I-COOL

Today we just took a look at some of the international institutions and programs we should be communicating with to share information throughout the mission.

1. GREENLAND: National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP)

Website: http://www.nopp.org/

About NOPP: "Through NOPP, the public and private sectors are brought together to support larger, more comprehensive projects, to promote sharing of resources, and to foster community-wide innovative advances in ocean science, technology, and education"

Contact: Leigh Zimmermann
National Oceanographic Partnership Program Manager
Email: lzimmermann [at] oceanleadership [dot] org
Phone: 202-448-1225

2. CANADA: Dalhouse University, Nova Scotia, Canada - Department of Oceanography

             Website: http://oceanography.dal.ca/

             Contact: Keith Louden, Professor and Chair - email: keith.louden@dal.ca

We will continue to search for partners and eventually send some emails to find out which partners are interested in obtaining information and data from us throughout the mission, and making it public through their websites and databases.

-Rachel, Nilsen, John, Connor, Sarah

As seen in the first photo, I mainly focused on the chlorophyll concentration for April 14th and compared that data to chlorophyll concentrations until April 20th. The second photo is a closer zoom in of RU-22's track, and the third photo shows the exact track of the glider circa the 14th.

This photo shows the temperature from April 14th until April 20th. Focusing in on April 14th, we see that the surface water temperature was fairly cold, however there was a warmer spot between 80 and 100 decibars. As the days went off (from the 15th to the 20th), the surface temperature warmed up dramatically.

This image shows the salinity of the water between the 14th and the 20th. Once again focusing on the salinity, we see a correlation between the increased amount of salinity between 80 and 100 decibars, where there was also an increase in temperature. This hot and salty water is due to water coming from the deep water onto the shelf. Now we will compare this all to chlorophyll.

Looking at chlorophyll, we see that the warm and salty had an effect on the chlorophyll. On the 15th, we had a massive bloom of chlorophyll. This hot and salty water has created a bloom before the chlorophyll had interacted with the cold surface water due to the influx of this hot and salty water from the bottom. We can also note that the chlorophyl interacts with the salty water coming from the bottom, which also brings nutrients as it comes from the deep up to the shelf, and the sun that is hitting right from top.

by Nicole Del Monaco

RU22

Information about the RU 22 Glider.

After looking up some graphs and data about RU 22, there are some interesting pictures showing different temperatures and densities that the glider picked up. One interesting fact is that the glider was able to pick up data that revealed the new spring blooms aside from the typical winter appearances on the data.

All data was received from Transect 1, which was collected from 4/7/2011 to 4/13/2011

Recorded on April 7th, 2011.

Some data RU 22 picked up. Notice the increase in temperature between the dates of April 9th and April 10th. This is an obvious sign that the new spring temperatures are impacting the temperatures of the water.

Data on Chlorophyll

Some more data RU 22 also picked up. The increase of temperature has lead to a notable change in the amount of chlorophyll. Even though it is not a major increase, this is a good start since Chlorophyll populations increase with the rise of temperature.

More data from RU 22. This data represents the salinity levels of the water where the glider traveled. There is an exceptional rise in the salt levels, especially when the pressure is near the 100's.

-Bronson George

On April 14, the Glider RU23 goes down from Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts and further down south from Montauk Point, New York. The Salinity map shows us that the deeper the water pressure is, the more salt that there is on the bottom of the ocean. The Volume Scattering data shows us that the deeper the water pressure gets, the less light particles there are and are scattered by the wind or the rivers.

                                                                    -Dinah Thomas

Here we have RU22's track:

Here is the density that the glider recorded from the 8th to the 13th of april:

This image shows that the density of the water is growing as it is moving away from the shore

Here we have the salinity for the same time

The salinity almost exactly matches the data for density.  This because the density of the water is influenced by how much salt the water has.

The temperature of the water:

Temperature also influences density but it looks like not as much as salinity, at least not at this time , when all the water is pretty much still cold.

Temperature plot of RU 22 running from 4/14 -4/20

Typical separation  that would be expected, 4/14 shows a huge temperature section towards the bottom. This section looks interesting so I compared the density and salinity and sound volume of that same day

Salinity plot of RU 22 from 4/14-4/20

That same section with a high temperature range on the 14th also has a high salinity, also showing a distinguishable halocline

Density plot of RU 22 from 4/14-4/20

The density correlates exactly with the salinity plot, showing the huge temperature section  is very dense and has a high salt count

Sound Volume of RU 22 from 4/14-4/20

The sound volume looks exactly like the temperature of RU 22, still identifying a huge mass towards the bottom on 4/14.

-Chris Gillotte

RU22 Transect 4

Volume Scattering Transect 4

RU22 Transect 2

Volume Scattering Transect 2

-On April 16th there was a huge storm, so we can expect that around that date there would be a lot of scattering in the water (caused by the mixing from storm).  In the image from transect 4, around the date of April 16th there is a high level of scattering. As it gets closer to the shore there is an extremely high amount. To compare this to a normal day, we can look at the scattering levels for transect 2, or the last time the glider was close to the coast.  In transect 2 when the glider gets closer to the coast there is far less scattering.

-Collin Dobson

Temperature

Salinity

The above images are data plots for the glider off of Africa from April 14th to 19th. The temperature graph is seemingly similar to the ones one would expect off of the Atlantic, but notice that the scale is different. The graph's temperature scale shown here is roughly three times as high as the one off of the Atlantic, high temperatures correlating with its deployment closer to the tropics. The salinity graph present puzzles me because usually one would expect to see more saline water towards the bottom of the ocean, but it's reverse in the image. My prediction about this event is that during these few days, the wind could've been causing a lot of upwelling, bringing more nutrient-rich saline water to the surface and bringing nutrient poor freshwater away from shore, which makes sense because the glider is currently close to shore.

-Oliver Ho

The mission is estimated to take about the same time as RU27's Atlantic Crossing, and we may be arriving in the Canary Islands around November or December. The weather will definitely be better for glider recovery this time than it was in Spain around this time of year.

Average Sea Temperatures: 72 F in November, 68 F in December. Also, the average land temperature is above 60 F in both months, and the lowest is pretty warm, 59 F in January.

There are some websites that have real-time wind information, which we can make use of when the glider is close to the canary islands. They may also have archived data, which we are looking into.

Jason, Anthony, Ben