Greetings all!
As we are getting ready for bed on the evening before Labor Day, Challenger is once again setting records.
First off, Challenger is now is now well beyond the southern tip of the British Ilses, and is deep into French territory. Second, when we wake tomorrow, Challenger will have officially have traveled over 2000km! Finally, the results are in from the buoyancy test from this past week, and the results are truly remarkable. Our brave little droid went .93 m/s, blowing the previous record of .61m/s well out of the water!
Today our discussion turned to the changing of Challenger’s way point. Antonio sent out some great figures showing that there was a strong flux moving to the east that we entered as of this morning.
Surface Current Field 09/04
This first figure is of the currents Challenger is facing at the surface showing a flow to the south east. What we want to do is to keep to the west of the red mass of velocity to our south. Once we make it past there, we will most likely move the way point back to the east.
Currents at 500m depth 09/04
At about 500m depth, the currents are now moving up against us going to the North.
Currents at 1000m depth 09/04
Finally at 1000m depth, the currents are moving to the East-southeast. To combat these currents and keep Challenger moving towards more favorable currents, we moved the way point just a bit to the west (from 2455W to 2655 W) to keep the nose pointed to the south until we get out of the Eastern flux.
Sea Surface Salinity for 09/04
I also just would like to point out the amazing imagery we have from the sea surface salinity courtesy of Antonio and ULPGC. Challenger is moving deeper into the outer most arms of the Gulf Stream, and looking at the Salinity it is very clear how the waters are mixing as the warm, salty water of the North Atlantic clashes with the colder, fresher water.
Finally, there has been some discussion about possibly running another experiment with setting the buoyancy drive to full to increase both vertical and horizontal velocity. As mind blowing as the results were, we must be careful with this new strategy of taking advantage of the favorable currents. First off, although it broke our previous speed record by 50%, it was also consumed quite a bit of energy so that must be monitored. Also we must be absolutely sure of what the currents are doing in order for it to be most effective. We have seen recently (especially with it being storm season) that the currents can change quite abruptly, and if we get caught in a change up that could result in the adjustment being useless. Keeping this in mind, we may use use our new trump card when the currents are most favorable and only sparingly in short stints.
I hope everyone enjoys the remainder of the holiday weekend!
Nilsen & Antonio