Seals With High-Tech Hats Are Collecting Climate Data in the Antarctic

Elephant seals in funny-looking hats are helping NASA study climate science.

Science thanks you for your service, elephant seal! 

Outfitted with specialized sensors that resemble lumpy metal yarmulkes with antennae, these pinnipeds are collecting data that’s helping researchers track how heat moves through ocean currents. In a paper published this week in Nature Geosciences, a team of climate scientists led by Caltech oceanographer Lia Siegelman used this clever technique to track changes in temperature as the seal swam the icy waters of the Antarctic. 

With the help of one particularly intrepid female seal, the researchers discovered that heat stored at the ocean’s depths can sometimes get swirled back up to the surface thanks to some deeply penetrating currents. While researchers have known that these currents can ferry heat downward into the ocean’s interior, the new findings suggest the reverse is true as well—driving a process that can warm the sea’s topmost layers as well. 

Read the story from the Smithsonian by Katherine J. Wu - “Seals With High-Tech Hats Are Collecting Climate Data in the Antarctic.”