large existing as well as emerging markets.
At Apeiron Labs, we believe that the path to greater climate security, food security, energy security, and national security is through our oceans. Our focus is on moving ocean observing into a new era of persistent and pervasive measurements. Our vision is to open up the ocean to observation, analysis, and prediction in much the same way that we approach the atmosphere and land systems today. Our future truly depends on it.