November weather

Ocean research cruise blog of Jonathan Sharples

 

The remarkable weather continued yesterday as we continued a series of measurements and zooplankton nets next to the moorings. A couple of scientists were even spotted sunbathing between net hauls. The wind continued to drop, and the sea finally reached a glassy state by sunset. Pretty good for November in the Celtic Sea.

The winning picture of the salps in the process of releasing faecal material into the water is below: look at the streaks of back trailing from the curl of colonial salps in the lower left of the picture. Some of these salp groups are reaching lengths close to 2 metres.

chain of salps

salps cought pooing

 This morning just as the sun came up we carried out one vertical profile with the CTD just next to the wirewalker mooring. That will provide Jo Hopkins with vital data for her to calibrate the instruments on the mooring. We are now pulling up the wirewalker, and will then head off to collect the 2 gliders that neeed to come back with us. The glider “pilot” back at the Oceanography Centre has sent instructions to the gliders to meet as at a specific location, so the gliders will have dutifully reached that position this morning and will now be bobbing about on the surface waiting for us.

ctd at down

The weather is due to close in tomorrow, with 25-30 knots of wind expected from mid afternoon through to mid afternoon on Friday. But the longer term forecast is suggesting a return to these calm, sunny conditions. Feels strange for this time of year, but none of us are complaining.

 Original post