RV Oceanus OC459-1

Cruise summary report

Search the Cruise Inventory

Cruise Info.

Ship name (ship code)

RV Oceanus (32OC)

Cruise identifier

OC459-1

Cruise period

2010-03-23 — 2010-04-04

Status

Completed

Port of departure

Woods Hole, United States

Port of return

Freeport, Bahamas

Purpose

Research

Objectives

This cruise report covers scientific operations conducted during RV Oceanus OC459-1. Mooring operations conducted on RV Ronald H. Brown RB10-09 are given as an Appendix. Cruise OC459 departed from Woods Hole on 23rd March 2010 and arrived in Freeport, Grand Bahama on 04th April 2010.
The purpose of the cruise was the refurbishment of an array of moorings off the coast of Abaco Island, Bahamas at nominal latitude of 26.5°N. The moorings are part of a purposeful Atlantic wide mooring array for monitoring the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and Heat Flux. The array is a joint UK/US programme and is known as the RAPID-WATCH/MOCHA array. Information and data from the project can be found on the web site hosted by the National Oceanography Centre Southampton http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/rapidmoc and from the British Oceanographic Data Centre http://www.bodc.ac.uk.
The RAPID transatlantic array consists of 24 moorings of which 21 are maintained by the UK, and 17 bottom landers of which 15 are maintained by the UK. The moorings are primarily instrumented with Sea-Bird self-logging instruments measuring conductivity, temperature and pressure. Direct measurements of currents are made in the shallow and deep western boundary currents. The bottom landers are instrumented with bottom pressure recorders (also known as tide gauges), measuring the weight of water above the instrument.
The RAPID naming convention for moorings is Western Boundary (WB), Eastern Boundary (EB) and Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) indicating the general sub-regions of the array. Numbering increments from west to east. An L in the name indicates a bottom lander, M indicates a minimooring with only one instrument, H indicates a mooring that is on the continental slope and is instrumented over a limited depth range. During OC459-1, we recovered and redeployed WB1, WB2, WB6, WBH2, WBADCP, WB2L4 and WB4L4. WBAL1 was deployed on OC459-1. Mooring WB4 was recovered and redeployed on RB10-09.
On OC459-1, CTD stations were conducted at convenient times throughout the cruise for purposes of providing pre and post deployment calibrations for mooring instrumentation and for testing mooring releases prior to deployment. Shipboard underway measurements were systematically logged, processed and calibrated, including waves (spectra of energy and significant wave height), surface meteorology (air pressure, temperature, wind speed and direction and radiation (total incident and photosynthetically active), sea temperatures and salinities, water depth and navigation. Seawater samples from CTD stations and of the sea-surface were obtained for calibration.

Chief scientist

Christopher S Meinen (NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory)

Project

RAPID Climate Change

Coordinating body

Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)

Cruise report

(4.84 MB)

(0.94 MB)

Ocean/sea areas

General

North West Atlantic Ocean (limit 40W)

Specific

Subtropical Northwest Atlantic

Track charts

(0.10 MB)

Measurements

Physical oceanography

Surface measurements underway (T,S)

Quantity: activity duration in days = 13
Description: Underway data - temperature, conductivity, fluorescence

Water bottle stations

Quantity: number of stations = 8
Description: Salinity samples for calibration of CTD.

CTD stations

Quantity: number of stations = 10
Description: CTD profiles - temperature, conductivity and pressure

Meteorology

Routine standard measurements

Quantity: activity duration in days = 13
Description: Met data - air pressure, air temperature

Moorings, landers, buoys

Physical oceanography

Current meters

26° 30' 7" N 76° 49' 2" W — WB1 recovery: 15x CTD 4x CM

Current meters

26° 28' 52" N 76° 38' 1" W — WBH2 recovery: 3x CTD 5x CM

Current meters

26° 29' 18" N 76° 51' 41" W — WB1 deployment: 15x CTD 4x CM

Current meters

26° 25' 1" N 76° 42' 29" W — WB2 deployment: 16x CTD 8x CM

Current meters

26° 29' 35" N 70° 31' 36" W — WB6 deployment: 5x CTD 1x CM

Current meters

26° 26' 41" N 76° 33' 42" W — WBH2 deployment: 3x CTD 5x CM

Current meters

26° 30' 48" N 76° 44' 25" W — WB2 recovery: 16x CTD 7x CM

Current profiler (eg ADCP)

26° 31' 32" N 76° 52' 4" W — WBADCP recovery: 1x ADCP

Current profiler (eg ADCP)

26° 31' 29" N 76° 48' 28" W — WBADCP deployment: 1x ADCP

Sea level (inc. bot. press., inverted echosounder)

26° 31' 29" N 76° 52' 33" W — WBL0 deployment: 2x BPR

Sea level (inc. bot. press., inverted echosounder)

26° 21' 46" N 75° 42' 24" W — WBL4 deployment: 2x BPR

Sea level (inc. bot. press., inverted echosounder)

26° 30' 31" N 76° 44' 42" W — WBL3 deployment: 2x BPR

Sea level (inc. bot. press., inverted echosounder)

26° 24' 15" N 75° 42' 35" W — WBL4 recovery: 1x BPR

Sea level (inc. bot. press., inverted echosounder)

26° 30' 24" N 76° 44' 39" W — WBL3 recovery: 2x BPR

Sea level (inc. bot. press., inverted echosounder)

26° 29' 26" N 70° 31' 30" W — WB6 recovery: 5x CTD 2x BPR