Drifters and Floaters – One Ten East log

One Ten East Logs from the IIOE-2 voyage aboard RV Investigator will be posted on the WAMSI website during the month long voyage.
 
Log from One Ten East
The RV Investigator is currently undertaking oceanographic research along the 110°E meridian off Western Australia as part of the second International Indian Ocean Expedition. The voyage is led by Professor Lynnath Beckley of Murdoch University and the research is supported by a grant of sea time on RV Investigator from the CSIRO Marine National Facility.
 

Date: June 10, 2019

Time:  1200 AWST

Latitude: 22°S

Longitude: 112°E

Wind direction: SW 

Wind speed: 14 knots

Swell direction: SW 4-5 m

Depth: 4946 m

Air temperature: 22°C

Sea temperature: 25°C

Notes: Currently planning to tow the Triaxus for section 3, in a beautiful rolling swell.

 
Drifters and Floaters
By Joel Cabrié and Prof Lynnath Beckley
During voyage IN2019_V03 we have deployed 14 weather buoys in the south-east Indian Ocean for the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and the American National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Meteorological drifting buoys are autonomous platforms that are typically deployed from ships to collect and report basic meteorological measurements. These platforms, as the name implies, drift with the near-surface currents to help fill otherwise data-sparse areas. The style of drifting buoy that is deployed by most meteorological and oceanographic agencies is a spherical buoy (SVP) fitted with a holey-sock drogue that forces the buoy to follow the path of currents near the surface, from which an estimate of the Lagrangian current can be deduced. The Bureau of Meteorology use an SVP-B buoy which measures atmospheric pressure in addition to sea surface temperature and Lagrangian current. A SVP-B buoy is distinguishable from an SVP buoy by a small stub mast on top of the buoy that houses the pressure port.
The main deployment areas for the Bureau of Meteorology are the Indian and Southern Oceans to maximise the benefit to the Bureau’s operations, whilst the Tasman Sea benefits from buoys deployed by MetService, New Zealand. The Bureau currently maintains a fleet of between 25-30 buoys in the Indian and Southern Oceans as part of their contribution to the international drifting buoy program of around 1,450 buoys.

Prior to deployment, on the aft deck of RV Investigator, Dr Jessica Benthuysen (AIMS) holds the drogue, while Maxime Marin (PhD student University of Tasmania) holds the floating buoy of this drifter. Photo: Micheline Jenner AM.

 
On our 110° East voyage we have also deployed an ARGO float for Australia’s Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS). These robotic floats have revolutionized oceanography as they are capable of autonomously measuring the temperature and salinity profile in the ocean down to 2,000 m and transmitting this information back to base by satellite each time the float returns to the surface. There is a large international fleet of nearly 4,000 floats operating globally in all oceans providing vital information to oceanographers who monitor and model our blue planet. http://imos.org.au/facilities/argo/.
 

This schematic diagram shows the passage of an ARGO float as it progresses through its 10-day data collection cycle. Source: IMOS.

 
During our voyage we have also assisted our Japanese colleagues at the JAMSTEC agency in Tokyo by deploying two APEX deep ARGO floats for them. Remarkably, these round glass floats can monitor the deep ocean down to 6,000 m. However, just getting them to the RV Investigator was a complicated process as they had to be air-freighted from Tokyo to Sydney and then they crossed the Nullarbor on the back of a truck, making it to the Port of Fremantle just in time to be loaded on the RV Investigator! The first results from these floats are available at www.jamstec.go.jp/ARGO/argo_web/argo/?page_id=31&lang=en.
 

One of two APEX deep ARGOT floats deployed for the Japanese agency JAMSTEC. Photo: Karlie McDonald.

 
Be sure to follow the daily posts of our Log from One Ten East at https://iioe-2.incois.gov.in and www.wamsi.org.au

One Ten East Logs from the IIOE-2 voyage aboard RV Investigator will be posted on the WAMSI website during the month long voyage.
 
Log from One Ten East
The RV Investigator is currently undertaking oceanographic research along the 110°E meridian off Western Australia as part of the second International Indian Ocean Expedition. The voyage is led by Professor Lynnath Beckley of Murdoch University and the research is supported by a grant of sea time on RV Investigator from the CSIRO Marine National Facility.
 

