|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
| L'Atalante photo diary, part 1 | |||||||||
|
From laboratory to ocean - sending Argo floats to sea. September 14 2004 Loading the floats On one of the many sunny days in Southern California, 24 Solo floats were carefully packed into a shipping container ready for deployment in the South Pacific. Their destination was Papeete in French Polynesia where they will be loaded onto the french Research Vessel L'Atalante for deployment in October. Over the coming weeks we will keep you updated on what happens to these floats. Here is the first picture gallery. The first step on the journey to the ocean is the careful construction of the Solo floats in the laboratory at Scripps and the packing of the floats into their shipping/deployment boxes.
We are using a 20 foot refrigerated container because the floats may have to sit on the dockside for some days in Papeete and overheating is not good for the floats or sensors. The floats are protected against shock by foam packing.
Each float is individually packed in its deployment box, wrapped in polythene and labelled showing both the address and the fact that the floats contain lithium batteries. The container is labelled too.
The Argo Steering Team Chairman is there to lend a hand and finally the packing is complete........
........the paperwork is done and the truck leaves for Long Beach and then Papeete. And here (in red) are the deployment sites
|
|||||||||
| L'Atalante photo diary, part 2 | |||||||||
|
November 12 2004 The float container finally left the port of Long Beach, California on September 23 and arrived in Papeete on October 4 where it awaited the arrival of the Atalante and where the container's air-conditioning unit kept the floats cool despite the tropical temperatures.
Glenn Pezzoli and Mike McClune from SIO the arrived to check and load the floats onboard. They also took the opportunity to reprogram the floats so as to correct a small software glitch that had been discovered since the floats left California.
L'Atalante sailed on October 23 with Claudie Marec in charge of deployments. The first float 2334 (WMO 5900675) was deployed on October 24th and delivered its first profile 10 days later. See the first data at sio-argo.ucsd.edu. |
|||||||||
| L'Atalante photo diary, part 3 | |||||||||
|
January 21 2005 Deployment of the floats from Atalante. All floats are working as planned.
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
(Click on picture to see larger version)
|
|||||||||
| Various methods of float deployment: | |||||||||
 Deployment of an APEX float from a German research ship. |
|||||||||
Deployment of SOLO floats from the US RV N.B. Palmer:
|
|||||||||
Deployment of MARVOR floats from the Spanish RV Vizconde de Eza:
|
|||||||||
A PROVOR float shortly before recovery by the Japanese coastguard vessel Takuyo. |
|||||||||
| [Go back to top] | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| Floats being prepared for deployment: | |||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| Preparation of Solo floats at Scripps Institution (Courtesy Jim Dufour): | |||||||||
A completed Solo float and other float pressure cases. The
pictures show the transparent damping disk, the cylindrical, low
pressure flotation collar and the high pressure bladder in the white
housing.
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| Schematics (Courtesy of Southampton Oceanography Centre, UK): | |||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| Array Pictures: | |||||||||
| These link to AIC's Map Room. If live link doesn't work go to AIC and click on "Map Room". | |||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| Data: | |||||||||
 An Argo profile from the subtropical North Pacific (20.25N 121.4W, May 15 2004). This shows interleaving in the salinity data. |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| Float Animation: | |||||||||
 argo.avi is an Argo animation file produced
by the SIO multimedia group in Oct 2000. (26 Mb)
|
|||||||||
| Click here to see Howard Freeland's "Floats in the Global Ocean" .avi movie. | |||||||||
|
|||||||||
 Click here to get Howard Freeland's rotating Argo globe (Argo_wld.gif). |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| Make an Argo icosohedron: | |||||||||
|
Howard Freeland in Canada has produced a file from which you can print an image of the world with Argo float positions superimposed. It can then be cut out and glued to form a solid icosohedron. |
|||||||||
| [Go back to top] | |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
| Logos: | |||||||||
 Argo_Logo_ES.gif
is a small colored version of the
official Argo logo with a transparent background,
110x109 pixels, 6.5 KBytes. This is the logo at the top of the page. For various sizes and file formats of this logo, visit Howard Freeland's logo page.
|
|||||||||
 ArgoBanner.gif
is a banner (640x110 pixels) for use on web pages.
|
|||||||||
| Acknowledgment: The above images (Argo logos) were created by Rod Stott, who lives in East Yorkshire, England. He is a retired, professional technical illustrator, until recently he worked for British Aerospace. If you have any questions about the logo set, then contact either Howard Freeland at FreelandHj@pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca or Rod himself at rodandjostott@mac.com | |||||||||
| [Go back to top] | |||||||||
