Saturday, Oct. 28, 2006

R/V MIRAI

"stationary observation has just started"

Cloudy

Observations:

At 4:30 AM (2330 UTC, Oct. 27), stationary observation at fixed site at (0, 80.5E) has been started. The rotation of radiosonde observation, CTD casting, and turbulent flux measurement will be done every 3 hours for about one month as well as other continuous observations such as Doppler radar.
During this intensive observation period, we will also conduct the "seasnake" sea surface temperature and CO2 measurement using the boom at the bow. Later these observations will be reported.

Remarks:

We will conduct various observations at this (0, 80.5E) site for the coming one month. It was fresh feeling to start the routine 24-hours observations after the completion of buoy array
Although we use the term "stationary", strictly speaking, it is not really stationed. To surely obtain the upwind data for turbulent flux measurement, ship cruises toward upwind over 1 hour with slow speed. After that, ship returns to the original point before the next radiosonde launching.
Photos 1-3 show the first CTD casting. CTD with water sampler was operated using sea crane (photo-1) by the controll room (photo-2). Sampled water (photo-3) were analyzed for nutrients, pH, dissolved oxygen, and salinity.