Project details
Title: | Core Argo floats |
Id: | 2488 |
Investigator(s): | Peter Oke
CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere - Hobart [details] Beatriz Pena-Molino CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere [details] |
Description: | The international Argo program is the largest coordinated effort to monitor the subsurface oceans (http://www.argo.ucsd.edu/About_Argo.html). Argo is a highly regarded, international program that measures the changing ocean temperature (heat content) and salinity with profiling floats distributed throughout the ocean. Since its inception Australia has been one of the leading partners in the program, deploying and maintaining about 10% of the global array. Argo Australia is a joint project between CSIRO’s Oceans and Atmosphere, the Bureau of Meteorology, the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership (AAPP), Australia’s Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) and the Royal Australian Navy. CSIRO manages procurement, deployment and data processing and distribution of all Australian floats in collaboration with our domestic and international partners. |
Years: | 2019 |
List of surveys that this project was on. Click on column header to sort.
Use [details] link to view survey details (map, reports, metadata etc) including links to download data.
Survey | Investigator | Description |
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IN2023_V01 [details] |
Alix Post (GA) | This study has two main scientific objectives: i) to understand past changes in Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) production using long sediment cores from the continental slope over multiple warm periods during the Pleistocene; ii) develop an improved bathymetry model to support oceanographic modelling of AABW pathways. Sediment core records of previous warmer interglacials will provide an analogue for understanding the impact of any future changes in bottom water production associated with a warming climate. This project will recover long sediment cores from the shelf and slope off Cape Darnley to provide palaeoceanographic records over multiple glacial-interglacial cycles, including previous interglacials when Antarctic air temperatures were 2 to 4.5°C warmer than today. A multi-proxy approach, combining sedimentological, geochemical and biological proxies, will provide evidence of the nature and timing of past changes in AABW formation, and associated variations in meltwater input, and the extent of the Cape Darnley polynya. AABW has previously been associated with unique and diverse benthic ecosystems, including hydrocorals. We will investigate the presence and distribution of hydrocorals, and, if present, analyse their carbonate skeletons to understand past water mass variability over recent centuries, complementing the sediment core records. |
IN2022_V06 [details] |
Chris Chapman | This voyage will recover an array of six full-depth current meter and property (temperature, salinity and pressure) moorings from the continental slope to the abyssal waters off Brisbane (27oS). The observing system is designed to capture the mean and time-varying flow of the EAC. We will undertake biological and oceanographic sampling, using CTDs, Triaxus tows, SADCP, to characterise the shelf waters off the Stradbroke NRS, and to sample dynamic, ephemeral frontal eddies flowing down from Fraser Island and shelf – boundary exchanges. These observations will enable us to discover the spatial and temporal variability of shelf water and plankton around the Stradbroke Island National Reference Station (NRS) mooring (Canyon monitoring). The data from the EAC mooring array and other oceanographic sampling are essential for understanding, at the regional to global scale, the role of boundary current in the climate system, and, at the local scale, simulating cross-shelf flows, upwelling, and frontal eddy formation. These local-scale processes have a fundamental impact on nutrient and phytoplankton concentrations and therefore far-reaching effects on annual fisheries productivity and coastal shark interactions along the eastern seaboard. We will undertake CTD/02 and nutrient samples, numerous Triaxus and ship ADCP sections across the EAC mooring line and across the shelf-EAC. These surveys will includeTriaxus/SADCP lines in the area between 28oS and 26oS. These operations will occur in between the mooring operations and at the completion of the mooring operations. We will deploy 2 Standard Argo floats during the voyage. Should time allow, we will conduct hydrographic survey of a “superproductive” Richmond submarine canyon between the Gold Coast and Byron Bay. We will undertake a long sub-bottom profiler section in this region in order to identify future coring sites for paleoclimate studies. We will use the 36-bottle rosette with the lowered ADCPs (150 kHz and 300 kHz) attached. We will collect salinity and oxygen samples for calibration of the CTD salinity and oxygen sensors, as well as for calibration and quality control of recovered mooring instruments. We will also collect nutrient (silicate, phosphate and nitrate) and carbon samples. Although we use the 36 bottle rosette, only 18 niskin bottles will be required. Removing one in two bottles will enable us to fix brackets for the post-recovery “dips’ of recovered instruments (as in previous mooring voyage IN2021_V03). |
IN2021_V03 [details] |
Dr Sloyan | This voyage will recover and re-deploy an array of six full-depth current meter and property (temperature, salinity and pressure) moorings from the continental slope to the abyssal waters off Brisbane (27oS). The observing system is designed to capture the mean and time-varying flow of the EAC. In order to resolve interannual and decadal signals we aim to maintain multi-year deployments of the array. The data from the EAC mooring array and other oceanographic sampling are essential for understanding, at the regional to global scale, the role of boundary current in the climate system, and, at the local scale, simulating cross-shelf flows, upwelling, and frontal eddy formation. These local-scale processes have a fundamental impact on nutrient and phytoplankton concentrations and therefore far-reaching effects on annual fisheries productivity and coastal shark interactions along the eastern seaboard. We will undertake CTD casts, sampling salinity and 02, and numerous Triaxus and ship ADCP sections across the EAC mooring line and at several locations during the transit from Hobart to the mooring sites. Additionally, we aim to complete two oceanographic surveys: one in the Fraser Island area between 28oS and 26oS; and the other on and over the continental shelf in the vicinity of the North Stradbroke Island National Reference Station. These surveys will include bongo net tows and Triaxus/SADCP sections and will occur in between the mooring operations and at the completion of the mooring operations, as well as opportunistic sampling of jellyfish and salps over the side of the vessel when it is stationary using the extendable “pool scoop”. We aim to sample small scale, ephemeral frontal eddies flowing down from Fraser Island and shelf – continental slope boundary exchanges. These observations will enable us to characterise the spatial and temporal variability of shelf water and plankton around the Stradbroke Island National Reference Station (NRS) mooring, and their connection to the offshore regions. We will also deploy numerous eXpendable Bathymetric Thermographs (XBTs) during the transit from Hobart north. We will also aim to perform Triaxus and bongo net tows during the northward transit at various locations, with top priority given to a location off the coast of Newcastle NSW (near 32.5oS) to supplement the IMOS mooring and HF radar installation at that location. We will also deploy a number of floats (core Argo and BCG-Argo) during the voyage. We will collect salinity and oxygen samples for calibration of the CTD salinity and oxygen sensors. Limited dissolved inorganic carbon samples may be collected if we deploy BGC Argo floats). The following specific objectives will be completed:
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IN2019_V05 [details] |
B. Sloyan (CSIRO O&A, Hobart) | The East Australian Current (EAC) is the complex and highly energetic western boundary current of the South Pacific Ocean. The EAC is the dominant mechanism for the redistribution of heat and freshwater between the ocean and atmosphere in the Australian region; it is a vital component of the eastern Australian coastal ecosystem. The monitoring of the EAC is central to our understanding of how climate variability is communicated through the global ocean. This ocean current time-series will provide significant insights into the interactions between the EAC, the Pacific basin and the local shelf ocean circulation. |
IN2019_V04 [details] |
Joanne Whittaker (UTAS) | In a handful of locations on Earth, hot material rises from deep within the Earth to create lines of volcanoes such as the Hawaiian-Emperor Seamount Chain. We aim to test if the Tasmantid and Lord Howe Seamount chains, hidden in the seas off eastern Australia, should be included in this rare group and if the Louisiade Plateau to the north could have formed from the massive flood of basaltic lava triggered when a rising plume reaches the surface. |