Windrace ULTRA, a dual-use heavy lift drone, is set to be deployed in Greenland to record new climate data in one of the most remote and extreme environments on Earth.

The deployment, planned for June 2026, forms part of the GIANT program (Greenland Ice sheet to AtlaNtic Tipping points from ice loss), an international research mission to understand how melting glaciers are pushing the Atlantic Ocean toward a crucial climate tipping point.

GIANT, led by a team of international scientists, will use a range of technologies alongside Windracers ULTRA to better understand how ice interacts with ocean waters, including marine robots, satellites and sensors.

Continue reading Windracers ULTRA drones to be deployed in Greenland on glacier surveying mission at Meteorological Technology International.

Instability in the global water cycle intensified floods, droughts and heat extremes in 2025, contributing to widespread humanitarian and economic impacts, according to a new report led by the Australian National University (ANU).

The 2025 Global Water Monitor Report states that continued warming is altering how water moves through the atmosphere, land and oceans, increasing the frequency and severity of water-related disasters. The international research team reports that such events caused nearly 5,000 deaths worldwide in 2025, displaced around eight million people and resulted in economic losses exceeding US$360m.

Led by Prof. Albert van Dijk from ANU’s Fenner School of Environment & Society, the report links these losses to floods, tropical cyclones, droughts and wildfires that interacted across water, food and energy systems.

Continue reading Water cycle instability drove global water-related disasters in 2025 at Meteorological Technology International.

The world’s oceans absorbed more heat in 2025 than in any year since modern measurements began, says climate scientist Dr Kevin Trenberth.

Heat stored in the upper 2km of the ocean increased by an estimated 23 zettajoules last year, based on research co-authored by Trenberth, an honorary academic at the University of Auckland and affiliate of the US National Center for Atmospheric Research. The increase is equivalent to hundreds of millions of Hiroshima-scale atomic bombs, or around 200 times global electricity consumption in 2023.

“The ocean is the hottest on record,” said Trenberth. “We’re looking at creating a very different planet – do we really want to do that?”

The findings come from a study led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.

Continue reading Oceans absorb record heat, driving extreme weather, according to international study led by Chinese Academy of Sciences at Meteorological Technology International.

A robotic Argo float has completed an ocean transect beneath an East Antarctic ice shelf – said to be the first of its kind – after spending more than eight months under the Denman and Shackleton ice shelves and collecting detailed temperature and salinity data.

Over two-and-a-half years, the float completed a 300km drift, collecting nearly 200 profiles from previously unsampled parts of the ocean. The mission offers rare insights into how ocean conditions are influencing the stability of East Antarctica’s ice.

“We got lucky,” said Dr Steve Rintoul, oceanographer at SCIRO and partner with the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership.

Continue reading Robotic Argo float sends back first ocean transect beneath East Antarctic ice shelf at Meteorological Technology International.

A specialized atmospheric instrument is flying on board routine transportation missions to and from McMurdo Station during this Antarctic summer, providing rare measurements of how carbon dioxide is exchanged between the atmosphere and the Southern Ocean.

The Southern Ocean Carbon Gas Observatory (SCARGO) project, led by the US National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR), runs from November through February and aims to fill one of the largest remaining gaps in global carbon cycle observations.

Because of the region’s extreme remoteness and harsh weather, existing carbon measurements rely mostly on sparse shipborne sensors and robotic floats.

Continue reading Antarctic flights carry NSF NCAR instrument to measure Southern Ocean carbon at Meteorological Technology International.

A collaboration in the US Gulf of Mexico has demonstrated a new method for gathering near-real-time observations of deep ocean currents, using uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) and seabed sensors. The work has been described as the first science-industry demonstration of sustained, science-ready deep-ocean measurements delivered without crewed vessels.

Marine technology companies Sonardyne and SeaTrac Systems partnered with the University of Rhode Island (URI) on the project, which focused on the Gulf’s Loop Current System (LCS) – a powerful and highly dynamic deep-water current that poses operational risks to offshore infrastructure. The effort was funded by the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Gulf Research Program and completed during autumn 2025.

Continue reading Uncrewed systems prove new method for observing deep ocean currents in real time at Meteorological Technology International.

There is a 55% chance of weak La Niña conditions affecting weather and climate patterns over the next three months, according to the WMO.

However, while such conditions have a temporary cooling effect on global average temperatures, many regions are still expected to be warmer than normal.

The latest forecasts from the WMO Global Producing Centres for Seasonal Prediction show that since mid-November 2025, oceanic and atmospheric conditions have revealed borderline La Niña conditions, with a 55% probability of crossing La Niña thresholds during the December 2025 to February 2026 period.

For the periods January-March and February-April next year, the likelihood of returning to ENSO-neutral conditions gradually rises from about 65% to 75%.

Continue reading WMO predicts borderline La Niña conditions at Meteorological Technology International.

A new report from the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) shows that while ocean observing for climate resilience, operational services, ocean health and sustainable economies is advancing, services remain at risk without stronger, coordinated investment and more diversified partnerships.

The GOOS Status Report 2025, released today, November 20, shows progress and vulnerabilities in the global capacity to deliver the essential information required to address growing societal needs and protect the oceans.

It highlights the critical role ocean observations play in accurate climate projections, weather and extreme weather event forecasts, timely early warnings and biodiversity conservation.

Continue reading Ocean observing for climate resilience remains ‘subcritical’ despite global advances, says new GOOS report at Meteorological Technology International.

The Sentinel-6B satellite launched on November 17 at 06:21 CET on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The spacecraft was delivered into orbit just under an hour after liftoff, and at 07:54 CET ESA’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Germany received the first signal via the Inuvik ground station in Canada, confirming that Sentinel-6B is functioning well.

Sentinel-6B will continue the mission of Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, launched in November 2020. The Copernicus Sentinel-6 mission is the world’s primary reference for satellite sea-surface height measurements, extending a continuous data record that began in the early 1990s with the French-US Topex-Poseidon mission and continued with the Jason satellite series.

Continue reading Sentinel-6B launches to advance global sea-level record at Meteorological Technology International.

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology has updated the way it calculates sea surface temperature indices for the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The new method is called the relative Niño index.

The relative Niño indices provide better insights into the oceanic ENSO signal in a changing climate. The new method also enables the Bureau to better forecast changes by accounting for the long-term warming trend in the oceans.

About relative Niño indices

Until August 2025, the Bureau used the traditional Niño indices to track sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. This method worked by measuring how much warmer or cooler specific regions of the Pacific are compared with the usual temperature against a baseline period.

Continue reading Bureau of Meteorology reveals new method of measuring sea surface temperature at Meteorological Technology International.