Cédric Courson is a 2nd-year FIRE PhD student at LOCEAN (Laboratoire Océanographique et Climatique de Paris), but you're likely to meet him in Brest, where he also works closely with IFREMER (Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer) and the Université de Bretagne Occidentale (UBO).
Cédric's interdisciplinary PhD explores how open source technologies and citizen science can contribute to oceanographic research, straddling the boundary between the physical and social sciences. His motivation is to study how these citizen science programs work, and whether they can make physical measurements comparable to those made by scientists, with sufficient accuracy to then conduct physical modeling of the ocean. For example, temperature measurements need to be accurate to 1/1000°C to serve as modeling parameters.
This project is a continuation of what it initiated in 2014 by co-funding the association Astrolabe Expeditions, oceanography and citizen science. Today, part of his research work, the SensOcean project, is being showcased as part of the’a virtual exhibition organized by UBO to mark its 50th anniversary.
The thesis project is structured around three different themes, each linked to a field mission... on water.
- OpenLagoon is a local project designed to study the evolution of chlorophyll in Polynesian lagoons, using instrumentation deployed directly by the inhabitants.
- The LittObs project takes place in Brittany, where instruments are deployed in bays to monitor the mixing of continental and oceanic waters.
- Finally, the SensOcean project aims to equip sailing yachts with free scientific instruments to measure the physical characteristics of the oceans, such as temperature and salinity. As yachts sail the world's oceans, this will enable the acquisition of measurements to be multiplied, leading to a better understanding of ocean currents. The oceans are one of the main drivers of climate change, and a better understanding of them will help us to better understand climate evolution.
A dozen yachts are currently sailing with SensOcean measurement kits. The first of these went to sea in the summer of 2021 during an expedition to Iceland, in which Cédric took part to identify what was working properly and what needed to be improved on the measurement instruments.
A radio journalist accompanied this 2-month expedition and reported on it. immersive radio report (Samuel Turpin). A written coverage is also available on the UK's national sailing magazine, Sailing Today. Following this media coverage, Cédric was also invited to on CQFD, Swiss Radio's science program, in early March 2022, to answer questions about the expedition and its research.
The Planet Learning Institute is delighted to shed a little more light on this exciting and impactful project!
Next waves
For the LittObs project in coastal Brittany, an outing is planned this summer with the association des Plaisanciers de Marina de Brest.(APMB ) to place scientific instruments in the bay, which will then be removed this autumn once sufficient data has been acquired.
Other yachts will also be setting sail with SensOcean kits in September.
As an alumnus of the AIRE Master's Digital Sciences program, Cédric has close ties with the Institute's ecosystem. Some of the instruments that will equip these boats have been built in the Learning Planet Institute's Makerlab. The open-source principle enables people from all over the world to use the FabLab to build these scientific instruments and apply the citizen science protocol.
Boaters wishing to participate in one of these projects (except OpenLagoon, which involves local populations) or in other programs not included in Cédric's thesis can contact the association Astrolabe Expéditions above.
Article : Camille Gaulon, Scientific and educational coordinator for the FIRE doctoral program (Université Paris Cité, Université PSL - hosted by Institut Planète Learning)
Read more :
- Cédric Courson's project: Open Source Oceanography
- AssociationAstrolabe Expéditions
- Oceanographic and Climatic Laboratory Paris LOCEAN
- French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea IFREMER
- University of Western Brittany UBO
- Immersive radio coverage of Samuel Turpin with Cédric Courson and the Unu Mondo Expedition team, RFI (2021)
- Go with the floe, Samuel Turpin in Sailing Today (2022)
- Gulf Stream slows down, CQFD with Cédric Courson (2022)
