Tag: Nilsen Strandskov (Page 11 of 11)

So you know when you’re sitting by the phone desperately waiting for it to ring?  Hours and hours pass by as it gets later into the night and still nothing.  Sorry Mom and Dad… I think I finally know what I’ve put you through over the years.

Challenger 1 made it through its first 12 hrs at sea yesterday as it began making its way south.  However after its surfacing last night around 7pm local/11pm GMT, we lost communications with it until about 9 this morning.  Through my experience with gliders, not making contact for over 14 hrs usually isn’t a good thing.  The concerned feeling didn’t improve either after I checked the satellite coverage for the region.

[Back when I was working on the 27 mission, I devised an algorithm to make predictions on whether Scarlet would be able to call in.  Using Gpredict (top) I could track the Iridium Satellites that the phone in the tail of a Slocum Glider call in to with.  Combining the position of the satellites with the surface conditions of the water collected by the glider (middle) and the wave height forecast from oceanweather.com (bottom), I created a sort of Green, Yellow and Red light prediction method that proved to be pretty consoling when 27 wouldn’t call in on schedule]

Ben and our friends at Teledyne Webb then saved the day when they emailed us this morning explaining that everything with the glider is fine and that the reason for no comms was that the network and modem were down back home thus not able to receive Challenger 1’s call.  So the glider then continued on with the way point it had been previously given until its next surfacing time when it called in this morning around 9.   After making a few adjustments to try and conserve battery power as best we could, Ben punched in a new way point and set it on its way.

-Nilsen

Hey all,

First of all, we would just like to thank Scott and Oscar for the great dedicatory post from yesterday.  Second, this morning we received the email from our friends up in Iceland telling us the glider is now in the water.  At 1pm (9am in NJ), Ben Allsup of Teledyne sent us the email “The Bear is About” indicating the glider has entered the water.  The deployment crew consisted of Chris DeCollibus from Teledyne Webb Research, Alvaro Lorenzo from PLOCAN, and Arnar Steingrimsson of Teledyne Gavia.  They left from Grindavik, Iceland this morning and went about 10km south in the ship Oddur V Gislason.

After reaching an area where the depths came to about 130 meters, Challenger 1 was deployed and began running its test missions.  The first of which was a single dive to 100 meters and the second being a 4 dive mission expecting to take close to 4 hrs.  If these tests go well, the glider will be left in the water and will begin its journey south to the Canaries.  Our friends at Teledyne will be maintaining control of the glider through the weekend to make sure everything is in order, but next week they will be handed over to our team here at Rutgers.

Nilsen

Hey guys,

Well we are now within about 24 hours from the expected time of deployment of tomorrow morning off of Iceland , so I am going to give an overview of what the conditions currently are off of the western coast  so we know what Challenger 1 is going to be up against.

According to weather underground, current conditions are 52°F and partly cloudy with winds up around 9 mph.  Starting later on tonight there is a chance of rain through tomorrow.  This forecast matches nicely with the figure above on the left showing a storm system moving in our direction currently off the coast of Norway that will most likely follow the currents shown in the figure on the right.

To get a better idea of what the currents are doing here is a zoomed in picture of the western coast of Iceland with the hycom current model overlay:

Depending on the actual deployment site, after we get around the southern peninsula (which may require at first a way point to the North West) we will need to start heading south to try and avoid being swept too far away from our ideal path.

Looking at a bathymetry map of the shelf break off of Iceland, it looks like we are going to have to fly quite shallow for the first part of the missio, but after we get about 100km south, we will be entering some deeper waters that will allow us to fly much better.

This chart is a cross section showing the depths going north(left) to south(right) along the line drawn on this map:

That is all for now, but we will have an update on what’s going on by tomorrow.

-Nilsen

Hey All,

Well, we are back! After 27’s successful Trans-Atlantic Crossing in 2009, we are now going to attempt to go north to south across the Atlantic departing soon from Reykjavik, Iceland and going to the Canary Islands via the Azores.  This mission will be a collaborative effort between Rutgers and PLOCAN (Canary Islands Oceanic Platform) to pilot a Slocum Glider while collecting Salinity, Temperature and Depth along the treacherous journey.  27’s mission took 221 days, or a little over 7 months to go the 7,389 km from New Jersey to Spain.  Silbo, the glider that will be used for this voyage, will have to go an estimated 4,000.  Although a shorter distance, Silbo will be faced with a number of challenges including having to go from the frigid waters near the arctic to the balmy waters of the tropics, fighting currents during most of journey, dodging the traffic over very popular fishing and shipping lanes, and of course trying to avoid the biology the best we can.

