New equipment installed on R/V Islândia

After a period of intensive maintenance and refurbishment work on R/V Islândia during the last year first cruises out to station CVOO were conducted successfully. Further new sensor technology was installed on the ship’s CTD that extends the suite of observations for monthly cruises. Two sensors, one for combined measurements of fluorescence (chlorophyll) and turbidity and another one for photoactive radiation (PAR) have been installed and tested successfully during several cruises between August and October. Those high resolution measurements of biogeochemical relevant parameters allow for precise characterization of water column features, such as the chlorophyll maximum depth and the transition depth between the photic and aphotic layer of the surface ocean. Another question is whether these features might be impacted by major Saharan dust events which are being detected at CVAO.

Technical details about the equipment can be found here.