Category: ru29 (Page 7 of 22)

Now at sea for just over a week, Challenger is continuing to fly strong as ever.  Just over 250km into the roughly 6000 km mission, the glider has been covering between 27-35 km/day while using a minimalist 2.16 amp hours/day.  At this rate, we should be able to squeeze about 350 days out of the battery packs as 29 weaves her way across the South Atlantic.

 With this afternoons surfacing, Challenger popped up roughly 5 km from Brazil’s exclusive economic zone, so early tomorrow when she next surfaces, 29 will once again be in international waters; the first of many mile stones for the new trans-atlantic mission.

Copernicus currents at 300m

For the past few days, 29 has been riding a nice tail current as she made her way down the eastern edge of a cold core eddy.  However looking at the latest surfacings, the currents reported by the gliders calculations have been showing the slowing of the tail current as we pass off from one eddy to the next as seen in the image above of the Copernicus forecasted currents for 300m depth.  In order to change the angle Challenger is flying at to catch the more favorable currents eastward, I moved the waypoint a few degrees to the north.  With this adjusted flight path, she will now take a more favorable path to the north of the cold eddy to the east as we fly over the seamounts that lie ahead.  Below is a path we hope to fly outlined in red as Challenger snakes her way through the terrain.

Force Wind Sea & Honor

Challenger is now 3 days into her mission to connect the shores of Brazil and South Africa as she completes the circumnavigation of the South Atlantic. This will be the longest leg of the mission, however our team is confident we are up to the task.

RTOFS Model of Surface Currents and Sea Surface Height

Based on our ocean model road maps and the bathymetry that lies ahead, we hope to fly a path similar to what is outlined below with the red line.  The figure below shows 29’s position as of this afternoon overlayed with the Copernicus (formerly myocean) ocean forecast data for roughly 350m depth.  The recent forecasts are showing the signature of a large counter-clockwise rotating warm eddy to the south west producing the strong northward push the glider is reporting in her calculations of the currents.  The way point is currently just to the North of the island of Tristan de Cunha well off to the South East, but combined with the eddy’s flux to the north-north-west the glider is flying nearly due east.

Copernicus Currents from ~350m depth

Looking ahead, Antonio provided us with a neat plot of the northward component of the currents of the South Atlantic.  In the figure below, red signifies northward components of the current while blue represents a southern flux.  There is an overwhelming overall flux to the north, however we will be doing our best to snake our way through the patches of blue and white as we aim for the southern edges of the counter-clockwise warm eddies and northern edges of the cyclonic cold eddies of the South Atlantic

Northward Flux of the South Atlantic at 450m June 26

We also must keep an eye on the bathymetry that lies ahead as there are some significant sea mount formations that we will encounter as we fly to the south east.  In the map below of the sea floor,  the black line depicts roughly the 1300m isobath.

Bathymetry of the South Atlantic

Finally, the following are pictures taken off the coast of Brazil earlier this week while Dr. Marcelo Dottori and his team deployed Challenger

Force Wind Sea & Honor

After a  long night of steaming out to the deployment location roughly 150 miles off shore of Ubatuba, Marcelo Dottori and a team from the University of Sao Paulo deployed RU29 at 5:46 this morning just past the 900m isobath.

After roughly a six month hiatus during which RU29’s hulls were brought back to the US to be replaced, Scott and Chip traveled down to Ubatuba towards the end of May to put the glider back together and run some initial tests while the glider was on land.  Then Marcelo and his crew prepared for a window of opportunity where they could safely get out to the deployment site and remain on location until a number test dives could be done to make sure Challenger was flying well before turning back to shore.  Dave was then able to run the deployment while remotely contacting Marcelo and controlling the glider from New Jersey.

So far the glider looks to be flying well and is 6 hrs in to a 9 hr mission to 1000m  during which she will complete 3 full dives.  Tomorrow we will update everyone further as we get more information back from our team

Force Wind Sea & Honor

Hey Guys

just a quick update as we head into the Thanksgiving festivities- Challenger was picked up off of the Brazilian coast by a team from the University Sao Paulo aboard the Alpha Delfini earlier this evening.  The operation was coordinated by David Aragon back at Rutgers and Marcelo Dottori from the lab at the University of Sao Paulo.

In the coming days, our friends in Brazil will work with Dave remotely as the glider is opened and the search for the cause of the leak commences.

Force Wind Sea & Honor

After roughly a day and a half at sea, Challenger reported back with one of the worst messages possible (second to no contact at all that is): an abort triggered by the leak detect.

Similar to the previous deployment in July out of Santos, RU29’s leak detect mechanism was triggered at depth resulting in the glider returning back to the surface to report on the matter.  David Aragon then spent a significant amount of time running tests on the glider resulting in the decision to turn the glider back towards shore.

29 will now spend the weekend weaving her way back to the North West, where early next week a team will depart from the University of Sao Paulo, recover the glider, and report back to us on the gliders condition so we can than make further plans from there.  But we will have more on that next week as the events transpire.

On another note, the images from the deployment of RU29 and USP03 are now online! Below are a select few but the full set can be viewed on our flickr page

Marcelo Dottori (U. Sao Paulo), Antonio Godoi (U. Sao Paulo), David Aragon (Rutgers), Chip Haldeman (Rutgers), Maisa Santos (Brazilian Navy), Scott Glenn (Rutgers), RU29 and USP03 in front of the Instituto Oceanografico, University Sao Paulo

Close up of USP03

RU29 completing a test dive

Force Wind Sea & Honor

As of 7:10am EST, Challenger is back on board the Alpha Delfino and is headed back to Santos once more.  Upon first light, the team, including our friend Marcelo Dottori were on location preparing for recovery.  Then after an hour and 40 minutes, they were able to pull her on board.

Once back on land, 29 will be transported back to the University of Sao Paulo facilities where she will wait for about a week until Dave can get back down to Brazil, diagnose the issues that lead to the leak, and hopefully get her back in the water.

Once again, great job team!

Force Wind Sea & Honor

As Marcelo and his team prepare to leave port once more, the team at RUCOOL continues to maneuver 29  towards the shores of Brazil.

The ship will set sail around 8pm tonight (7pm EST) and head south east towards the potential recovery location of 24˚55’S 45˚50’W.  This location however is not fixed and is reliant on the progress 29 makes through the night as she continues up the shallowing slope towards land.

Checking Marine Traffic, it looks like we are in a relatively safe area, far from any heavily trafficked areas.

Good luck to the team down in Brazil on the recovery!

Force Wind Sea & Honor

After a very rough ride out, the team managed to deploy Challenger last friday along the shelf break of the Southern Brazil Bight

Unfortunately, after the deployment the glider ran into a number of issues.  First of which being a software bug that we failed to catch and apply the fix to which prevented the glider’s iridium phone from calling back to the lab at Rutgers. The second being that on a dive to 1,000m, the glider suffered a minor leak which we believe was caused by the pressure at depth.

So now this hour of urgency, we have shifted the way point back towards land as 29 fights the Brazil Current and shipping traffic in preparation for recovery.  The latest plan is for our friends in Brazil to get back on a boat and sail out wednesday or thursday depending on weather to pull her back out of the water.  We will update with the latest details as they come in

Force Wind Sea & Honor