This report presents and discuss experiences from the ATL2MED mission, which was a joint effort between a group of European institutions/projects and the US company Saildrone, where two Autonomous Surface Vehicles (ASV) from Saildrone sailed from Cape Verde in the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Trieste in the Mediterranean Sea. The mission started in October 2019 and ended in July 2020.
The ATL2MED mission was a result of a joint application from GEOMAR (DE) and ICOS-OTC (NO/UK), where two experiments were proposed: the first being eddy studies in the Canary Current upwelling system off West Africa and the second was the validation of CO2 measurements at fixed ocean stations in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. The mission was funded primarily from the US company PEAK 6 Invest, but also Saildrone and all involved institutions contributed to the experiments.