Date: June 09, 2019

Time:  1200 AWST

Latitude: 19°S

Longitude: 111°E

Wind direction: S    

Wind speed: 24 knots

Swell direction: SW 2-3 m

Depth: 2278 m

Air temperature: 23°C

Sea temperature: 26°C

Notes: We are doing the second Trixaus section as we travel towards the North West Cape of Australia.

 
Celebrating World Oceans Day in the Indian Ocean
By Dr Jessica Benthuysen and Micheline Jenner AM
 
June 8th is World Oceans Day. First celebrated in 1992, World Oceans Day was officially recognized by the United Nations in 2008. Globally it is important to celebrate the vital role the oceans play, particularly in the light of current threats. Without oceans, life would not exist on our blue planet.
On RV Investigator, an international team of marine scientists comprising equal numbers of male and females is working day and night to understand the dynamics of the south-east Indian Ocean. This voyage is Australia’s contribution to the second International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE-2). The expedition is co-sponsored by the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) and the Indian Ocean regional alliance of the Global Ocean Observing System (IOGOOS).
Over the past 26 days we have been at sea repeating a line of oceanographic stations along the 110° East meridian across 30 degrees of latitude, that was last examined by HMAS Diamantina in 1963 during the first IIOE. We have measured chemical and physical properties and collected water samples down to 5,800m depth, which we will compare to data collected during the first expedition. Across every data stream, we have used the latest technologies to investigate organisms from microbes to mesopelagic fishes and megafauna, such as pygmy blue and humpback whales. In addition, we have also focused on bio-optics to ground-truth satellite observations of ocean colour in this oligotrophic part of the blue planet.
We are now en route towards North West Cape adjacent to Ningaloo Reef, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We are towing a Triaxus, which is an undulating platform with an array of instrumentation to investigate the Eastern Gyral Current, which feeds into the Leeuwin Current.
We celebrated World Oceans Day in anticipation of our team’s dedicated efforts over the last month making a lasting contribution to the understanding of the dynamics of this relatively small, but vitally important ocean, upon which more than a billion people depend.

After celebrating World Oceans Day with a sumptuous lunch in the marine-themed decorated Mess aboard RV Investigator, dessert comprised a beautiful and delicious sponge cake, decorated with a variety of marine biota. Photo: Micheline Jenner AM.
 

Cutting the World Oceans Day cake revealed the layers of the sea! The three coloured layers showed the optically clear shallow blue waters, the green, subsurface deep chlorophyll maximum zone and then the deep, dark waters of the chocolate layer, complete with flashes of bioluminescence from cake decorating silver balls! Coincidently, the green and blue are also the colours of the RV Investigator! Photo: Micheline Jenner AM.

After lunch, most of the students on board, who are assisting the Principal Investigators on this voyage, participated in a World Oceans Day “3-Min Thesis Competition”. From left to right, Aimee van der Reis, Maxime Marin, Camille Grimaldi, Daniel Cohen, Earl Duran, Cora Horstmann, Pramita Ranjit, Peta Vine and Danielle Hodgkinson. Photo: Micheline Jenner AM.

And the winner of the World Oceans Day “3-min Thesis Competition” is… Peta Vine (PhD student from University of Technology Sydney). Here Prof Lynnath Beckley, at right presents Peta with a unique, thimble-sized, shrunken styrofoam cup that has been down to 5000 m on the CTD. At left, is Dr Jessica Benthuysen (AIMS), who expertly organised and staged the competition for the students. Photo: Micheline Jenner AM.

 
Be sure to follow the daily posts of our Log from One Ten East at https://iioe-2.incois.gov.in and www.wamsi.org.au

One Ten East Logs from the IIOE-2 voyage aboard RV Investigator will be posted on the WAMSI website during the month long voyage. Log from One Ten East The RV Investigator is currently undertaking oceanographic research along the 110°E meridian off Western Australia as part of the second International Indian Ocean Expedition. The voyage is led by Professor Lynnath […]

One Ten East Logs from the IIOE-2 voyage aboard RV Investigator will be posted on the WAMSI website during the month long voyage. We have beautiful weather again today, but sadly we are seeing rubbish in the beautiful deep blue sea… – Captain Micheline Jenner  Log from One Ten East The RV Investigator is currently undertaking oceanographic research along […]