Category: ru29 (Page 19 of 22)

As Silbo slinks forward in the slow moving waters of the western side of this cold counter clockwise rotating eddy, he inches closer to a ledge that will lead to a strong southern current as we enter the realm of the clockwise warm eddy- the first currents flowing to the south since October.

Silbo has been fighting for almost 4 months now trying to find his way across the northern flux we found in the central Atlantic, but all that work has amounted to the southern flux we hope to find on the edge of this eddy.  If the signal seen in the model is true, this eddy may be what carries us to the south and close to the equator, but more importantly Brazil!  By the end of this mission, Silbo will have blown past Ru27’s record of 220 days at sea (we are currently on day 203) and will be ready for much needed rest and tune up.  Best Wishes Silbo!

In the South, Challenger is continuing to push on to the North as we follow our way point towards the eddy to our north west:

With this way point, we hope to fly a similar path to that drawn on the figure above, snaking our way along the northern brim of the warm eddy and out to the west along the adjacent cold eddy.

The most important point of this path is that it keeps us away from the second eddy to our north.  If we were to get caught in this eddy, we would be in trouble as we would get pushed by the current across state lines into the waters of Namibia.  Luckily, Dave has confirmed that we can fly both north and west directions well so following this path should not be a problem.

Speaking of the tests Dave has run, in today’s update, he reported on a number of things including the energy consumption of diving deep.  Now this is important because we are trying our best to avoid the highly productive waters off of South Africa.  We want this because Challenger has a very long journey ahead of her and we have already run into complications as it is.  The last thing we need is to get bogged down by critters growing on her hulls and slowing her down.

By diving between 200-1000m, we would increase our energy consumption by roughly 10% while keeping ourselves in waters below 15˚C and out of solar radiation – two key factors in our biological issues.

Force Wind Sea & Honor

Hey All!

So our gliders are continuing to push along their path to cross the Atlantic.

To the north, Silbo is continuing to force his way down the up escalator as he flies down the western side of the warm clockwise spinning eddy to his east.  Due to this eddy, Silbo has seen a steady flux to the North West over the past few weeks.  However, we are now just 100 km from the bottom of the eddy, where Silbo may finally see favorable currents for the first time since the inspection back in early October!!

To the south, Challenger is continuing to glide to the North as she encounters the western flux from the counter clockwise rotating warm eddy to her north west.  With the current way point, we are hoping that the location of the currents will work in our favor allowing us to turn west with the eddy (below the second eddy to the north) and crossing to the west before heading north.  This provides us with a safe route onwards north without coming close to the EEZ of Namibia.

Force Wind Sea & Honor

Well it has now been 200 days since Silbo was deployed off of Gran Canaria back towards the end of July of this last year.  Since then he has flown over 3400 km along his treck traversing the Atlantic Basin moving further up the ladder of the VIG club.

As for our situation with the eddy, Silbo is continuing to see that northern flux from the cold eddy to our west, but we hope soon to begin to see a southern signature from the warm eddy to our south west.

As for Challenger to the south, she is continuing to push onwards and upwards as she flies to the northwest towards our waypoint.  She has been flying well as she keeps her speed above 10 km/segment on 3 of her last 4 surfacings.  I will update tomorrow with the updated currents and forecast.  But for now, below is an image from Chip of Challenger’s path with an overlay of the bottom temperatures seen.  From this we can see pretty clearly where we began diving down to 1000 m as the temperatures quickly turn from red/orange/yellow to deep blues.

Force Wind Sea & honor

All Quiet on the Eastern Front- relatively speaking when compared to what is happening on the western side of the Atlantic

As many of you know Winter Storm Nemo is currently pummeling the North East of the US, where some places may see up to a meter of snow!  As of right now in Towaco NJ I have about 8 inches/20 cm and there are no signs of it slowing down in the near future.

But back to the central and southern Atlantic, both gliders are continuing to push onwards.

Now that we have completed Challenger’s steering tests and fine tuning, we have found a favorable heading and are now trying to see how fast we can fly so we can judge how  far we can go in a given amount of time.  This ball park number will then be projected over our options as to how we will follow on in the planning of the rest of Challenger’s Flight.  Looking now, we can see the strong field of eddies shooting off of the cape and headed due west towards the central Atlantic while the currents are more tame to the north.

MyOcean Currents + SSH

On the other side of the equator, Silbo continues to fight with the head current.  Below I have plotted an image of the V component (north south) of the currents for Silbo’s region.  From here, we can see that we are still on the cusp of the eddy that is creating the northern flux, however Silbo is beginning to close in on that dark blue signature to the south that resembles a strong southerly flux.

Silbo NCOM V component Field Feb 8 2013

Force Wind Sea & Honor

Hey All!

So today Dave ran a few more tests with Challenger in an attempt to diagnose our compass and steering problems.  These tests included adjusting the pitch over three one yo segments to a depth of 500m. After running the tests, we sent her on her way to the north west diving with the pitch to 26˚ (the most favorable settings based off of the tests run today).

