14:00 - 15:45
Present: Ric Williams1, George Wolff1, Brian King2, Elaine McDonagh2, Harry Bryden2, Ute Schuster3, Clare Postlethwaite4, Susan Leadbetter1 , Alex Gardiner5
1 - University of Liverpool, 2 - Southampton Oceanography Centre, 3 - University of East Anglia, 4 - Proudman Oceanography Laboratory, 5 - British Oceanographic Data Centre
Ric welcomed everyone to the meeting and the participants introduced themselves.
a) 26°N
The 26°N cruise was a success and potential issues to avoid on 36°N were reviewed. Harry presented a set of talks at the Challenger conference: the physical data, which has been worked on since June, look good and that most of the work was done onboard.
Ute reported that tCO2 has been setback due to instrument problems at UEA and a backlog of samples to be run on the machine (however pCO2 and alkalinity samples have all been analyzed). The instrument should be fixed soon and she is hoping samples will be run this month. Programs have been written so that final data can be calculated immediately. With regards to 36°N operations the time consuming part for Carbon and CFC will be tCO2 as it takes 0.5hr/sample to run. Brian suggested running 2 tCO 2 machines in parallel with 1 operator. Ute responded that there might be space problems on the Darwin , but that the workload would be the same as the new machines combine tCO2 and alkalinity. The kit will be on CROZEX and should be back in February.
The LADCP calibrations for 26°N were done to a good standard onboard and only some tidal corrections need to be done. Similarly most of the nutrient analysis for 26°N was done onboard.
The main difference between 26°N and 36°N will be down to the smaller size of the Darwin . However it has been done before and it is anticipated that, similarly to 26°N, most of the data will be worked-up onboard.
b) Helium-Tritium grant
Funding has been cut but the data are still needed so will still collect samples and a small grant has been submitted to NERC to fund preparation and a limited analysis by Ric and Clare. Susan, Harry and Brian are happy to help with the He-Tr work on the cruise. Harry remarked that the timescale of analysis for these data are crucial as the extraction itself is time consuming and then the samples are left to age for 6 months. Thus, need about 1 year in total to complete analysis. Clare has quotes from a lab in Bremen if Manchester cannot do it quickly enough. Ric added that Woods-Hole have not got back to him, so Bremen and Manchester are the only 2 options.
Action: Ric, Clare prepare bottles for sampling and liaise with Manchester and Bremen.
a) Cruise track
Presentation by Elaine about the cruise logistics. The preliminary dates (unofficial) are 29 April - 13 June 2005 , a total of 45 days from Bermuda to Lisbon . She stressed that this was all very provisional with the only definite being the Darwin . The proposed ship track was shown and discussed. It was confirmed that as it stands the track is suitable for flux calculations and inversion (the track goes up to the 200m isobath and station intervals are every 30 nautical miles or 50 km but decrease according to the slope on the boundaries).
© Proposed stations along 36N together with stations along 26N taken last year.
© Detail of proposed 36N section with annotated waypoints.
b) Timings
Elaine then gave a breakdown of the proposed section timings (Table 1) and pointed out that the cruise would take ~40 days with an extra 2 days for SAPS and another 2 for contingencies (total ~45 days). She also calculated that it would take an extra 4 days to extend the cruise south from G all the way past F to the African continent.
Table 1 : Timing of different cruise track sections.
Waypoint |
Comment |
Dist(nm) |
Stns |
Time(h) |
Ave Stns/24h |
A |
Bermuda |
|
|
|
|
B |
|
323 |
2 |
40 |
1.2 |
C |
|
251 |
17 |
93 |
4.4 |
D |
|
151 |
0 |
15 |
|
E |
Repeat B |
302 |
18 |
102 |
4.2 |
F |
|
2916 |
98 |
684 |
3.4 |
G |
End section |
77 |
6 |
32 |
4.5 |
H |
Lisbon |
110 |
0 |
11 |
|
Total |
|
4130 |
141 |
40d17h |
|
c) Personnel
The issue of personnel was raised. From the response so far 21 berths have been requested (Table 2), which is 3 more than can be accommodated. It was proposed to drop one birth from each team (physics, nutrients, CO 2 +CFC).
Table 2: Original berth allocation (3 more than possible) with shaded cells showing the proposed cuts.
1 |
Chief Sci |
McDonagh |
2 |
Phys/CTD |
Bryden |
3 |
Phys/Ship ADCP |
King |
4 |
Phys/LADCP |
* SOC PDRA |
5 |
Phys watchkeeper (He/Tr) |
* Liv PDRA (Susan Leadbetter) |
6 |
Phys/watchkeeper |
* SOC RA |
7 |
Phys/watchkeeper |
SOC |
8 |
Nuts/O 2 |
* Liv PhD (Mather) |
9 |
Nuts/O 2 |
* UEA PhD (Lesworth) |
10 |
Nuts/O 2 |
* SOC PDRA |
11 |
Nuts/O 2 |
SOC |
12 |
CO2 |
* Schuster |
13 |
CO2 |
UEA |
14 |
CO2 |
UEA |
15 |
CFC |
* Messias |
16 |
CFC |
UEA |
17 |
CFC |
UEA |
18 |
UKORS CTD |
|
19 |
UKORS CTD |
|
20 |
UKORS CTD/Mech |
|
21 |
UKORS IT |
|
Ute thought that they would be able to keep up, with no impact on the number of samples taken, with just having 2 people on CO2 and another 2 on CFC with 1 person to run in between. Personnel from UEA for cruise are: Marie-Jo, Ute, Noam Bergman, Pete Brown( student) and Gareth (technician). Discussion whether Phil Goodwin, a Liverpool student, can assist with the carbon and tracer work by UEA. Ute and Andy to provide feedback as to their preference.
