Leg 2 will service 12 moorings: G: the Dutch moorings, D2: British moorings, C: German mooring, L: Dutch profiling mooring, and E1 and E3: RAFOS float deployments
After a bright sunny day of loading and getting ready on RV Pelagia in the port of Reykjavik, we are well underway to retrieve and redeploy 12 tall oceanic moorings in the Irminger Sea (marked with leg 2 in the red box). The successful team from leg 1 arrived in Reykjavik two days earlier than planned and they handed the ship over to us. The moorings we will be recovering have been collecting continuous measurements of temperature, salinity and currents in the Irminger Sea for a whole year. We expect to arrive to the first mooring site on the Reykjanes Ridge on Friday morning to start recovery and read the first data sets from the instruments. After that we head west to collect all 5 moorings on the Reykjanes Ridge and traverse back again whilst doing CTD measurements and float deployments on the ridge after which the moorings will be deployed again for another year.
The mooring data collected during this cruise contributes to both the OSNAP and NACLIM programs. We have an international team with 7 different nationalities. Some of us have to get used to being at sea while others appear to have no problem to focus on computer screens… the weather so far is great though we are expecting more wind and waves tomorrow.
Heather Furey (WHOI) and Mark Graham (UMiami) get the rosette ready for the first calibration cast of microcats and test of releases before Leg 2 moorings are deployed. Also on the package are the CTD (Conductivity-Temperature-Depth) sensors which relay water property values up a conducting cable as the package is lowered to near the sea floor.
ea time for the Principal Scientific Officer of the cruise (Stuart, on the left) during the recovery of the first US mooring, lead by Bill (in the middle). Dom (on the right side) observed with attention the work on the back deck.
Deploying a RAFOS float. photo by Penny Holliday
The CTD package, Ifremer/Ovide
Feili and a float called Feili. photo by Penny Holliday
Attaching a current meter to a mooring. photo by Penny Holliday
Graduate students Roos Bol from NIOZ (left) and James Coogan from SAMS (right), at the CTD computer console.
The mooring team with R/V Pelagia deck crew, standing by a mooring anchor while towing the mooring to its final deployment spot.
Penny working on the mooring spool together with GEOMAR student Ilmar Leinmann (Photo credit: Penny Holliday)
Robert reels in the rosette.
photo by Penny Holliday
The RV Pelagia, our home for the duration of this cruise.