| Station
ALOHA
Upon arrival at Station ALOHA, the first order of business is the
deployment of a free-floating sediment trap array. This array will
collect sediment which falls through the upper 150 meters of the water
column for the next couple of days. When we retrieve the array, we
will be able to determine the type and quantity of sediment that was
in the water during our cruise. While the sediment traps are being
deployed we'd better get our main instrument package, a 24 bottle
CTD rosette, ready to be sent down to about 4750 meters, just a few
meters away from the bottom of the ocean! The "CTD" (an abbreviation
for Conductivity, Temperature, Depth) will measure the temperature,
salinity, oxygen and pressure of the ocean from the surface all the
way down to near the ocean's bottom. The bottles on the rosette helps
us to collect water from various depths which can be measured to calibrate
the CTD and to make assorted biogeochemical measurements (including
silicate, nitrate, phosphate as well as many others).
24 bottle CTD rosette ready for deployment
|
Rosette preparation movie: