Sunday, Oct. 22, 2006

R/V MIRAI

"enters intensive observations area"

Mostly rain. Sometimes, heavy shower was observed.

Observations:

We deployed the Argo floats along the 80E line at 6S, 5S, 4S, 3.5S, 2.5S, 1.0S, and 0.5S. At (2.5S, 80E) and (0.5S, 80E), we also conducted the CTD measurement down to 2000m and 500m, respectively.
During this cruise, we are scheduled to replace the met sensors for the ATLAS buoy, which had been deployed at (1.5N, 80.5E) by NOAA/PMEL with aid of NIO, India. Today, we examined the way to replace them (photo-1).
We also measured sea bottom topography near the mooring site (photo-2).
As we moved to northward, we had many chances to meet rainy area. As seen in the radar echo distribution (Fig. 1), meso-scale convective systems (MCSs) were often observed.

Remarks:

At last, we have entered the intensive observation area. According to the satellite cloud images, large-scale cloud area is found over the whole tropical Indian Ocean. Sometimes, we had heavy precipitation, while we found stratiform-type rain most of time. Right now, we are all ready for 24-hour observation.