According to MarineTraffic’s ship tracking service, the South Brazil Bight is the place to be. Over the past week or so now we have been monitoring the movement of ships around our brave glider and it has been a bit nerve racking to say the least.
Putting that nightmare aside, the results of the past week and a half of traversing eddies has produced something quite interesting:
Through the middle of that time period, lining up almost exactly where we were pushed to the south, there is a bulge of cold water rising from the depths. The thermal structure of the water column certainly looks like that of a cold eddy, which would match more closely with what the MyOcean model showed throughout that time period.
Now that we are through that event, Challenger has made her way close to the shelf at about the 500m isobath. From here, we will fly to the south parallel to the shelf for a few days before making our approach to shore.
Force Wind Sea & Honor