Two Saildrone USVs are sailing from Cabo Verde to Trieste, Italy on a six-month mission to better understand ocean acidification, the global carbon budget, and the socio-economic impacts of a changing ocean ecosystem.

The first partnership between Japan’s premiere marine-earth science agency and Saildrone included missions to the reference KEO offshore buoy, a study of the Kuroshio Current, and at the site of the Tropical Pacific m-Triton buoy.

After setting the record for the fastest unmanned Atlantic crossing, SD 1021 has now completed the return journey, not only beating its own record time but also becoming the first autonomous vehicle to transit in both directions across the Atlantic Ocean.