Looks like Hurricane Katia is going to thread the needle between the North Atlantic glider fleet. The National Hurricane Center track and 5-day cone has Katia staying to the southest of RU115 & RU16 deployed on the Mid-Atlantic Shelf. It then has Katia tracking to the north of Silbo in the deep eastern North Atlantic. While the tracks will miss us, we will still feel the waves. Right now the waves are causing concern for RU16’s recovery. RU16 just finished its incredible mission flying through Hurricane Irene as it tracked up the U.S. East Coast. As the Irene approached, RU16 flew from shallow water to the safety of Mid-Shelf where she rode out the storm, capturing the amazing mixing and cooling caused by the storm. With batteries running low, RU16 was turned inshore to repeat the transect into the coast to get the before and after picture of the sub surface structure. But now with almost no battery life left, we are facing the difficult decisions of how to recover RU16 with the waves of Katia coming ashore.
