Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCCL) and the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science have an ongoing partnership to collect scientific measurements onboard RCCL cruise ships. In 2000, Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas became the first test-bed cruise ship to be outfitted with a comprehensive suite of oceanographic and meteorological instruments that provide real-time data on atmospheric and ocean conditions along the ship’s path, to scientists at the Rosenstiel School. In addition to the real-time data collection, a shipboard OceanLab program offered onboard laboratory tours and scientist lectures for cruise guests from 2000 through 2007.
Explorer’s real-time data collection became a foundation for the international OceanScope program, which seeks to broaden this initial investment into a widespread scientific data collection program onboard commercial ships. This unique collaboration is at the cutting edge for the next generation of automated shipboard instrumentation for scientific research. Currently, Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas, Adventure of the Seas and Celebrity’s Equinox are providing real-time data to scientists as part of OceanScope. Celebrity's Flora will join the program in the summer of 2019.