1000m Averaged Currents + Sea Surface Height

Looking to the ocean models overlayed with the depth average currents, it still shows that we should be on the southern cusp of a cold eddy which should be propelling us forward.  However, Challenger is continuing to record currents flowing to the west.  The image below from Antonio seems to more accurately depict what is going on:

we hypothesize that there may be smaller eddies along the edge of the eddy shown in the model, resulting in the weak west-southwest currents we have been feeling instead of the strong flow to the west that the model shows. Tomorrow we will continue our discussion as to where we will go from here with Challenger and her mission to cross the Atlantic.

Looking to the North, Silbo continues to make slow progress as he flies the western side of a cold eddy:

Its been a long, hard battle, but Silbo is continuing to battle his way through.  Now, nearly half way through splitting this current, Silbo still has close to a week of fighting this current until there is the potential to see a southern flow from the south eastern side of the large warm eddy.

Force Wind Sea & Honor

Hey All,

First off I would just like to congratulate the Baltimore Ravens and Rutgers Alum Ray Rice on their Super Bowl Victory Last night!  But before the clash for the Lombardi trophy began, another team kicked into action as we had a quick discussion on Ru29.

Challenger continues to have some issues steering due to a quirky compass, but after some discussion, I submitted a new way point further out west right before the glider surfaced and just in time to see the game.  This new way point will allow us to chase down the chain of eddies shown in the NASA imagery from a few days ago that will carry us towards the equator and into a more favorable magnetic field.

As Challenger turns towards the North West, I also created a new map of the bathymetry that lies ahead with the help of GeoMapApp.

Looking forward, there is a very extensive mountain range with some peaks reaching to 200m from the surface.  On the map above, black depicts depths of >1000m while color is below.  As we make progress towards the way point, we must keep an eye on this map as to prevent from running Challenger into the highlighted sea mounts.

Sea Surface Height + Surface Currents

With the images above and below of sea surface height with surface currents (above) and 1000m depth average currents (below) we can see that we are currently flying across a front between warm and cold eddies, which may be what is resulting in the currents we have been seeing flowing to the south/southeast/southwest.  As of the last surfacing, we had a strong head current, however we seem to have flown a little better as we covered just over 6km vs the 3.5 of the previous segment.

Sea Surface Height + 1000m Depth Average Currents

The head current should only persist for the next day or so, nonetheless if it continues longer than that, we may consider a change in the way point.

To the North, Silbo is continuing to fly head on into the consistant North East current.

Luckily, the eddies continue to show that they are migrating to the west along with the gyre, so soon we should be leaving the grips of this unfavorable current.  Within the next week or two we may even see currents flowing to the South West!  It will be nice for Silbo to experience a new landscape after this dessert he has flown over the past months.

Force Wind Sea & Honor!

Hey All!

So this weekend, Silbo took another step in the V.I.G. club breaking the barrier and recording his 9,000 km since deployment off of Iceland!

Over three deployments beginning in June of 2011, Silbo has spent 433 days (and counting) at sea pushing the limits of the Slocum glider and collecting valuable flight data that is being applied to the Rutgers Gliders that will be used in the Challenger mission, including RU29: Challenger.

And as we have seen a number of times through our experience with Silbo, sometimes our ocean models fall short and do not have a high enough resolution to show us the whole picture of what he oceans are doing.

For example, right now we are flying between a warm and cold eddy which the models show creating a jet shooting out to the northwest. However Challenger is feeling the effects of a current going to the south east.  This combined with the way point to the North, results in Challenger flying due north but making very little progress.  We will discuss a new waypoint and try and make our way out west.

Enjoy Super Bowl Sunday Everyone!

Force Wind Sea & Honor!!

Hey All!

Well it’s official, Challenger has crossed into international waters!!! On the last surfacing, Challenger pushed forward to fly 450km allowing us to finally cross our boundary.  Now we can focus further on setting ourselves up to jump from eddy to eddy on our way to Fortaleza Brazil without worrying about crossing another countries property

Speaking of chasing the eddies, we will continue to fly Challenger to the North West as we move into position to follow the stream of eddies that pours out of the Indian and follows the South Atlantic Gyre to the North West.

By jumping from eddy to eddy in this fashion, we should be able to work our way up towards St. Helena and Ascension Islands on our way towards Brazil.

Looking at the eddies in our vicinity, it looks like we should be having currents more to the north west, however we continue to record currents flowing nearly due south.  Tomorrow I will try and create an image of the depth average currents to see if there are any subsurface currents that may be harmful to our mission.

Today we also ran a steering test, in which we adjusted the gain values to try and beter utilize the fin.  The gains were also adjusted on low power mode, that way when the computer turns on after sleeping for 30 seconds, it doesn’t immediately jump unless there has been a drastic change in direction.

Silbo is continuing to feel the steady north western flux of the north eastern edge of the cold eddy.  As slow as silbo has been moving due to this situation, it is looking more and more as if the large warm eddy to the south may come to the rescue.  As each day passes, it seems this eddy pushes closer, resulting in the cold eddy becoming over powered.  Hopefully within the next couple days, this eddy will become completely irradiated and Silbo will see currents moving to the south for the first time since the second week in October!

Force Wind Sea & Honor!