RRS Discovery D291B
Cruise summary report
| Cruise Info. | |
| Ship name (ship code) | RRS Discovery (74E3) |
| Cruise identifier | D291B |
| Cruise period | 2005-03-23 — 2005-04-10 |
| Status | Completed |
| Port of departure | Durban, South Africa |
| Port of return | Cape Town, South Africa |
| Purpose | Research |
| Objectives | Our objectives were threefold:
1) To obtain full-depth CTD casts at 16 mooring sites for calibration of the mooring instrumentation 2) To recover the moorings, which had been deployed in 2003 3) To obtain additional mesoscale survey data that will help us interpret the mooring data We began our cruise at the southern edge of the Agulhas Current on the heels of cruise D290B, making our first observation at approximately 34° 46.5427'S, 25° 32.2214'E. A successful XBT transect of the Agulhas Current and Agulhas Return Current (approximately 48 hrs in duration) was obtained despite unsatisfactory performance from a box of XCTDs. This transect took us southwest to 40° 51.2069'S, 21° 29.5954'E. Rough weather lost us a bit of time in transit to our next leg, however we still managed to obtain a very interesting feature survey of a recently shed Agulhas Ring as we steamed westward toward our moorings. This leg lasted approximately 3 days. Our southernmost mooring was located at: 39° 14.4413'S 11° 18.8885'E and once we reached it we followed the feature survey with a mixed mooring calibration/recovery leg which lasted approximately 8 days. No major problems were encountered and all gear was recovered successfully. In the middle of this leg a second small feature survey was undertaken which lasted approximately 28 hours. After the mooring recoveries, the last of which took place at 31° 57.4046'S, 15° 48.7603'E, we completed a pair of shelf transects across the Benguela upwelling system and thence steamed back to Cape Town where we unloaded our gear for shipment home. |
| Chief scientist | Deirdre A Byrne (University of Maine School of Marine Sciences) |
| Ocean/sea areas | |
| General | Indian Ocean South East Atlantic Ocean (limit 20W) |
| Track charts |  (0.05 MB) |
| Measurements | |
| Physical oceanography | |
| CTD stations | Quantity: number of profiles = 55 Description: Vertical. |
| Other physical oceanographic measurements | Quantity: number of profiles = 86 Description: Vertical. |
| Chemical oceanography | |
| Oxygen | Quantity: number of profiles = 43 Description: Vertical. |
| Moorings, landers, buoys | |
| Physical oceanography | |
| Current meters | 32° 39' 50" S 15° 25' 11" E — |
| Current meters | 37° 24' 57" S 12° 32' 49" E — |
| Current meters | 34° 49' 10" S 14° 10' 14" E — |
| Current meters | 33° 46' 19" S 14° 47' 17" E — |
| Other physical oceanographic measurements | 38° 42' 0" S 11° 41' 18" E — |
| Other physical oceanographic measurements | 37° 39' 48" S 12° 23' 4" E — |
| Other physical oceanographic measurements | 37° 7' 6" S 12° 44' 25" E — |
| Other physical oceanographic measurements | 36° 34' 20" S 13° 5' 24" E — |
| Other physical oceanographic measurements | 35° 25' 33" S 13° 48' 14" E — |
| Other physical oceanographic measurements | 34° 49' 54" S 14° 9' 48" E — |
| Other physical oceanographic measurements | 34° 7' 25" S 14° 34' 59" E — |
| Other physical oceanographic measurements | 33° 25' 12" S 14° 59' 28" E — |
| Other physical oceanographic measurements | 31° 57' 24" S 15° 48' 45" E — |
| Other physical oceanographic measurements | 34° 49' 10" S 14° 10' 14" E — |
| Other physical oceanographic measurements | 35° 58' 29" S 13° 27' 55" E — |
| Other physical oceanographic measurements | 39° 14' 26" S 11° 18' 53" E — |
| Other physical oceanographic measurements | 38° 9' 27" S 12° 3' 21" E — |
