TROPICAL ATMOSPHERE-OCEAN (TAO) PROGRAM

Draft

CRUISE INSTRUCTIONS

FOR

KA-05-05 (GP5-05-KA)

August 25 – October 3, 2005

 

TAO Program Director

Dr. Michael J. McPhaden

PMEL, TAO Project Office

7600 Sand Point Way NE

Seattle, WA 98115

 

Area:     Equatorial Pacific

Itinerary:

KA-04-05          Honolulu, Hawaii            DEP      August 25, 2005

                        Nuku Hiva, Marquises     ARR    September 17, 2005        

Nuku Hiva, Marquises     DEP      September 20, 2005

Honolulu, Hawaii            ARR     October 3, 2005

 

CRUISE DESCRIPTION

General guidelines are contained in the TAO Program Standard Operating Instructions for NOAA Ship KA’IMIMOANA dated December 8, 2004.

 

Cruise Objective and Plan:

The objective of this cruise is the maintenance of the TAO Array along the 125°W and 140°W meridians.  The scientific complement for the cruise will embark in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 24, 2005.  The ship will depart on August, 2005, to commence operations as listed in Appendix A.  The ship will stop in Nuku Hiva, Marquises, on or about September 17-20, 2005.  After completion of operations, NOAA Ship KA’IMIMOANA will return to Honolulu on October 3, 2005.   All dates and times referred to in these cruise instructions are in Pacific Standard Time (PST).

 

 

MOP Operations:                                             TAO Operations Manager:

Larry Mordock                                                  LCDR Brian Lake, NOAA

NOAA/MOC-Pacific (MOC-P1x3)                       PMEL, TAO, R/E/PM

1801 Fairview Avenue East                                 7600 Sand Point Way NE

Seattle, Washington  98102-3767             Seattle, Washington 98115-0070

(206) 553-4764                                                  (206) 526-6403

Larry.Mordock@noaa.gov                                  Brian.Lake@noaa.gov

 

1.0        PERSONNEL

 

1.1        CHIEF SCIENTIST AND PARTICIPATING SCIENTISTS:

 

Chief Scientist:               TBA

 

The Chief Scientist is authorized to revise or alter the scientific portion of the cruise plan as work progresses provided that, after consultation with the Commanding Officer, it is ascertained that the proposed changes will not: (1) jeopardize the safety of personnel or the ship; (2) exceed the overall time allotted for the cruise; (3) result in undue additional expenses; (4) alter the general intent of these instructions.  A list of participating scientists follows.  All participating scientists will submit a medical history form and be medically approved before embarking.

 

Participating Scientists:

 

Name

Gender

Nationality

Affiliation

TBA

 

US

NOAA/PMEL

Sonya Noore

F

US

NOAA/PMEL

Tim Nesseth

M

US

NOAA/PMEL

Whiley Evans

M

US

Oregon State University

Julie Arrington

F

US

Oregon State University

Rois Langner

M

US

Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences

Monique Messié

F

France

Laboratoire d'Etudes en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiales (LEGOS)

Kendall Michel

M

US

SAIC/NDBC

David Parrett

M

US

SAIC/NDBC

 

2.0        OPERATIONS

 

Mooring Operations are scheduled to be conducted as shown in Appendix A.  Operations will be conducted from 09°N – 140°W to 05°S – 140°W and 08°S – 125°W to 08°N – 125°W.  The following mooring operations are anticipated, though the work may be changed by direction of the Chief Scientist, in consultation with the Commanding Officer.

 

Location

Mooring Type

Operation

Status

08°N 125°W

ATLAS

Recover/Deploy

 

05°N 125°W

ATLAS

Recover/Deploy

 

02°N 125°W

ATLAS

Visit

 

00° 125°W

ATLAS/CO2

Visit

CO2 Mooring w/ load cell

02°S 125°W

ATLAS

Recover/Deploy

 

05°S 125°W

ATLAS

Visit

 

08°S 125°W

ATLAS

Recover/Deploy

 

08.5°S 125°W

DART

Recover/Deploy

 

Nuku Hiva

 

 

 

05°S 140°W

ATLAS

Visit

 

02°S 140°W

ATLAS

Visit

 

00° 140°W

ATLAS/CO2

Recover/Deploy

CO2 Mods.  Moum microstructure expt.

