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RV Atlantic Explorer AE1404

Cruise summary report

Cruise Info. 
Ship name (ship code)RV Atlantic Explorer (33H4)
Cruise identifierAE1404
Cruise period2014-03-15 — 2014-03-31
StatusCompleted
Port of departureFort Pierce, United States
Port of returnFort Pierce, United States
PurposeResearch
ObjectivesObjectives

1. Recover 5 deep-sea moorings off the eastern Bahamas along latitude 26.5°N and deploy 4 new moorings along the same line.
2. Recover and redeploy one pressure-inverted echo sounder (PIES) and recover data from 6 previously deployed PIES by underwater acoustic telemetry.
3. Conduct CTD and Lowered ADCP sections across the Florida Current at 27N, Northwest Providence Channel, and along the 26.5N RAPID-MOCHA western boundary line east of Abaco, Bahamas.
4. Perform several additional deep water CTD casts to calibrate moored instrumentation
5. Deploy 10 satellite tracked surface drifters at pre-selected locations.

Narrative

After transiting through Northwest Providence Channel, a "cal-dip" CTD station was done in 4300 m depth east of Abaco to obtain in-situ calibration data for all the moored Seabird microcat instruments. The CTD obtained good temperature and salinity data on the cast but there was a problem with the dissolved oxygen channels and the altimeter data due to a system configuration error. This was fixed and another short test cast was done, which showed all sensors working well. The LADCP system in use on the cruise consists of a downward looking 150 kHz ADCP and upward looking 300 kHz ADCP, both U. Miami instruments. It was discovered during the Abaco section that the U. Miami 150 kHz ADCP developed a problem with one of its beams and gave poor results in deep water casts. It was replaced with an identical 150 kHz ADCP from NOAA, which performed well for the remainder of the cruise.
The Abaco CTD/LADCP section was completed from March 16-22. An incident occurred during CTD004 when the package got temporarily snagged on a nearby mooring. The package sustained only minor damage and was redeployed after a short delay. After CTD008 the ship had to transit to Marsh Harbor and send in a small boat to let off the Chief Engineer due to illness and pick up a replacement, causing about a 17 hour delay. Near the end of the Abaco section, the deeper stations had to be terminated before reaching bottom due to an insufficient amount of conducting cable on the winch. Mooring work commenced on March 22nd with the recovery of bottom lander WBL5 at the eastern end of the Abaco line. All planned mooring operations were successfully completed between March 22-29. Underwater communications were initially difficult, with replies from the releases being either being very faint or not detected, though they could generally be heard on the ship's Knudsen echo-sounder. After swapping out the deck unit and transducers with backup units brought by AOML, it became apparent that the Benthos model UDB-9000 deck units, when paired with their cabled transducers, were not working well with the EdgeTech acoustic releases used on the U. Miami moorings. An older EG&G deck unit with cabled transducer was then used for mooring recovery and deployment, which showed more reliable communications. Later the Benthos deck units were interfaced with the ships transducer instead of their cabled transducers, and this combination was used for all subsequent mooring operations. All mooring recoveries went relatively smoothly except for M417 (site WB5) which had a bad tangle near the mid-depth float. During breaks in the mooring work, PIES operations were conducted (one recovery and redeployment), and acoustic data telemetry at all 6 PIES sites on the Abaco line. Additional CTD casts (stations 25-27) were also conducted to provide post-deployment CTD data for PIES site A2 and post-recovery cal-dip data for the microcats retrieved from the moorings WB3 & WB5. After completing all work on the Abaco line, the ship completed the CTD/LADCP section (stations 28-32), on March 29-30. The ship stopped into West End on the morning of March 30 and then proceeded northward to the 27°N line across the Straits of Florida. The final CTD/LADCP section (stations 33-41) was completed at 0300 on March 31.
Chief scientistChristopher S Meinen (NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory), William E Johns (Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science)
Cruise reportRV Atlantic Explorer AE1404 cruise report atlanticexplorer_1404.pdf (2.01 MB) 
Ocean/sea areas 
GeneralNorth East Atlantic Ocean (limit 40W)
SpecificStraits of Florida. Northwest Providence Channel.
Data held at BODC Get data
Series/Profiles 
19  Acoustic current meter
Moored instrument depth
Reference numbers
Date and time
Temperature of the water column
Horizontal velocity of the water column (currents)
Moored instrument depth
Reference numbers
Date and time
Temperature of the water column
Horizontal velocity of the water column (currents)

