The Wire Flyer and the CTD rosette casting to a depth of 2300m were successfully deployed from the R/V Roger Revelle.
Greetings QUICCHE blog readers!
I am Nikita Qosholo, an honours’ student at the University of Cape Town (UCT). I still can’t believe I got the opportunity to be part of this amazing scientific adventure.
Just like a bunch of others on board, this is my first cruise. I am going to work on my honours’ project very soon and so this cruise is helping me with collecting the data and processing it.
Since the last update we’ve deployed one the coolest oceanographic instruments on the ship in my opinion, the Wire Flyer. Thereafter, retrieved one of our sail buoys – ‘Pimpim’, who was sailing in the ocean for only about 24hrs. She measures relative humidity, air temperature, wind speed and direction, surface currents, sea surface temperature, and salinity. The list is almost endless, which makes her pretty cool too.
We’ve now done a CTD rosette casting to a depth of 2300m just this morning, the 11th of March 2023. The head scientists have been analysing and processing the data from the instruments as it’s coming in, looking at satellite images to figure out where all the cool oceanographic features are, and then off we go to collect data from them.
I have been making lots of memories with some of the scientists and crew members on board. If I’m not working with data on Matlab or on my watch, you will find us up in the lounge playing card games and eating lots of snacks, especially popcorn.
I will now leave you with this picture of the Wire Flyer being deployed in the water. Her name is Luna, and doesn’t she just look like an adorable sunfish? To know more about the Wire Flyer click the link to this amazing paper: The Wire Flyer Towed Profiling System.