My last words came during the transit back to land, after an incredible journey in the Southern Ocean. Remember the high seas? the volcano eruption? the penguins? Do you remember the excitement for the deployment of the SOCCOM floats? Oh boy, out there it’s always an excitement, isn’t it?
Well, I’m sure you all remember that we didn’t completed the whole mission (see previous posts) and, hence, I couldn’t deploy the remaining 4 floats. I left them on board of the RV Investigator, though, secure, out of any danger (thanks Tom Trull for the precious help!!!). I left them there, as they will be deployed in 2 following cruises.. The first voyage is happening right now, and you can follow its route here (and even plot some cool underway data!!).
So… BIG NEWS!!!
The plan is to deploy 2 SOCCOM floats inside a couple of eddies south of Tasmania (Australia), during the first cruise. And: the first of these floats has already been successfully deployed and has sent the first profiles!!!!! GREAT JOB to the team on the Investigator, in particular to Pete Strutton (from UTas; see the picture below) and Tom Trull (from CSIRO). And, with Pete’s help, I have a surprise for the JW Middle School of Princeton:
Moby Dick the float waiting in the Van, before the deployment.. guarded by Pete Strutton
The students of the JW school named 6 of the floats they were supposed to be deployed on the cruise I was on. I think they will be very excited to see that, even if a bit later and in another location, their floats will still depart for their precious mission, no matter what. Moby Dick (or float #9631), named after Herman Melville’s masterpiece, has been deployed on March 31, 2016 at 147° 04.79E, 50° 23.23’S. Successfully it has already reported detailed oceanographic data to us, such as the following ones. Let’s hope Moby Dick the float will have a less dramatic life than Melville’s white whale and won’t have to battle against a fanatic captain.. ;-)
One of the first preliminary profiles of Moby Dick
If you wanna follow its life (and the the story of the many others that have been or will be deployed later) just check the SOCCOM website out!
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