Saturday, Oct. 21, 2006

R/V MIRAI

"arrived at 80E line"

Fine
Easterlies (10m/s) prevailed and typical significant wave height was 2.5m.

Observations:

fter we arrived at first Argo float release point at (7.7S, 80.8E), we conducted the CTD observation down to 1500m for data comparison (photo-1, 2). Then, we released two Argo floats (photo-3, 4).
During this cruise, we deploy Argo floats for two purposes. One is done as part of the international Argo project, and the other is to capture the oceanic responses to the passage of the MJO. Therefore, while standard Argo is set to park at 1500m depth and ascend every 10-day, special float is set to ascend once a day from 500m depth.

Remarks:

At last, we arrived at 80E line.
Many researchers came to the working deck to watch the CTD observation and the release of Argo floats, as this was the first trial during this cruise and many of them are atmospheric guys who are not familiar with these oceanic instruments.
According to the satellite cloud image, cloud clusters can be found in the both hemisphere in the western Indian Ocean, while they extend to the east only in the northern hemisphere. All what we can do now is to deploy the floats and to cruise to northward.