NASA EXPORTS

Ship

R/V Atlantis

Vehicles

Cruise Party

Jason Graff: Chief Scientist, Principal Investigator
Oregon State Univeristy USA
+1 541 737 4090
jrgraff@science.oregonstate.edu

Debbie Steinberg: Chief Scientist, Principal Investigator
Virginia Institute of Marine Science United States
+1 804 684 7838
debbies@vims.edu

Departure: Woods Hole on Apr 14, 2022

Arrival: Woods Hole on May 31, 2020

Mobilization Date: Apr 11, 2020

Demobilization Date: Jun 1, 2020

Supporting documentation:

»EXPORTS-Overside_operations.pptx
»EXPORTS_prelim_berthing_roster.pdf
»ExamplePicsExports.pptx
»Lab_space_diagram_prelim_shared.pdf
»Atlantis_Deck_Plan_EXPORTS_prelim_shared.pdf

Operations Area: Northeast Atlantic Ocean near the Porcupine Abyssal Plain Long-term Monitoring site

Lat/Lon: 45° 0.0′ N / 17° 0.0′ W

Depth Range: 0 m / 3000 m

Will the vessel be operating within 200 NM of a foreign country? no

Science objectives

EXport Processes in the Ocean from Remote Sensing (EXPORTS) is a large-scale NASA-led field campaign that will provide critical information for quantifying the export and fate of upper ocean net primary production (NPP) using satellite observations and state of the art ocean technologies.

Our objectives while at sea are to measure stocks of organisms, chemistry, particles and the pathways regulating the export of carbon from the surface ocean to the deeper twilight zone.

Science Activities

Multiple overboard operations including CTD rosette casts, trace metal clean CTD and tow fish, MOCNESS tows, zooplankton net tows, neutrally buoyant (no surface expression) and surface tethered sediment traps, wire-walker package with surface expression, optics packages, and marine snow catchers with potential deployments of other autonomous assets such as a BioArgo float. 

On-deck and lab activities will include the use of multiple (9?) on-deck incubators with flowing surface seawater as well as re-circulating incubators chilled to temperatures found at deeper depths, use of the ship's flow-through seawater system (diaphragm pump provided by the science party) for continuous optical, chemical, and semi-continous biological measurements, use of the walk-in temperature control rooms for sample storage and experiments, additional small volume incubations in multiple lab spaces, a trace metal clean "bubble", and a multitude of general and specialized scientific equipment.  Two rad vans will be used for measuring radioisotopes used in incubations and a general purpose an will be used by multiple groups related to the on-deck incubations.  A trace metal clean van will be used in conjunction with the trace metal clean CTD rosette. All vans will require water and power.

This work will be conducted while coordinating with two other vessels working within the NASA EXPORTS framework (HMS Discovery) and the Woods Hole Twilight Zone Project (Sarmiento de Gamboa).  The Atlantis will serve as the "Process" ship and will work with a lagrangian approach following deployed assets (either previously deployed before our arrival or deployed during this cruise), while the Discovery will conduct wider surveys of the surrounding waters.  We will occasionally "meet up" with the other ships to perform simultaneous measurements necessary for instrument intercalibrations.

Pre-cruise planning meeting: Teleconference

Scheduled for Wednesday November 6.

Stations:

Funding Agency: NASA #XXXXXX

- added NASA #XXXXXX on Nov 3, 2019 10:57 PM by Jason Graff

R/V Atlantis

Shipboard Equipment

ADCP 75 kHz
A-Frame
Deionized Water System
Science Underway Seawater System
Navigation - Heading
Fume Hood
Navigation - Position
Crane

Shipboard Communication

Basic Internet access via HiSeasNet
Is there a need to receive data from shore on a regular basis?

