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Click the photo above to go to the Argo Picasa Web photo gallery to search through more Argo photos.
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| L'Atalante photo diary, part 1
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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.
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A batch of float pressure cases and a completed instrument
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Salinity/temperature sensors
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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.
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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.
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The Argo Steering Team Chairman is there to lend a hand and finally the
packing is complete........
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........the paperwork is done and the truck leaves for Long Beach
and then Papeete.
And here (in red) are the deployment sites
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L'Atalante photo diary, part 2
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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.
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Papeete Harbour
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Atalante in port
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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.
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| Mike sets to work checking the floats
that are then loaded on board
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L to R Mike McClune (SIO), Glenn Pezzoli (SIO),
Herve Claustre (Chief Scientist, IFREMER), Claudie Marec (IFREMER)
The floats are safely stowed in the hangar, top left
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.
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L'Atalante photo diary, part 3
January 21 2005
Deployment of the floats from Atalante. All floats are working as planned.
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Preparing on deck
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Lowering over the side
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Almost free
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Box opening
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(Click on picture to see larger version)
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| Various methods of float deployment:
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Deployment of an APEX float from a German research ship.
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Deployment of SOLO floats from the US RV N.B. Palmer:
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Deployment of MARVOR floats from the Spanish RV Vizconde de Eza:
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Deployment of NEMO floats from the German icebreaker Polarstern Bremerhaven:
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Deployment of Arvor floats from the French R/V Pourquoi Pas:
An Arvor Iridium float
Photos by Olivier Dugornay at IFREMER
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A PROVOR float shortly before recovery by
the Japanese coastguard vessel Takuyo.
High res version
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A Canadian APEX float prior to launch
Photo by Howard Freeland
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| [Go back to top]
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| University of Washington, USA
(Courtesy Steve Riser):
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The float laboratory
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Salinity sensor calibrations
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| Preparation of Solo floats at
Scripps Institution (Courtesy Jim Dufour):
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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.
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A batch of float bodies
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Electronics assemblies
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Pump/motor assemblies
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Sea Bird salinity/temperature sensors
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Schematics(Courtesy of Southampton Oceanography Centre, UK):
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Normal float
operation cycle.
Park and profile
operation.
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Cross section of a float.
High res version
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Array Pictures:
Go to
AIC and click on "Map Room" to find these maps.
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| By country:
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By model:
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By Average Profiling Depth:
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Data:
An Argo profile from the subtropical North Pacific
(20.25N 121.4W, May 15 2004). This shows interleaving in the
salinity data.
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Float Animation:
 argo.avi is an Argo animation file produced
by the SIO multimedia group in Oct 2000. (26 Mb)
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Click
here
to see Howard Freeland's movies of Argo float trajectories.
.avi movies are "Audio Video Interleaved".
For PC's (& MAC's & Solaris) try "
Windows Media Player".
Or for MAC's try "Quicktime Player"
Click
here to get Howard Freeland's rotating Argo globe (Argo_wld.gif).
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Make an Argo icosohedron:
Howard Freeland in
Canada has produced an image and instructions
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.
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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, download this folder.
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 ArgoBanner.gif
is a banner (640x110 pixels) for use on web pages.
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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
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ArgoBanner.gif