RRS Charles Darwin Cruise 135, 24 Oct-18 Nov 2001. ATSR validation cruise: Seychelles - Durban

This report describes RRS Charles Darwin Cruise 135, an ATSR satellite validation cruise which took place in October-November 2001. The cruise was divided into two legs: Leg 1 primarily focussed on ATSR satellite validation and Leg 2 was planned around the recovery of Netherlands Institute of Sea Research (NIOZ) moorings. Throughout the cruise real-time measurements of the air-sea fluxes of momentum, sensible heat, latent heat and CO2 were made, in addition to the usual mean meteorological parameters. The main aim of Leg 1 (Seychelles to Seychelles) was to achieve as many ATSR satellite overpass validations as possible with the SISTeR radiometer. In addition 5 APEX floats were deployed in support of the ARGO Programme and two XBT equatorial sections were made. During Leg 2 (Seychelles to Durban) the key objective was to recover an array of seven moorings, on a section across the Mozambique Channel roughly at its narrowest part, which had been previously deployed by NIOZ. Further ATSR overpass validations were achieved and two more XBT sections were made.