BODC idDate/TimeLocationDoc.
18135702014-03-28 20:00  — 2015-10-14 17:40 26° 29' 55" N  76° 29' 47" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1813570
18136502014-03-25 02:00  — 2015-10-13 10:40 26° 30' 50" N  76° 6' 14" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1813650
18136622014-03-25 02:00  — 2015-10-13 10:40 26° 30' 50" N  76° 6' 14" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1813662
18135822014-03-28 20:00  — 2015-10-14 17:40 26° 29' 55" N  76° 29' 47" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1813582
18136862014-03-25 02:00  — 2015-10-13 10:40 26° 30' 50" N  76° 6' 14" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1813686
18135332014-03-29 14:00  — 2015-10-16 10:40 26° 30' 32" N  76° 50' 30" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1813533
18135572014-03-29 14:00  — 2015-10-16 10:40 26° 30' 32" N  76° 50' 30" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1813557
18135692014-03-28 20:00  — 2015-10-14 17:40 26° 29' 55" N  76° 29' 47" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1813569
18137172014-03-25 02:00  — 2015-10-13 10:40 26° 30' 50" N  76° 6' 14" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1813717
18135942014-03-28 20:00  — 2015-10-14 17:40 26° 29' 55" N  76° 29' 47" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1813594
18136132014-03-28 20:00  — 2015-10-14 17:40 26° 29' 55" N  76° 29' 47" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1813613
18136252014-03-28 20:00  — 2015-10-14 17:40 26° 29' 55" N  76° 29' 47" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1813625
18137052014-03-25 02:00  — 2015-10-13 10:40 26° 30' 50" N  76° 6' 14" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1813705
18136742014-03-25 02:00  — 2015-10-13 10:40 26° 30' 50" N  76° 6' 14" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1813674
18136982014-03-25 02:00  — 2015-10-13 10:40 26° 30' 50" N  76° 6' 14" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1813698
18135452014-03-29 14:00  — 2015-10-16 10:40 26° 30' 32" N  76° 50' 30" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1813545
18136372014-03-28 20:00  — 2015-10-14 17:40 26° 29' 55" N  76° 29' 47" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1813637
18136492014-03-25 02:00  — 2015-10-13 10:40 26° 30' 50" N  76° 6' 14" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1813649
18136012014-03-28 20:00  — 2015-10-14 17:40 26° 29' 55" N  76° 29' 47" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1813601
3  Acoustic doppler current profiler
Reference numbers
Date and time
Vertical spatial coordinates
Horizontal velocity of the water column (currents)
Reference numbers
Date and time
Vertical spatial coordinates
Horizontal velocity of the water column (currents)

BODC idDate/TimeLocationDoc.
18167032014-03-25 02:00  — 2015-10-13 10:00 26° 30' 50" N  76° 6' 14" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1816703
18166842014-03-29 14:00  — 2015-10-16 10:00 26° 30' 32" N  76° 50' 30" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1816684
18166962014-03-28 20:00  — 2015-10-14 17:00 26° 29' 55" N  76° 29' 47" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1816696
41  CTD/STD cast
Reference numbers
Salinity of the water column
Temperature of the water column
Vertical spatial coordinates
Dissolved oxygen parameters in the water column
Density of the water column
Reference numbers
Salinity of the water column
Temperature of the water column
Vertical spatial coordinates
Dissolved oxygen parameters in the water column
Density of the water column