00° 140°W

ADCP

Recover/Deploy

 

02°N 140°W

ATLAS

Recover/Deploy

 

05°N 140°W

ATLAS

Recover

Test mooring

05°N 140°W

ATLAS

Visit

 

09°N 140°W

ATLAS

Recover/Deploy

 

 

 

2.01      CTD

 

At a minimum, 1,000 meter CTD casts shall be conducted at each mooring site between 08(09)°N and 08(05)°S for sensor intercomparison purposes.  As time permits, additional or deeper CTD’s should be conducted whenever addition of the CTD’s will not impact scheduled mooring work.  For example, if the ship would arrive at the next mooring site in the middle of the night, it is preferable to do CTD’s on the way, rather than remain hove to waiting for daylight.  Another example would be when mooring operations are significantly ahead of schedule.  Beyond those at mooring sites, CTD’s should be conducted in the following order of priority:

·         1,000m CTD’s at one degree latitude intervals between 12°N and 08°S, along the ship’s trackline.

·         Extend 1,000m CTD’s at mooring sites to a minimum of 3,000m or a maximum depth of 200m from bottom.  Four to six deep casts are optimal, occurring at the beginning and end of the cruise as well as at both equatorial sites.

·         1,000m CTD’s every onehalf degree of latitude between 03°N and 03°S.

·         Additional calibration CTD’s to be determined by Chief Scientist.

 

The CTD Rosette should have 24 Niskin bottles available for use by ancillary projects.

 

 

2.02      Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) Surface Drifters

 

The Global Drifter Center at NOAA/AOML requests drifter deployments on an ancillary basis.  The drifters are small, easily deployed devices that are tracked by ARGOS and provide Sea Surface Temperature (SST) and mixed layer currents.  The global array of drifters provides SST ground truth for NOAA’s polar orbiting satellite AVHRR SST maps.  They also provide data to operational meteorological and ocean models, and research ocean current data sets.

 

AOML drifters are scheduled at the following positions: 

 

TBA

 

 

Craig Engler, NOAA/AOML

Global Drifter Center,

Tel: (305) 3614439

Fax: (305) 3614392

E-mail: Craig.Engler@noaa.gov

URL: http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/

 

2.03      Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) Argo Profiling CTD Floats

 

Ten Argo floats are scheduled for deployment on this cruise.   Individual deployment positions can be shifted by a degree or so along the ship track if more convenient.  Each float weighs about 56 lbs.  The boxes weigh about 200 lbs. full and are 82” long x 17” high x 23” long.  Boxes cannot be stored or transported on their small ends.   The floats are sensitive to high temperatures, so as space for a pair of floats becomes available on the computer lab rack, it will be desirable to move floats from the next box to the rack at the earliest convenient time.  A manual for float testing and deployment has been sent to the ship.  Float deployment locations are as follows:

 

Float number deployment positions will be determined prior to sailing by the Argo Program.

 

 

Argo float questions should be directed to:

 

Gregory Johnson, NOAA/PMEL              or                     Elizabeth Steffen, NOAA/PMEL

Tel: (206) 526-6806                                                                    Tel: (206) 526-6747

E-mail: pmel_floats@noaa.gov                                         E-mail: pmel_floats@noaa.gov

 

2.04      Discreet Gas Sampler

 

Whole air samples are cryogenically dried and pumped into glass flasks by an automated system in the computer lab.  Following the cruise, the flasks are returned to Princeton University for analysis by prepaid FEDEX.  Pairs of flasks are collected while the ship is underway at 08°N, 04°N, 00°, 04°S, and 08°S along the 125°W and 140°W lines.  Automated sampling cycle is approximately five hours.  It is anticipated that the Survey Technician will perform the maintenance tasks.  The Survey Technician will be shipping the samples back to Princeton University.

 

The contact for this project is:

 

Michael Bender

Princeton University

Tel: (609) 258-2936 

E-mail: bender@geo.princeton.edu

 

 

2.05      Dissolved Inorganic Carbon (DIC) Analysis

 

A 0.5 liter sea water sample from surface CTD casts will be taken and stored for later dissolved inorganic carbon analysis.  Sample jars and Scripps Institute of Oceanography will provide sample jars and mercury chloride solution.  It is anticipated that the Survey Technician, together with embarked scientific personnel will take the samples.  A small bench-top drill press is installed on the ship to assist with the bottle capping process.  Samples will be collected when the ship docks in San Diego, California.

