koldunovn
10th March 2006, 09:37 AM
After four and a half months, and 23 186 nautical miles, a New Zealand research vessel is finally coming home.
Since mid-October, NIWA’s 28-metre research vessel Kaharoa has deployed more than 100 high tech ocean-profiling floats at prescribed locations in the South and Eastern Tropical Pacific.
The ‘Argo’ floats are used by operational climate and weather centres, and by scientists studying changes in the world’s oceans.
RV Kaharoa and crew of five are currently due to arrive in Auckland on the morning of Sunday 12 March.
This is Kaharoa’s fourth Argo deployment voyage, and the longest to date. Over the course of those four voyages, the sturdy ship has travelled a total of 63 375 nautical miles and deployed 333 Argo floats. Three of the current crew are the most seasoned ‘Argonauts’: Master Ron Palmer, Assistant Mate John Hunt, and Cook/Deckhand Mark Styles have all travelled over 58 000 nautical miles on Argo missions.
The Argo programme aims to have a network of about 3000 floats operating around the globe. In many places, the floats have been deployed from regular container ships, or even from the air. Neither option was feasible for much of the Pacific, so, in 2004, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (San Diego) and the University of Washington (Seattle) formed a collaboration with NIWA to use RV Kaharoa. NIWA has now deployed more Argo floats than any other organisation in the world.
RV Kaharoa’s next Argo mission will be to Mauritius later this year. Before then, it’ll be staying closer to home, helping NIWA scientists conduct fisheries surveys and other research around the New Zealand coast.
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credits to: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0603/S00030.htm
Since mid-October, NIWA’s 28-metre research vessel Kaharoa has deployed more than 100 high tech ocean-profiling floats at prescribed locations in the South and Eastern Tropical Pacific.
The ‘Argo’ floats are used by operational climate and weather centres, and by scientists studying changes in the world’s oceans.
RV Kaharoa and crew of five are currently due to arrive in Auckland on the morning of Sunday 12 March.
This is Kaharoa’s fourth Argo deployment voyage, and the longest to date. Over the course of those four voyages, the sturdy ship has travelled a total of 63 375 nautical miles and deployed 333 Argo floats. Three of the current crew are the most seasoned ‘Argonauts’: Master Ron Palmer, Assistant Mate John Hunt, and Cook/Deckhand Mark Styles have all travelled over 58 000 nautical miles on Argo missions.
The Argo programme aims to have a network of about 3000 floats operating around the globe. In many places, the floats have been deployed from regular container ships, or even from the air. Neither option was feasible for much of the Pacific, so, in 2004, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (San Diego) and the University of Washington (Seattle) formed a collaboration with NIWA to use RV Kaharoa. NIWA has now deployed more Argo floats than any other organisation in the world.
RV Kaharoa’s next Argo mission will be to Mauritius later this year. Before then, it’ll be staying closer to home, helping NIWA scientists conduct fisheries surveys and other research around the New Zealand coast.
---------------------------
credits to: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0603/S00030.htm