CTD/Water Sampling

911+ Rosette 24-position, 10-liter bottle Rosette with dual T/C sensors
Mocness
Biospherical underwater PAR (1000m depth limit) with reference Surface PAR
SBE43 oxygen sensor
Seapoint STM turbidity sensor
Wet Labs C*Star transmissometer (660nm wavelength)
Wet Labs ECO-AFL fluorometer
Wet Labs FLNTURTD Combination Flourometer and Turbidity Sensor

Critical CTD Sensors:  May use own sensors (TBD) plus underwater video profiler (UVP) and LISST

MET Sensors

Barometric Pressure
Air temperature
Relative Humidity
Wind speed and direction
Short Wave Solar Radiation

Sample Storage

Climate Controlled Walk-in
Freezer -70°C 25 cu. ft.
Freezer -70°C 3.2 cu. ft. ea.
Refrigerator 8.6 cu. ft.
Scientific Walk-in Freezer
Scientific Walk-in Refrigerator


Storage Notes: In addition to ship provided fridge and freezer space, the science party will bring aboard multiple liquid nitrogen dewars for sample storage.

Does the Atlantis still have the LN production capabilities it purchased a few years ago?  If so, what capacity for production? We will pre-fill our dewars but given the length of this cruise will need to top them off occassionally.  We are likely to bring a larger filling dewar as well.

Navigation

Will you be using Long Base Line (LBL) navigation? no

Will you be using Ultra-short baseline (USBL) navigation for other than Alvin operations? no

Navigation

GPS

Navigation Notes:

Winches

CTD Winch with .322" Electro-mechanical wire
Hydro Winch with .25" hydro wire
Mooring / TSE winch
Other Portable Winch

Winch Notes: Many overboarding activities on the previous EXPORTS cruise aboard the RV Revelle required sharing of winches/wires between packages.  Starboard side deployments included standard ship's CTD, MOCNESS, zooplankton nets, Marine Snow Catchers, trace metal clean tow-fish, and a small optics package (self powered and logging).  Recoeries of the neutrally buoyant sediment traps also occurred on the starboard side.

Aft deployments using the A-frame or hand deployed packages include the trace metal clean CTD rosette, deployment of neutrally buoyant sediment traps and deployment and recovery of a surface tethered sediment trap array and a 500 m wire-walker with surface expression, and multiple hand deployed optics packages where one may require an air-tugger to assist in the deployment and recovery due to its weight in air (~100 lbs).

Starboard deployments will include a trace metal clean towfish, MOCNESS on a .322 conducting cable, zooplankton nets (separate hydrowire preferred, do not need conducting wire), marine snow catchers (does not reqiure conducting wire), small optics package (does not require conducting wire). If possible, the TMC rosertte would preferable be deployed off starboard side.

See EXPORTS Overside operations document.

Wire use and application

Other
Hydro Winch with .25" hydro wire
CTD Winch with .322" Electro-mechanical wire


Wire Notes: See EXPORTS Overside operations document.

Slip ring required? no	Number of conductors:
Non-standard wire required? no	Type:
Traction winch required? no	Describe:

Portable Vans

Hydrographic Van
Isotope Van

Other Science Vans:

Other Science Vans:

Science Van 1
Type/size: Trace Metal Clean Van		Location: Aft deck
Water: yes		Power:yes

Specialized Deck Equipment

Mooring Deployment/Recovery Equipment Required: no	Type:
Cruise Specific Science Winch Required: no	Type:
Nets Required: no	Type:

Over the Side Equipment

Will you be bringing any equipment (winches, blocks, etc.) that lowers instruments over the side? yes

Details: A block to be used with the trace metal clean rosette will be provided by the science party.  Specs forthcoming.

Special Requirements

Elecrical Power: yes	Identify: Freshwater needed in all vans. (TMC, GP, 2 Rad vans)
Equipment Handling: yes	Identify: marine snow catchers (small crane use?)
Inter/intraship Communications: yes	Identify: Will work with all three ships to determine best mode(s) of communication
Science Stowage: yes	Identify: Use of the forward hold and any other space for empty boxes and spare equipment would be helpful.
Water: yes	Identify: Freshwater needed in all vans. (TMC, GP, 2 Rad vans)

Additional Cruise Items/Activities

Explosive Devices: no Portable Air Compressors: yes Flammable Gases: no

Small Boat Operations: no SCUBA Diving Operations: no

Hazardous Material

Will hazardous material be utilized? yes

Radioactive Material

Radioiosotopes: yes

Additional Information

Is night time work anticipated on this cruise? yes

Specialized tech support (Seabeam, coring, other): 

Other required equipment and special needs: 
Date Submitted: Nov 3, 2019 11:19 PM by Jason Graff