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A Different Kind of NASCar

A spray glider launched in March 2017 from a patrol ship off the Seychelles Islands in the western Indian Ocean spent four months zig-zagging through the upper 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) of the ocean to document how ocean circulation near the equator changed during the onset of the South Asian monsoon. The glider mission was part of the Office of Naval Research-funded Northern Arabian Sea Circulation autonomous research (NASCar) program. Understanding air-sea interactions that influence monsoons in this part of the world is critical to forecasting the timing and intensity of rains that help sustain nearly one billion people in Asia and Africa. (Photo by Robert Todd, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)