Thursday, Oct. 19, 2006

R/V MIRAI

"vandalism on TRITON"

Cloudy, partly shower

Observations:

All continuous observations work well.
Doppler radar observation captured squall line of WNW-ESE oriented (Fig. 1). Most rain are produced from convective echoes, and few stratiform echoes were found.
In the evening, we arrived at TRITON buoy site at 1.7S, 90E. Although we first thought to attach the optional sensors on the buoy, we give it up, as all meteorological sensors were broken/stolen (photo-1). Actually, we expected this situation, as we could not get any data from this site via satellite communication at land. Instead, we inspect how the TRITON buoy is damaged.

Remarks:

TRITON buoy is designed to monitor the surface meteorology as well as underwater temperature so that those data can be used for not only research but also fishery and other related community by providing useful information. So such a vandalism is quite regrettable. We wish the mutual understanding.
As for the atmospheric condition, convectively active region extends to the east resulting in the whole coverage with clouds over the tropical Indian Ocean.