Over the second half of this past spring semester, the Atlantic Crossings class taught by Professors Scott Glenn, Oscar Schofield and Josh Kohut spent their time doing reconnaissance work on the conditions we are to explore.  Silbo will be starting his mission before the end of this month, Leaving Reykjavik, Iceland and going south towards the Azores and finally heading to the Canaries.

Within a week,  Silbo (a Slocum Glider), will be deployed off the coast of Iceland and start its journey towards the Canary Islands. Average temperatures in Iceland are anywhere from 0-11°C. The current five day forecast is rather stabile, minor fluctuations of temperatures from 9-13°C (48-55°F) with scattered periods of clouds, a good sign that we won’t be in for any surprises. Although there could be trouble down the road; the east coast of the United States is predicted to have a series of thunderstorms on the way. As a result of Iceland being in a low pressure area and knowing that gyres move in a clockwise pattern, that means the storm may eventually arrive in Icelandic waters. Just as storms altered the course of RU27, this storm could also batter Silbo around, or even possibly delay her deployment, but as of right now Iceland has no heavy cloud cover overhead.

The density range specified for the glider is +/- 4 km/m³.  In order to see if this would be possible with the Iceland to Canaries track, density calculations were made for 4 different sites along this track.  All of these locations were found to have differences within the specified range, meaning that the glider should be good to go. (Chris, Abe, Dakota)

Another concern that we always have when we put a glider in the water is the possibility of being struck by something.  From where we are leaving out of Iceland, a major concern we had was possibly running into sea ice/ice bergs.  However, due to the summer heat, the ice has receded far from where Silbo’s path will take it, thus reducing this risk quite a bit

We are also very concerned with the possibility of being struck by any ships in the area.  Taking a blow from the hull of a ship will mean game over for Silbo, so we will need to keep a close eye on where ship traffic is heaviest (Emily, Dave, Mario, and Drew)

The battery life of this glider was taken into serious consideration because of the obstacles to overcome along the way.  Silbo will be hit with several currents that will test the battery life of the glider.  The first of these currents is the North Atlantic Drift located off the southern coast of Iceland, which is said to be “sluggish” and not categorized as a stream-like current. (Dan)

The North Atlantic Current will come next which travels Northeast, the exact opposite of the track the glider will be trying to fly in.  Fighting these currents could use up battery life more so than currents seen with RU27.  RU27 was helped out by the flow of the Gulf Stream, in the Iceland to Canaries flight we will be flying against these currents.

The last current we will encounter along this journey is the Portugal Current system located off the coast of Portugal.  This current flows south towards Portugal, a direction we will not want to fly in considering the high boating traffic in this region. (Shannon Jess and Kat)

Another battery-killing obstacle will be the changes in water temperature the Silbo flight will see, another new obstacle not seen in RU27’s flight.  The temperatures at the beginning of the mission around Iceland are cold, which run down battery life more so than flying in warm waters.  Because of this initial battery loss, we will be trying to fly into warm waters as soon as possible. (Dan)

We will be faced with the same biological obstacles as 27’s flight such as remoras, gooseneck barnacles, sharks and whales.  Silbo was not coated with any chemicals to ward off animals so barnacles and remoras could still try to attach themselves to the glider and nothing can be done about sharks and whales trying to eat or play with the glider. (Bill and Kristin)

The students that will be involved with Silbo’s mission are Lindsay, Oliver, and Nilsen from Rutgers, and Ruben Marrero Gomez and Juan Alberto Gonzalez Santana from the Canaries.  Lindsay is an intern at Rutgers University this summer from NC State University majoring in Biological Oceanography.  Oliver is a sophmore studying marine science at Rutgers.  Nilsen has been involved with the COOL Room for 4 years now and is going into his 5th year finishing up his BS in Biological Oceanography.

Lindsay, Oliver, and Nilsen