RRS Discovery Cruise 130, 25 March - 14 April 2021, Time-series studies at the Porcupine Abyssal Plain Sustained Observatory

Hartman, Susan E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6363-1331. 2021 RRS Discovery Cruise 130, 25 March - 14 April 2021, Time-series studies at the Porcupine Abyssal Plain Sustained Observatory. Southampton, National Oceanography Centre, 181pp. (National Oceanography Centre Cruise Report, 74)

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Abstract/Summary

RRS Discovery cruise 130 departed Southampton 25th March 2021, operated in the Whittard Canyon (28th-29th March) and the Porcupine Abyssal Plain Sustained Observatory area (30th March – 11th April 2021), returning to Southampton 15th April 2021. The goal of the cruise was to continue time-series observations of the surface ocean, water column, and seafloor at the site, as first studied by NOC (then the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences) in 1985. Additional goals were to service a mooring at Whittard Canyon and start the EXPORTS programme by deployment of a UK (iFADO) and 2 USA (EXPORTS) gliders. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic limited to operations to some extent with reduced staff on board but DY130 was a more complete cruise than DY116. The main aims were to recover data and infrastructure and deploy replacement moorings at PAP and in the Whittard Canyon, to continue time series sampling at PAP-SO and collaborate with the USA EXPORTS programme. The new Met Office Mobilis buoy was successfully recovered and it was redeployed with a sensor frame at 30m, restarting the time series of subsurface measurements. The sediment traps were successfully turned around at both PAP and the Whittard canyon. A series of water column observation and sampling operations were successfully carried out with a CTD instrument package. The CTD deployments included pre-and post-deployment calibrations of PAP1 and PAP3 sensors. The benthic time series was continued with a series of seafloor photographic surveys, sediment core sampling, amphipod traps and trawling. A series of zooplankton nets were collected en route at PAP-SO. Underway data were collected and a Met Office Biogeochemistry Argo float was deployed. We deployed two gliders for the NASA led USA EXPORTS and a UK glider (GOCART, iFADO projects). The 3 gliders surveyed nearby features to the north west, north east and south of PAP. All three gliders were validated at sea, with additional sampling from the CTD rosettes following EXPORTS protocols. The gliders were retrieved in May 2021 on the EXPORTS cruises. This cruise was a contribution to the Climate Linked Atlantic Section Science (CLASS) project supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (grant number NE/R015953/1).

Item Type:	Publication - Report
Funders/Sponsors:	National Oceanography Centre
Additional Keywords:	Porcupine Abyssal Plain, Whittard Canyon, Ocean Observation, ICOS, EMSO, NASA, EXPORTS, iFADO, Met Office, GOCART, Gliders, Biogeochemistry, time series
Date made live:	06 Sep 2021 11:27 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/531007

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