RV Antares

Oceanlab members (Alan Jamieson and Amandine Heger) are working in collaboration with the Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseilles (CNRS/IN2P3, the particle physics centre) to detect bioluminescence in the vicinity of the undersea neutrino telescope, ANTARES. The aim of ANTARES is to observe neutrinos from astrophysical sources, which can be detected using photomultiplier tubes. However, light emitted from organisms within the water column interferes with the detection of light from neutrino sources.

The ISIT lander is being used to examine the presence of bioluminescence in the water column and particularly around the depth of the ANTARES array. Measurements are taking place at different sites in the Mediterranean Sea down to a depth of 2500m. Preliminary results have shown a significant amount of bioluminescence in the region of the neutrino array and ongoing research aims to establish whether bioluminescence varies seasonally.