RRS Discovery cruise today left Reykjavik on what surely must be the most beautiful day of the year so far. Sailing into glaring sunshine over blue sparkly water brings a optimistic lift to the heart of this Principal Scientist – it almost makes you think that we won’t need all of those extra days we have scheduled in case of delays due to bad weather… But the bad weather will probably come at some point, so I wont yet get too carried away with talking about calm conditions.
Most of us have spent a few days in Reykjavik, getting excited by seeing four research vessels in port at the same time (surely quite unusual?), gasping at the price of shopping, and admiring this stylish city in all it’s crazy-weather glory. But now we are glad to be getting going and getting on with the task ahead of us.
This cruise DY054 is the second UK OSNAP mooring refurbishment cruise of 2016. We’ll be retrieving some moorings and instruments that have been collecting deep ocean data for the past year, and sending a new lot of instruments back to replace them. We’ll also be releasing some ocean-exploring robots – floats that will spend two years following the coldest and deepest water so we can trace the many ribbons of currents that make up the southward-flowing circulation.
Reykjvik
Reykjavik
R.V. Neil Armstrong
RRS Discovery and RV Maria S Merian
RV Bjarni Saemundsson
Reykjavik
Photos by Penny Holliday
This entry was posted in News. Bookmark the permalink.
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.
Graduate students Roos Bol from NIOZ (left) and James Coogan from SAMS (right), at the CTD computer console.
Deploying a RAFOS float. photo by Penny Holliday
Attaching a current meter to a mooring. photo by Penny Holliday
Feili and a float called Feili. photo by Penny Holliday
photo by Penny Holliday
The CTD package, Ifremer/Ovide
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.
Penny working on the mooring spool together with GEOMAR student Ilmar Leinmann (Photo credit: Penny Holliday)
The RV Pelagia, our home for the duration of this cruise.
Robert reels in the rosette.
The mooring team with R/V Pelagia deck crew, standing by a mooring anchor while towing the mooring to its final deployment spot.
Pingback: PhotoEssay_CruiseOperations – AMOC