Dive in as a Citizen Climate Detective and Uncover the Sea’s Weather!

An ongoing citizen science project funded by SOS invites new participants to help measure seawater temperatures and spot thermal microclimates and marine heatwaves.

We talk about the weather all the time, but while we follow the sky closely, the “weather” in the sea largely remains unseen. In coastal areas, water temperature can vary dramatically over short distances due to factors such as depth, wind exposure, and circulation. Yet this fine‑scale variability is still poorly documented.

Through an ongoing citizen science project at Åbo Akademi University, participants help reveal this hidden world by placing simple temperature loggers near their homes or summer houses, capturing the conditions marine life experiences at high resolution. Last year’s pilot was a great success, with enthusiastic volunteers across the Archipelago Sea already providing valuable data. Building on this momentum, we are now expanding along the entire Finnish coast, including Åland: this year’s first logger was placed on May 2nd with the help of a 6‑year‑old citizen climate detective and the 40 loggers distributed so far already span from Närpes in the north to Loviisa in the east.  

However, many areas are still not covered, and we warmly invite everyone to join by deploying a logger into the sea at a fixed structure (such as a pier or buoy) close to their home. 

You can find more information on the project webpage and in this blog post. 

A 6‑year‑old citizen climate detective has just placed a temperature logger into the sea, carefully tying it to the pier so it can record the water’s hidden “weather” without being carried away by waves. The logger measures temperature every 15 minutes, capturing the story of warm heatwaves and sudden cold spells beneath the surface. These simple observations help us better understand how coastal waters change and how marine life experiences them.