Now with just 700 km between RU29 and the shores of Rio, and with more than 2 months until there’s even a hint of a chance for a recovery, we have sent Challenger on an eddy hunting mission.
As we mentioned previously, Antonio made a fascinating discovery of strong subsurface eddies reaching velocities of up to <30cm/s! Upon further inspection we found that there were actually a number of different eddy signatures in the area and so we set out to create a sampling strategy.
Over the coming weeks, we will take RU29 and fly the windmill sampling pattern through the area in order to take a look at the structure of the water column and see if the gliders calculation of currents supports or denies the claims made by the forecast models.
Looking to the forecasted currents in our area, both models are showing eddies that appear at depth that do not hold their formation all of the way up to the surface. In MyOcean, there is the well defined eddy that sparked our sampling scheme to our east but also a smaller eddy to the west that is visible below 600m. In RTOFS, there are two features of interest, the one eddy close by to the east that spans the entire water column being inspected, and to the west an eddy who we begin to see around 600m and starts to take shape by 900m.
Finally, yesterday at Oceanology International, Iridium announced their Sponsorship of the Challenger Mission, through which they will provide communication services to the Challenger fleet as the mission gets rolling. Read the official press release here
Force Wind Sea & Honor