Last night Challenger completed another mile stone as she crossed the Tropic of Cancer for the second time since being deployed- however she quickly jumped back to the north as she followed the path of our final wing of the eddy sampling mission.
Over the next few days she will fly in towards the center of the fan for the last time before we throw the waypoint towards the shores of Brazil and begin making our final plans for recovery.
Looking above at the gallery for the currents today, there is a drastic contrast between what the models are forecasting. MyOcean is showing an overall flux westward throughout the entire water column that aligns well with the deep eddy that has been moving steadily to the north. On the other hand, RTOFS is showing an overall flux through all layers to the south east caused by the lower left rim of the warm core eddy at the base of our sampling scheme as it meets up with another eddy to our north- possibly the same eddy present in the MyOcean model.
Force Wind Sea & Honor