Ric mentioned that there might be problems cutting back 1 person from nutrients as that would mean a PhD student would not be able to work on incubation sensitivities. However money is available to split the sensitivity/nutrient work over AMT and 36°N.
The personnel cut for physics might have an impact on SAPS according to Harry. The pump needs to be put on the CTD wire or another winch and so needs someone at deployment and recovery. George mentioned that a similar thing had been done on AMT so it should be possible. Brian thought there might be issues putting the SAPS on the CTD winch and will look into the possibility of using another winch.
Action: Ute and Andy identify who they want for the 5 carbon and tracer posts on the cruise.
d) Laboratory space
George mentioned that a laminar flow hood is not really required for SAPS.
Ute will look into bringing 2 containers depending on the space available on Darwin . Ute needs about 8x50L gas cylinders for nitrogen and 12x10L ones for air. Ute confirmed that she thought Marie-Jo was dealing with the baking out of seals (2 sets will be done at UEA and she will bring a vacuum oven on board to do some more). Lab space as follows:
- Container: CO2
- CT lab: Salinity, nutrients and oxygen
- Main lab: CFCs, SF6, physics, SAPS, atmospheric sampling
- Wet lab: He-Tr prep
Action: Ute investigate whether 2 containers are brought.
e) Sampling/water requirements
Salinity/nutrients/oxygen at every station
Ric: also add DOC component of 100ml(?) through the water column
SAPS 3hrs every 3 days
He-Tr: 300 samples (~13 full stations) coincident with SAPS
CFC+SF6: up to 72 samples each based on instruments running 24h/day
Harry thought that 72 were a lot of samples and that maybe 48 (i.e. every 2nd station) would be better.
Clare pointed out that it would be a lot better if He-Tr and CFC+SF6 were coincident and that one litre was needed for Tritium and 80ml (plus rinsing) for Helium.
Action: Elaine liaise with the programme to identify water requirements.
f) Freight and forms
Requests for diplomatic permissions need to be submitted by October and ship will leave the UK at the beginning of March (and UKORS need load estimates ~2 weeks before departure) so these are dates to keep in mind. Chemicals should be onboard in the UK as shipping them is difficult. However there is no guarantee the ship will leave from SOC.
Action: Elaine, request for diplomatic permission need to be applied for.
Action: All, address chemical requirements so can be loaded on the ship.
Alex will setup website for project, following the AMT template. Website will contain: science, logistical data, personnel, calendar, meeting minutes, contacts and links to other relevant research. Data are to be archived with BODC.
Brian asked about the possibility of Alex working on the cruise logistics/paperwork. Discussion about transferring some of the project support from Liverpool to SOC to address cruise preparation and support for the cruise report.
Action: Alex, develop web site. Ric, liaise with SOC and BODC with regards a funds transfer to SOC,
a) Cruise planning meeting
To be confirmed
b) Next full Consortium meeting
Elaine has this penciled in for January 2006
c) Timeline for making data available to partners
CTD (T,S,O 2 ) ~ 2 months
CO2 + CFC + SF6 ~ 6 months
Atmospheric ~ Thesis due October 2007
Nutrients ~ 2 months (inorganic and organic)
He-Tr ~ grant dependent + 6 months + analysis time
DOC ~ 6 months (will be analysed at SOC post-cruise)
Harry mentioned his plans for 'growing' 36°N project: a NERC studentship will be advertised and will get several MSc students started on projects. Ric has a RAPID grant in with David Marshall and Chris Hughes to understand heat anomalies in the North Atlantic and is viewing 36°N as a springboard for other work.
Action: Alex, Ric, Harry provide web links to other related projects.
Ute mentioned that Andy has talked about getting a studentship and that they have a student at the moment who might do some work on 36°N.
Harry suggested that as the WHOI line and station W is near 36°N it might be a good idea to take samples near the mooring.
Action: Elaine, Brian discuss link to station W.
Ric mentioned the LADCP that was lost on another cruise, which was the best instrument. Agreed that, as there is no time to test the remaining available instruments, spare LADCPs will be taken on 36°N.
Action: Elaine, Brian liaise with UKORS over LADCP.
Action: Elaine to liaise with the programme to identify water requirements.
Action: Elaine to apply for diplomatic permission.
Action: Elaine and Brian to discuss link to station W.
Action: Elaine and Brian to liaise with UKORS over LADCP.
Action: Ric and Clare to prepare bottles for sampling and liaise with Manchester and Bremen.
Action: Ric to liaise with SOC and BODC with regards a funds transfer to SOC.
Action: Ute and Andy to identify who they want for the 5 carbon and tracer posts on the cruise.
Action: Ute to investigate whether 2 containers are brought.
Action: Alex to develop web site.
Action: Alex, Ric, Harry to provide web links to other related projects.
Action: All to address chemical requirements so can be loaded on the ship.
© 2015 NERC.
Last updated: June 8, 2015