BODC idDate/TimeLocationDoc.
13571252014-03-17 15:36 26° 30' 21" N  76° 39' 18" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357125
13571622014-03-19 05:04 26° 29' 45" N  76° 13' 19" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357162
13572422014-03-21 01:07 26° 30' 21" N  74° 31' 8" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357242
13572782014-03-21 18:18 26° 29' 45" N  73° 30' 3" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357278
13573462014-03-27 03:53 26° 29' 23" N  76° 28' 1" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357346
13574022014-03-30 06:25 26° 20' 2" N  78° 43' 4" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357402
13571372014-03-17 20:25 26° 30' 7" N  76° 32' 59" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357137
13571742014-03-19 10:26 26° 29' 52" N  76° 5' 2" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357174
13573102014-03-22 12:36 26° 30' 7" N  72° 22' 40" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357310
13573582014-03-28 03:41 26° 30' 7" N  76° 44' 38" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357358
13573952014-03-30 05:07 26° 15' 7" N  78° 46' 15" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357395
13571862014-03-19 16:02 26° 30' 14" N  75° 54' 0" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357186
13571982014-03-19 21:09 26° 29' 56" N  75° 42' 10" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357198
13572172014-03-20 08:39 26° 29' 52" N  75° 18' 7" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357217
13572292014-03-20 14:49 26° 30' 25" N  75° 4' 51" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357229
13572542014-03-21 06:22 26° 30' 7" N  74° 13' 44" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357254
13571492014-03-18 01:45 26° 30' 0" N  76° 28' 26" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357149
13573092014-03-22 06:23 26° 30' 3" N  72° 46' 11" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357309
13574632014-03-30 19:59 27° 0' 7" N  79° 29' 52" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357463
13574752014-03-30 21:40 27° 0' 7" N  79° 36' 50" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357475
13572912014-03-22 00:12 26° 29' 56" N  73° 8' 2" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357291
13573222014-03-22 22:21 26° 30' 10" N  71° 59' 16" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357322
13575062014-03-31 01:27 27° 0' 10" N  79° 51' 53" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357506
13575182014-03-31 02:23 27° 0' 21" N  79° 55' 55" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357518
13570942014-03-16 23:17 26° 31' 44" N  76° 52' 55" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357094
13571012014-03-17 00:53 26° 31' 15" N  76° 49' 22" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357101
13574382014-03-30 17:05 27° 0' 3" N  79° 16' 58" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357438
13574512014-03-30 18:26 27° 0' 7" N  79° 22' 19" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357451
13570822014-03-16 14:17 25° 57' 10" N  76° 55' 22" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357082
13572662014-03-21 12:19 26° 30' 7" N  73° 52' 4" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357266
13573712014-03-30 02:32 26° 3' 54" N  78° 50' 56" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357371
13574262014-03-30 15:57 26° 59' 52" N  79° 11' 56" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357426
13574872014-03-30 22:58 27° 0' 14" N  79° 41' 6" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357487
13571132014-03-17 03:20 26° 30' 10" N  76° 44' 42" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357113
13571502014-03-18 07:13 26° 30' 3" N  76° 20' 38" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357150
13572052014-03-20 03:08 26° 30' 3" N  75° 29' 56" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357205
13572302014-03-20 19:48 26° 30' 10" N  74° 47' 56" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357230
13573342014-03-26 00:50 26° 30' 3" N  76° 5' 38" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357334
13573832014-03-30 03:41 26° 9' 57" N  78° 47' 59" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357383
13574142014-03-30 07:55 26° 26' 9" N  78° 39' 32" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357414
13574992014-03-31 00:21 27° 0' 10" N  79° 47' 9" W  View metadata report for BODC series reference number 1357499
Discrete samples 
41  CTD frame plus rosette samplerSalinity of the water column
Dissolved oxygen parameters in the water column
6  Instrument mooring