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UC San Diego is preparing to send its famous research ship Roger Revelle on its first trip to Antarctica since the vessel completed a $60 million mid-life overhaul earlier this year.
The ship, which is named for the school’s chief founder, will travel to the Southern Ocean off Antarctica to study the Great Calcite Belt, whose
coccolithophores, or phytoplankton, can reflect light visible from satellites.
The belt sends nutrients to other regions of the world, broadly affecting the productivity of marine life. It also can affect global climate patterns, which will be the primary focus of the two-month expedition that begins on Dec. 26. The expedition will be led by Barney Balch, a UCSD graduate who works at Maine’s Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences.