Fig 1. Thermocline depth field. N Atlantic. 24th june 11.

Fig 2. SSHa field. N Atlantic. 24 jun 11.

Buenos días a todos !

Firstable I would like to thanks the invitation to follow learning and enjoying with all of you, great team. Secondly, I would like to congrat the SIlbo launching team for his incredible job. Third, dont worry about this title, since it is only simple metaphore of this particular, and fascinant, ocean domain. We have largely fought with the NW Mediterranean convective cell since 2007. They are the queens of the non linear effects of the ocean.  We call them the EPIDERMIC PORES OF GAIA.

However, if there is an example in the ocean of the term –CONVECTION– this, the N Atlantic domain, is simply -the Area-.. Our  Gulf Stream (RU27 mission highway), transports the heat to this NE area amd liberates it to the atmosphere. It avoids a strong deplection of the Temperture (SWEAT). Otherwise the hole area would be permanently frozen (SST filed today in the Figure 1).

Fig 1. SST Fields (NOAA/MODIS) in the NE Atlantic. 24 jun 2011.

However, there is another second and critic effect. The cold water (more salted and dense) sunks iniating the thermohaline circulation around the hole global ocean, transporting heat and chemical equilibrium. Finally it surfaces at the end of the belt, in the gulf stream again.  The veins and arteries of Gaia. (BLOOD). (Salinity field today in Fig 2).

Fig 2. Salinity fields NCOM. NEW Atlantic. 24 jun 11.

And finally there is another additional effect. The surface topography deplects and the strong atmosphere – ocean CO2 gradients determine strong changes of the CO2 partial pressure. When the convective ceell is active (INSPIRATION, cold water in the middle, strong negative sea surface height anomaly), it introduces a great quantitty of CO2 in the ocean. When the convective cell relaxs like right now (EXPIRATION, warm water in the surface, small difference of the dinamic topography) this CO2 is trapped by the primary producers to convert it in biomass. For that, it has to be associated with the vertical mixing during the autumn-winter (high concentrations of nutrients in the upper photic  waters). Ther is another supply of nutirents coming from the  thaw (?) of the ice during the spring-summer leg. (SSHa field today in Fig 3).

Fig 3. SSHa NLOM field. N Atlantic. 24 jun 11.

This primary producers sunk (TEARS), transporting M and E to the deeper ocean. Look the incredible concentration of the potential future “tears” in form of phytoplankton blooms in this area. We have got used to work in the intertropical belt of the 3 oceans, so recording concentrations of chla arising to 34 mg/m3 is really shocking, but fascinant (Fig 4). I would imagine to silbo when dive-climb the epipelagic domain (100 m) feeling like “indiana jones in the middle of the forest cutting at right and left to follow on !!” (:)).

Fig 4. N Atlantic garden. MODIS Chl a fields. 24 Jun 2011.

In spite of the HYPEREUTROPIC character of the North Atlantic domain, the convection determines another imoportant point that it is really important for this mission. The pathplan designed for SIlbo sails W of any Regional Ocean Model Domain of Europe (Mersea, Eseoo, NOC, Myocean..). That means (nothing new under the sun), that we would have to fly Silbo with global models (hycom,..) only. Layered in z levels or non layered, they reproduced (soft some inconsitences) to be goods with RU17, 27 and Cook missions.

A convective area (the kingdom of non linear effects) where good and solids RegionaOceanModels forecasting  sometimes fails, will be an incognite. However, as Nielsen posted some days ago, the signal of the gulf stream flowing toward the right side of the Silbo nose will be intesive and clear. the first months… We would have to look for the eastern side of the warm eddies, or the western side of the cold eddies: Stronger gradients, better currents to the South. Considering all the points before I assume and run the risk to present this (figure 5). The TOTAL current field. We have a good cold signal S Silbo, and he can sail the W border to find S oriented currents.

Figura 5. Total current NCOM field. N Atlantic. 24 Jun 11.

Finally, as COOK and RU27, Silbo is heading a liquid meccano (sic) again. The dynamic topography is not very intense (-20 cm, +20 cm) But it seems to organize  as usual. Conforming an incredible liquid meccano of cold eddies sorrounded of warm eddies or the inverse. At different meso and submeso scales (fig 6).

N Atlantic Liquid Meccano. 24 jun 11.

As always, force, wind, sea and honor all, and thanks again to my incredible ULPGC team.

Antonio G. Ramos, Division of Robotic and Computational Oceanography,

University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

An historic day.

Today, June 23, 2011, is the first day at sea for the growing global partnership that has just embarked on the first phase of the Challenger Mission.  Followers from previous missions will know the history. It began on December 9, 2009, in Baiona, Spain, at the landfall celebration for RU27, the first underwater glider to cross an ocean basin. Rick Spinrad challenged the U.S.-Spanish partnership to go back to sea. To build even longer duration gliders.  To entrain even more partners and schools.  And to revisit the historic track of the H.M.S. Challenger, the first circumnavigation of the globe for science.

So today, after spending 2010 supporting the U.S. response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, we are back at sea on another long-duration mission of discovery.  This glider, owned by Teledyne Webb Research, is our first long-duration test flight in preparation for the globally coordinated mission we hope someday will include about 15 gliders simultaneously covering different segments of the H.M.S. Challenger’s track.

This time we have chosen a difficult route.  Instead of our usual east-west route where we remain in temperate waters, we are flying north-south from arctic to tropical waters. Our path is from Iceland to the Canaries, a distance of about 4,000 km.

Another difference this time – the students are distributed around the globe. They are stationed in Spain with Carlos, Antonio or Enrique, with us in the U.S., or with our new partners in Australia. Through student exchange programs, they are now visiting each other’s labs. Most of the pathplanning and blog entries for the next several months will come straight from these students, some of whom are now veterans of up to 4 previous long-duration missions.

A memorable moment in 2009 was when the student glider pilots chose Baiona, Spain for Ru27’s landfall. Their choice was based on Baiona’s history as the port where the Pinta first returned in 1493.  We were especially pleased when the students chose to nickname the present glider Challenger 1.  The name is a reference back to Hank Stommel’s science fiction story on the global Slocum Mission,

http://www.tos.org/oceanography/issues/issue_archive/issue_pdfs/2_1/2.1_stommel.pdf

where the first glider deployed by the students in the attic of the Bigelow Building in Woods Hole was named Sentinel 1.

So today, with this launch, the global mission envisioned by Hank Stommel, invigorated by Rick Spinrad, and made possible by Teledyne Webb Research, has begun. We hope you enjoy the ride.

From Scott and Oscar (Scotscar)

By the most of us wake up tomorrow, the team off Iceland will be at sea deploying the first leg of a global mission that will challenge and enrich us in ways we won’t know until the journey is complete.  The odds are stacked against our survival, so we cheer everyday we make it a bit further on our journey.  So before we, as a community, share the stress of choosing waypoints to avoid eddies, manage unknown sea monsters , and avoid the occasional intrepid sailor, we wish to toast our community.  Before going to sea, tradition calls for a big dinner with everyone to toast the journey to come and to celebrate before heading into the unknown. So tonight as we sit at our cyber table, we raise our glass.

We first raise a my glass celebrate our Jersey roots.  We  toast New Jersey, the toughest and most under-rated state of the union.  We salute our partners in arms in the COOL room with whom we have had the distinct honor sailing with for  20 years.  WE ESPECIALLY toast the Rutgers undergraduates and acknowledge this mission will be successful only by their diligence.  We are honored each day we can come in and work with them. We toast our families, that let us be crazy and nerdy lame. Also, we celebrate specific feelings that are specific to our homes in New Jersey, we pause to raise our glasses in the legacy of Clarence Clemons who will always hold a special place in the hearts of NJ.

Our second toast goes out to Teledyne Webb.  They have been partners since the late 1990’s and with them we have explored the coastal waters of the United States, crossed the Atlantic, explored the Southern ocean, navigated Arctic fjords, and responded to oil spill disasters.  Tonight we strap up the marine gear one more time and we could not be more honored for over a decade of shared adventures.  Our lives are infinitely richer with their company and for that we are happy.

Finally as we begin a global journey that will dominate our days for a year we salute and honor our partners in the  Canarias!  Since our first interactions, it was clear they are family.  May this journey strengthen our ties and we could could not be richer in a great journey with your company and expertise.   From us to you, we say, “force wind  and honor all”  May we celebrate with historic vigor in Las Palmas when the “bear is the igloo.”

Scotscar

6/22/2011