 

The contacts for this project are:

 

Dr. Andrew Dickson                                          Dr. Richard Feely

Scripps Institution of Oceanography                     NOAA/PMEL

University of California, San Diego                       7600 Sand Point Way NE

Room 203 – Vaughan Hall                                   Seattle, Washington  98115

8675 Discovery Way

La Jolla, California 92037                                                           

Tel: (858) 534-2582                                                        Tel: (206) 526-6214

Email: adickson@ucsd.edu                                  E-mail: Richard.A.Feely@noaa.gov

 

 

2.06      TAO-CO2 Moorings

 

The carbon group at PMEL has mounted sensors on moored buoys within the TAO Array to provide high-resolution time-series measurements of atmospheric boundary layer and surface ocean CO2 partial pressure (pCO2).  These data are used to evaluate the temporal variability in air-sea CO2 fluxes and to assist in examining the mechanisms controlling CO2 fluxes.  The pCO2 systems will be replaced at 00° 140°W.

Project contacts:

 

Chris Sabine, NOAA/PMEL                                 Richard Feely, NOAA/PMEL

7600 Sand Point Way NE                                    7600 Sand Point Way NE

Seattle, Washington 98115                                  Seattle, Washington 98115

Tel: (206) 526-4809                                            Tel: (206) 526-6214

E-mail: Chris.Sabine@noaa.gov                            E-mail: Richard.A.Feely@noaa.gov

 

 

2.07      Nitrate N and Oxygen Isotope Analysis

 

At 00° 125°W and 00° 140°W, a 50-ml seawater sample from surface CTD casts will be taken and stored for later Nitrate N and Oxygen isotope analysis.  Sample jars will be provided by Scripps Institute of Oceanography.  It is anticipated that the Survey Technician, together with other embarked scientific personnel will take the samples. Samples will be frozen in the MBARI freezer and will be collected at the conclusion of this cruise in San Diego, California.

 

The contact for this project is:

 

Patrick Rafter

Scripps Institute of Oceanography – UCSD

9500 Gilman Drive

Dept 0208

La Jolla, California 92093

E-mail: prafter@insci14.ucsd.edu

 

2.08   Equatorial Box Project

 

Equatorial Box Project  (Behrenfeld)

 

            The overall objective of this effort is to utilize the mooring observations along the 125 and 140 TAO lines along with additional cruise measurements to define a 3-dimesional ‘box’ in which and through which inherent and advective properties can be defined and used as input constraints for testing and developing carbon-focused satellite ‘conversion’ models and coupled ecosystem-circulation models.  An emphasis during this 3 year project will be on characterizing mixed layer and euphotic zone properties, and thus much of the measurement suite is focused on samples collected by the ship’s flow-through system, thus minimizing impacts on ship operations and scheduling.  Additional discrete samples will also be collected from the CTD during scheduled casts.  Core measured variables will be: (1) variable fluorescence (using a benchtop Fast Repetition Rate fluorometer (FRRf)), (2) beam attenuation (using two beam transmissometers (553 and 660 nm)), (3) particulate backscattering (using a ECO vsf and ECObb), (4) particle abundance and size spectrum (using a LISST), (5) particulate Carbon-Hydrogen-Nitrogen analysis (CHN), (6) pigment concentration (HPLC & Turner), (7) macronutrient concentration, (8) dissolved organic carbon (DOC), (9) dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), (10) colored dissolved organic carbon (using an AC-9), (11) sample location (GPS), (12) downwelling surface solar irradiance (PAR) (using a Licor), (14) submarine irradiance (using a ctd mounted light sensor), (15) photosynthesis-irradiance measurements (using 14C), (16) profile inherent optical properties (with a deployable optics package), and (17) sea surface ocean color (using a hyperspectral TSRB).

 

(1) FAST REPETITION RATE FLUOROMETER/PRODUCTIVITY

 

            The FRRf measures variable fluorescence parameters in phytoplankton and provides information on photosynthetic performance.  The FRRf measurements will be conducted on flow through samples from the ship’s seawater system.  These measurements require approximately 1 L of seawater per hour.  The instrument is automated and requires no assistance from ship’s personnel.  These measurements will begin as soon as possible during the cruise and will continue to the end. 

 

(2) IN-LINE BEAM TRANSMISSOMETERS

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