Deployment identifier:

G004

Deployment name:

Extended Onslow Bay transect

Sponsor:

CORMP

Vehicle:

Pelagia

Deployment began:

Location:

34 08.8N 77 42.4W, about 6 miles ENE of Masonboro Inlet, near 'ILM2'

Planned end date:

Mission coordinator:

Jeff Williams

Phone:

910-962-2470

Email:

williamsj@uncw.edu

Science coordinator:

Wendy Woods

Phone:

910-962-2393

Email:

woodswendy@woodswendy.com

Description:

To provide concurrent glider/ship/buoy data for glider instrument calibration. Observation of horizontal and vertical patchiness near permanent buoys. Satellite data ground truthing with large-scale chlorophyll fluorescence data.

Date

Today's Report

4-May-2006

The glider was successfully recovered today. The R/V Cape Fear was used for the recovery mission. Everything went very well, the glider was on the surface waiting for us when we arrived on station. Thanks to Captains Dan Aspenleiter and Mike Rodaway for their assistance.

3-May-2006

We began running the recovery.mi mission to prepare the glider for tomorrow. We will attempt to recover the glider using the R/V Cape Fear. The recovery.mi mission will send the glider west, making the transit time shorter for the R/V Cape Fear.

4-May-2006

We are starting to make plans to recover the glider. It is clear the glider will not be able to return to the original transect or recovery point before the battery voltage becomes too low.

1-May-2006

Both tidal and a strong south current are effecting the performance of the glider. It is continuing to drift to the south. We plan to recover the glider when the weather breaks on Thursday.

30-Apr-2006

The glider is way off course and heading further south…but communications have been good.

29-Apr-2006

The glider is starting to lose ground to the south. Marine fouling is probably the reason for the slow movement toward the waypt.

28-Apr-2006

The glider had good comms and performed well today. Progress is getting very slow.

27-Apr-2006

We missed the first two calls from the glider yesterday. It seems to have been a problem with the phone line or modem and not directly related to the glider. The first call yesterday was received at 11:31 UTC and everything has worked well since then.

26-Apr-2006

The glider made it to ILM2 at 6:04 UTC this morning, and it is now headed offshore toward EILM3. The glider has worked well since the reset issue we had yesterday.

25-Apr-2006

The glider reset itself between surface intervals earlier today. It began running the mission initial.mi and continued doing that until Jeff caught it and resequenced the correct mission, OB2v04.mi. The glider has made a couple calls since then and everything looks fine.

24-Apr-2006

The glider is making good progress toward ILM2. The couse is much closer to the transect line now with the currenct correction turned on.

23-Apr-2006

The glider reached EILM3 at 2:18 UTC this morning. The current correction was turned back on and new a new ma file was loaded into the mission file. The glider is now headed inshore, toward ILM2.

22-Apr-2006

The glider is very close to EILM3. It should reach the original transect line early tomorrow morning.

21-Apr-2006

The glider is still on its way to EILM3. Progress has been a little better than yesterday. Wendy may change the ma file to keep the glider further under the water.

20-Apr-2006

The progress toward EILM3 has slowed considerably over the last 24 hours. We have seen tidal currents influencing the glider in the past. Also, the glider has been out for 2 weeks and fouling may now be a problem.

19-Apr-2006

The glider is making good progress back to the south. However, the glider picked the eastern most waypt and not the planned one. We loaded a new mission to force the glider to head for EILM3. In the process, the glider had to be reset and the missions resequenced.

18-Apr-2006

The glider made it out of the gulf stream earlier today. It is now making its way south toward the EILM3 waypt. The current correction was turned back on using !put u_use_current_correction 1 The glider should be near EILM3 in a couple days. At that point the mission will be changed to send the glider inshore to ILM2.

17-Apr-2006

Today the glider is still being influenced by the gulfstream and is nearing Cape Lookout Shoals. We spent the day making a strategy to keep the glider in Onslow Bay, or at worst get it safely to Raleigh Bay. Several parameters were changed to improve the performance of the glider. The yo inflection was changed to prevent the glider from breaking the surface at the top of the yo. The gps fix time was changed from every hour to every 2 hours, to keep the glider underwater and swimming more efficiently.

16-Apr-2006

The glider is still being pushed to the north by a gulfstream eddy. Jeff and Wendy have changed the current waypt in an attempt to force the glider to turn west and not fight the gulfstream head on.

15-Apr-2006

The glider is trying to make it to the new waypt. The strong currents from the gulfstream are pushing it off course and it is making little progress toward the waypt. This is the farthest east we have taken the glider, and the currents may be too much for it.

14-Apr-2006

Today the dockserver crashed and some files were not sent from the glider. Wendy saved the day by recognizing the problem and rebooting the dockserver. This problem seems to be fixed. The glider is now headed for the new, eastern waypt.

13-Apr-2006

The glider has done well over the last 24 hours. The third waypt was changed to a location more north and east of OB47. The new waypt should be 50 meters in depth and have more of a gulfstream influence.

12-Apr-06

The glider successfully made OB47 last night about 9:45PM. It's now headed back north to the waypoint near ILM3. Good progress the last four hours.

11-Apr-2006

The glider is still trying to make it to OB47. It makes headway toward the waypt when the tidal cycle is working in its favor, but looses ground otherwise. Jeff will look at the progress tomorrow and possibly change the mission to send it back to the second waypt.

10-Apr-2006

The glider is once again running well after an eventfully morning. The Glider aborted the mission at 03:55 UTC because of an OVERDEPTH warning. The glider was not actually overdepth, this was a behavior "learned" from the ini.mi missions we ran prior to deployment. In the future we will reset the system before it is deployed to prevent the ini.mi values from being stored in the glider computer.

9-Apr-2006

The glider reached the second waypoint at 00:25 UTC this morning. It successfully made the turn to the south toward the third waypoint at OB47. It looks like the currents dropped off near the second waypoint, the glider jumped from the south of the transect line to the north side. Either way, the glider is making great progress and is functioning very well.

8-Apr-2006

The glider has made good progress overnight and is near the second waypt. It should make the turn toward the south and OB47 later today.

7-Apr-2006

The glider has made good progress toward the second waypoint near ILM3. There have been no errors or aborts today.

6-Apr-2006

Deployed glider from the R/V Seahawk near the CORMP ILM2 buoy. Ran ini1.mi and ini3.mi then sequenced OB2v01.mi five times. The glider performed well overnight with no errors or aborts.