A £2.5 million project will revolutionise understanding of ocean mixing to improve climate models.

The REMIX-TUNE project, led by the University of Southampton and the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), aims to enhance comprehension of how the ocean regulates the Earth's climate by storing heat and greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

The initiative, funded by the European Research Council, involves deploying high-tech floats equipped with sensors in critical deep-water formation areas in the North Atlantic and Southern Ocean.

These autonomous floats, fitted with turbulence sensors and high-efficiency computers, will dive to depths of up to 2,000 metres, gathering detailed local data on water mixing processes.

Dr Bieito Fernandez Castro, a Lecturer in Physical Oceanography at the University of Southampton, said: "Small-scale mixing plays a crucial role in how the ocean exchanges carbon and heat with the atmosphere and stores it below the surface.

"Yet, much about this crucial process remains a mystery, so there’s a higher degree of uncertainty in our estimates than we’d like.

"It happens on such small scales (ranging from centimetres to kilometres) that it has been hard to measure, meaning current ocean and climate models fail to capture the intricate dynamics at work."

This information will be used to create the first global database detailing the role of mixing in ocean 'breathing' or ventilation.

Ocean mixing, involving tiny turbulent movements, helps to regulate climate by moving water, heat, and chemicals from the surface into the deep.

This process is vital for maintaining the health of ocean current systems such as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC).

The project will provide unprecedented detail about these processes, which play a crucial role in the Earth's climate system.

The data gathered will be used to improve ocean-climate models, enhancing their accuracy in simulating the ocean's role in storing heat and greenhouse gases.

This will help scientists better predict the impacts of human-induced climate change.

The new understanding of ocean mixing processes could provide crucial insights into the Earth's climate system, helping to improve climate models and our understanding of climate change impacts.