On October 28, 2000 Royal Caribbean International’s ship, the Explorer of the Seas, began weekly cruises through the Caribbean from Miami. This ship is unique in that it is outfitted with state-of-the-art oceanographic and atmospheric laboratories. It represents a collaboration between Royal Caribbean International, the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS), and the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) with financial support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Office of Naval Research (ONR), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In addition to an initial expenditure of over $1.5 million, Royal Caribbean provided two laboratories, two cabins for technicians and visiting researchers, and logistical support. Scientists from RSMAS, AOML, and other institutions maintain scientific instruments to monitor the atmosphere and the ocean.

The Explorer of the Seas affords scientists an opportunity to gather data along repeated tracks that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive. Repeating the same cruise tracks allows them to detect small changes in the ocean and atmosphere on a bi-weekly basis. A long series of high quality observations has been created that provides new insights on monthly, seasonal, and longer time cycles.

In May 2006, the home port of the Explorer of the Seas changed from Miami to Cape Liberty Cruise Port, Bayonee, NJ. In addition, the cruise destinations started alternating between Bermuda and the eastern Caribbean, with an occasional excursion along the northeast coast of the USA and Canada. At the end of 2007, operations were transitioned to fully automated and unattended systems. This transition took place over a year during which pCO2 sampling was greatly reduced to quarterly cruises.

In February 2002, the Ocean Carbon Cycle Group at AOML installed an instrument to measure CO2 in surface water in the Ocean Lab on Explorer of the Seas. The data is downloaded and quality controlled at AOML, and posted to this web site. Files are arranged by year and quarter (Jan. – March, April – June, etc.) and named using the cruise designation EXyywwd.csv where yy is the 2-digit year, ww is the week number, and d is either E, W, N or S depending on whether the ship took the eastern, western, northern or southern route. Each file has an accompanying README file. Links to download the data and README files appear next to a cruise track map for each cruise that is color coded by pCO2 level. To download a particular file, select the year from the drop-down list box and click on GO. All data files for a quarter will be on one page. In addition, annual files can be accessed by clicking on the "Annual Files" link in the left-hand navigation bar.

During the transition to a fully automated operation, the original pCO2 system was removed from the ocean lab and a new pCO2 system purchased from General Oceanics (GO) was installed in the bow thruster space where the other seawater instruments are located. The new location of the CO2 instrument is closer to the seawater intake, thus making the measurements potentially more accurate. It has also allowed the installation of an air inlet tube so that amospheric CO2 measurements can be done in conjunction with surface water CO2 observations.

Further information on scientific observations on the Explorer of the Seas can be found at: http://www.rsmas.miami.edu/rccl/.