RRS Discovery D318a & D318b
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RRS Discovery D318a & D318b Cruise Report GO – Geophysical Oceanography EU funded project contract number: 15603 (NEST) website: www.dur.ac.uk/eu.go D318a – 17 April 2007 – 23 April 2007 Trials – 23 April 2007 – 29 April 2007 D318b – 29 April 2007 – 14 May 2007 Lison (Portugal) – Lisbon (Portugal) /Faro (Portugal) – Lisbon (Portugal) 1 RRS Discovery D318a & D318b Cruise Report GO – Geophysical Oceanography EU funded project contract number: 15603 (NEST) website: www.dur.ac.uk/eu.go Dr Richard Hobbs Department of Earth Sciences University of Durham South Road Durham DH1 3LE [email protected] July 2007 1 Table of Contents 2 List of figures 3 List of tables 4 Summary 5 1 Introduction and cruise objectives 6 1.1 Introduction 6 1.2 Scientific Objectives 8 1.3 Scientific Plan 8 1.3.1 Pre-cruise changes to plan 8 1.3.2 Intra-cruise changes to plan 9 1.4 Mobilization and Trials 10 2 Work conducted and data collected 11 2.1 CTD operations 13 2.2 Moorings 21 2.3 High resolution seismic data acquisition 33 2.4 Low resolution seismic data acqusition 37 2.5 On-board seismic data processing 45 2.6 Underway oceanography data (XBT/XCTD) 57 2.7 Computing and Instrumentation report 60 2.8 Ship-to-ship commications 72 3 Performance and Recommendations 73 3.1 Performance 73 3.2 Recommendations 74 4 Deliverables 75 5 Acknowledgements 76 Annex-1: Personnel Annex-2: Diary Spreadsheet Annex-3: XBT/XCTD Spreadsheet Annex-4a: Observer logs for seismic operations for D318a frequency source Annex-4b: Observer logs for seismic operations for D318b frequency source Annex-5a: Seismic source design for D318a frequency source Annex-5b: Seismic source design for D318b frequency source Annex-6: British Oceanography Data Centre ROSCOP forms Annex-7: Environmental Audit Annex-8: Marine Mammal Observers Report 2 List of Figures 1.1.1 Salinity section across Gulf of Cadiz from legacy data 7 1.3.1 Initial cruise plan 9 2.1.1 Examples of CTD data 19 2.1.2 Salinity calibrations 20 2.2.1 STABLE 22 2.2.2 STABLE sensors 22 2.2.3 POL ADCP deployment 24 2.2.4 Titanium release and burn wire mechanism 24 2.2.5 Armco minilog attached to ADCP frame 24 2.2.6 Station A5, 75 kHz buoyed ADCP 30 2.2.7 Tethered OBH 32 2.3.1 Pictures and configuration of IFREMER Mini-GI system 33 2.3.2 Layout diagrams of high-frequency acquisition 35 2.3.3 Map of GO-HR profiles 36 2.4.1 Deployment of NMF airgun sub-array 38 2.4.2 Diagram of source configuration 38 2.4.3 Streamer configuration 39 2.4.4 Timing diagram 40 2.4.5 Layout diagrams of low-frequency acquisition 41 2.4.6 Map of GO-LR profiles 44 2.4.7 Map of GO-MR profiles 44 2.5.1 Raw and processed GO-HR shot gather 46 2.5.2 GO-HR-08 and -10 from the moorings area 46 2.5.3 GO-HR-15 and -17 time variant repeat 47 2.5.4 GO-HR-13 and -31 constant time repeat 47 2.5.5 GO-HR-18, -22, 26, and -30 constant time repeats 48 2.5.6 GO-HR-13 48 2.5.7 Raw and processed GO-LR shot gather 51 2.5.8 GO-LR-03 and -04 from moorings area 51 2.5.9 GO-LR-06 and -07 time variant repeat 52 2.5.10 GO-LR-08, -10, and -12 constant time repeat 53 2.5.11 GO-LR-05 section through core of Meddy 54 2.5.12 GO-LR-12 and -14 sections through edge of Meddy 54 2.5.13 GO-MR-05 flip and flop cutting edge of Meddy 55 2.6.1 XBT launch system 57 2.6.2 Deployment map of XBT/XCTD 58 2.6.3 Temperature sections from XBT/XCTD data 59 2.7.1 Salinity calibration 66 2.7.2 Velocity probe vs derived velocity from CTD data 69 3 List of Tables 2.1 Summary diary 11 2.1.1 Rosette firing order to Niskin # mapping 14 2.1.2 CTD cast summary 15 2.2.1 STABLE deployment details 21 2.2.2 POL ADCP setup 23 2.2.3 Details of ADCP deployment site A3 24 2.2.4 Details of ADCP deployment site A4 25 2.2.5 Details of A1T temperature mooring 26 2.2.6 Details of A3T temperature mooring 27 2.2.7 Details of A4T temperature mooring 28 2.2.8 600 kHz ADCP setup 29 2.2.9 75 kHz ADCP setup 29 2.2.10 Details of ADCP deployment site A1 30 2.2.11 Details of ADCP deployment site A5 30 2.2.12 Details of OBH deployment site OBH-1 31 2.2.13 Details of OBH deployment site OBH-2 31 2.3.1 Summary of acquisition parameters 34 2.3.2 List of GO-HR profiles 36 2.4.1 Details of Streamer configuration 