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\t\t\t\t\t\t04\/06\/2025<\/span> After an extraordinary six-week voyage from northern Norway, the iconic Norwegian tall ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl<\/i> has docked in Nice, France, concluding ESA\u2019s 2025 Advanced Ocean Training course. Braving everything from wild storms to calm near-freezing seas, students aboard mastered techniques for collecting ocean measurements and harnessed satellite data to unlock insights into our blue planet.<\/p>\n Led by experts, this real-world expedition offered more than education \u2013 it sparked curiosity and a deeper commitment to understanding and protecting our oceans.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The\u00a0Statsraad Lehmkuhl<\/i>\u00a0set sail from Troms\u00f8, Norway, on 22 April, charting a course to southern France via Iceland and the island of Menorca in Spain. But this journey began long before the ship left port.<\/p>\n Between November and April, students took part in an intensive preparatory phase with around 50 lectures, provided by ESA, to build the foundations needed to embark on this immersive hands-on training course at sea.<\/p>\n ESA\u2019s course is part of the year-long One Ocean Expedition \u2013 a scientific and educational voyage across the Northern Hemisphere dedicated to raising awareness of the ocean\u2019s vital role in building a sustainable future.<\/p>\n The ship\u2019s arrival in Nice also comes at a crucial moment, just ahead of the United Nations Ocean Conference. The conference seeks to galvanise urgent action to conserve and sustainably manage oceans, seas and marine resources, while advancing the implementation of United Nation\u2019s Sustainable Development Goal 14.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Craig Donlon, ESA ocean scientists and leader of the expedition, said, \u201cIt\u2019s been an incredible six weeks at sea.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone is now absolutely exhausted, but our students, lecture team, officers and crew have been outstanding \u2013 they fully embraced modern ocean science aboard this historical tall ship and threw themselves into every aspect of our demanding training course.\u201d<\/p>\n He further explained, \u201cWe have completed measurements from 29 oceanographic stations, sampling water at different depths down to1200 m together with phytoplankton and zooplankton net samples. These are connected with an array of measurements of the ocean currents, biology and meteorology, amongst others.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cExceptionally good satellite data, particularly from the Copernicus Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 missions and from ESA\u2019s SMOS mission, have been used, not only to guide our sampling plan in realtime, but also by our students who have leveraged their full impact to explore the physics, biology and health of our oceans.<\/p>\n Our students have gained a deeper understanding of how our oceans are being impacted by climate change. Our voyage has been a wonderful success delivering an incredible dataset together with trained ocean scientists to explore its content as they prepare to publish their results.\u00a0 I am so proud of all that they have achieved.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Boarding the Statsraad Lehmkuhl<\/i> in Nice to speak at an ESA press conference and to those who took part in the expedition, Simonetta Cheli, ESA\u2019s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, said, \u201cEarth science lies at the core of our FutureEO programme, which drives the development of world-class satellite missions to uncover new insights about our changing planet. But our commitment also goes beyond building satellites.<\/p>\n \u201cThis exceptional Ocean Training Course reflects our dedication to sharing knowledge and empowering the next generation of scientists and satellite data users. Our aim here, was to help equip students with the new skills and confidence as they embark on their careers in ocean science.<\/p>\n \u201cWe hope that, in the future, they too will make new discoveries about our precious oceans \u2013 discoveries that the world will benefit from in our common goal of understanding and taking care of our plant.<\/p>\n \u201cMy thanks goes to everyone who has helped make this happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The importance of investing in our future ocean scientists is recognised by institutes sponsoring ESA\u2019s Advanced Ocean Training Course including Ocean Data Laboratory (France), the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center (Norway), NASA (US), the Trevor Platt Science Foundation (India) and the Statsraad Lehmkuhl Foundation (Norway), amongst others.<\/p>\n Through this sponsorship, international students beyond Europe were able to participate in the scientific voyage.<\/p>\n Read more about the students\u2019 experience: ESA\u2019s Ocean Training Course Blog<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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