The weekend progress in the Med continues. The nearshore glider has cut offshore. The offshore gliders continues its rapid cross-shore progress. Currents are moderate and the gliders are having no problem making no progress. The optical features encourtered yesterday continues. The CDOM levels are high in the bottom water. The particle loads are low but slightly higher in the surface waters.
We begin with a beautiful compiled image from Bob "bad boy" Arnone and his mighty NRL team. The image shows that chlorophyll is low. The image show an inshore current heading alonshore combined with an offshore the eddy. What is exciting is that the gliders show a similar bifuriciation.
The two Rutgers gliders are making good progress. They are split, and the interestingly they seem to have split right at a front given that the currents are different bewteen the two gliders. One glider is figting an onshore current in the offshore while a second is surfing with an alongshore current in the nearshore waters. The water is clear and stratified. The backscatter shows that the surface water has low but hugher particle loads in the surface waters. Interestingly, the chlorophyll does not show the increased load in the surface. One idea in our proposal with Chuck that funded this work was that submicron dust from the Sub Sahara might increase the particle load. Also it is exciting that the CDOM appears to be enhanced in the bottom waters below the thermocline. I guess it is time to learn the Liguarin sea! The radiometer is recording a beautiful day night beahvior in irrafiance, so it is very exciting we have confirmed using robots that the sun rises and the sun sets..... Guess that last observation makes me look like a loser!
John Kerfoot, Chuck "Boom Boom" Trees and local NATO collaboraters have deployed the gliders in the Med. They are making decent cross-shore progress. First thing to note, the Med has clear water!!!! We do see hints of particles and chlorophyll in the bottom waters as we move offshore. There is also a hint of CDOM. Both gliders are keeping a tight track together, as the pair head offshore.
Please forward this information to anyone that is interested...
Here are the links for following the NURFIT 2008 (Cinque Terre/La Spezia,
Italy) deployments that began this afternoon:
Cross-sections and last surfacing information:
http://marine.rutgers.edu/cool/auvs/?page=deployments
Detailed surfacing info:
http://marine.rutgers.edu/~kerfoot/slocum/devel/deployments
you can click on the individual glider for the entire deployment history as drop down menus.
Google Earth .kmz file:
http://marine.rutgers.edu/~kerfoot/glider_portal/google_earth/active/active_fleet_deployments.kmz
The proposed routes and the no-fly zones:
http://marine.rutgers.edu/~kerfoot/gearth/kmz/gliders/NURFIT-gliders.kml
Glider documentation:
http://marine.rutgers.edu/~kerfoot/slocum/doco/
Please let me know if any of these links do not work.
John
The tracking number for the shipment of gliders to Italy is
890016623
http://www.nationalaircargo.com/
