Wednesday 9 January 2008 à 17:17
Ready at last!
Stéphanie Pavoine. Based in Dumont D’Urville station
Today the day is dedicated to odds and ends, accompanied by a healthy dose of grease: we are setting up the laboratories.
Wednesday 9 January 2008 à 15:55
The oceans "skin"
Sophie Mouge. Correspondent aboard the Aurora Australis
Jamie, the Third Officer, profits from the day full of sunshine to practice using the sextant.
Wednesday 9 January 2008 à 15:44
Data for the Aurora Australis
Sophie Mouge. Correspondent aboard the Aurora Australis
Position of the icebreaker:
- latitude: 63°59.800' S
- longitude: 150°01.280’ E
Wind:
- direction: N-NW
- speed: 13 knots
Water temperature: 0.2°C
Air temperature: 1.6°C
Atmospheric pressure: 982 hPa
Relative humidity: 88%
UV-B: 7.2 W/m²
Water depth: 3,670 meters
Sunset: 23h11/ sunrise: 03h02
Wednesday 9 January 2008 à 13:54
Position of Aurora Australis
Sophie Mouge. Correspondent aboard the Aurora Australis
FROM: Martin Riddle
DATE: 09/01/08
REPORT (SITREP) NO.: 329
UNIVERSAL TIME: 0100
LOCAL (SHIP) TIME: 1200
AUSTRALIAN EASTERN STANDARD TIME: 1200
POSITION: -63 54S, 150 00E
HEADING: Various
CURRENT SPEED (KNOTS): 0 Kts
DISTANCE TO NEXT WAYPOINT (NAUTICAL MILES): n/a
DISTANCE COVERED LAST 24
HOURS (NAUTICAL MILES): 149.8 Nm
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Sunny with some low
cloud, good visibility, wind 15 kts from 335T gusting to 18 kts
AIR
TEMPERATURE: 0.8
SEA TEMPERATURE: 0.2
SEA CONDITIONS: Slight seas and low
confused swell 0.5 m
ICE CONDITIONS: Open water.
REMARKS: We have turned the corner on the main CASO sampling loop and are
once again heading south. As I write we are at the fourteenth of the 31 CASO
stations in this phase of the voyage and have completed the first two legs
of the CASO stations over the Antarctic continental slope and rise. The
first leg followed a deep canyon running from south to north that drains the
bottom water produced in the Mertz polynya region. We found clear evidence
that even now, in summer, dense water produced during the winter is spilling
off the shelf and cascading down the canyon. The southwards leg that we are
now doing, to the east of the Mertz polynya outflow, is a repeat of stations
occupied during the BROKE expedition in 1996. Here we are sampling bottom
water flowing west from the Ross Sea. In previous work, Steve Rintoull and
others showed that the bottom water of the entire Australian - Antarctic
Basin became lower in salinity between the early 1970s and 2001. By
comparing the bottom water properties on the different legs of CASO, we will
be able to determine, first, if the bottom waters are continuing to change,
and second, the relative contribution of the Ross Sea and the Mertz polynya
to changes in the deep branch of the global overturning circulation.
Regards, Martin and Sarah.