39 2.4.2 Summary of acquisition parameters 41 2.4.3 List of GO-LR and GO-MR profiles 43 2.7.1 Meteorological Instrumentation 67 2.7.2 GPS Antenna Positions 72 4 Summary We conducted a joint oceanography and multichannel seismic in the Gulf of Cadiz on the RRS Discovery (D318a & D318b). The cruise was funded under an EU grant as part of the Framework 6 NEST programme and involved 8 partners (CSIC, ENEA, IFREMER, IFM-GEOMAR, POL, Universities of Brest (UBO), Durham, and Lisbon (Lisbon acting as a lead for a consortium of Portuguese institutions)). The cruise objectives were to provide a calibration between seismic images of water structure and conventional oceanographic measurements, also to test various seismic acquisition systems and novel geometries for seismic imaging of water structure. The data are of high-quality and fulfil expectations though we suggest several areas for improvement that would benefit future surveys. The cruise was split into to legs to accommodate the large diversity of equipment used during this cruise. During leg D318a we used CTD casts, deployed 8 moorings provided by POL and NMF, launched XBTs/XCTDs and used a high-resolution system provided by Genvair through project partners IFREMER. For leg D318b we were joined by the FS Poseidon (funded under a separate grant from the German research council with project partners IFM- GEOMAR). During this leg we acquired conventional seismic reflection and refraction data using the NMF (NERC Marine Facility) airgun system and a hydrophone streamer hired from Exploration Electronics, oceanographic control used both XBT/XCTD and CTD casts from the FS Poseidon and RRS Discovery. During this leg, we also tested acquisition of oceanographic Vertical Seismic Profiles and multi-resolution seismic data with sources tuned to different frequency bands fired in a 'flip-flop' mode. Towards the end of the leg we successfully recovered the moorings deployed during leg D318a. A major pre-cruise problem was the conclusion by NMF that their multichannel seismic steamer was beyond repair. Alternative academic owned systems were unavailable so a system was hired from a commercial company, Exploration Electronics Ltd. Though a significant part of the costs were covered by NMF against the estimated costs of using their own streamer, extra funds were required from within the EU grant. This necessitated a reorganisation of the budget as no extra funds would be provided by the EU. The ramification of this budget adjustment on the overall project outcomes is as yet unknown. During D318a, the moorings were deployed efficiently but there were a intermittent problems with the CTD system that were rectified by using spares. There was an issue with deployment of the Genvair airgun system, their davits were not located near enough to the stern so the airguns were dragged under the vessel. This was resolved by using the stern cranes on RRS Discovery. Near real-time navigation for the seismic data during this leg was computed by Genvair/IFREMER. Prior to D318b there was a 2 day trials cruise to familiarise people with the NMF airgun deployment system and to test compressors. During D318b the airgun system worked as expected with minimal maintenance, though a better system of buoys could be developed to give better control of source tow depth. The hired streamer and data logged worked well, but there were fundamental differences in expectations between the academic and commercial worlds that caused some avoidable misunderstandings. Reduction of the raw navigation for the processing of the seismic data for D318b has been serious problem. The gravimeter was used on both legs but continuously flagged errors, however the data seem to be recorded and logged though the local clock was not synchronised to GPS. During the second leg one of the ship ADCP systems failed to record data for a significant period. Overall the cruise was very successful and met or exceeded scientific objectives. A significant dataset was acquired with minimal downtime, only one day was lost due to weather. The international partners were impressed with the conduct of the vessel. There are recommendations that include the use of a commercial streamer system which need to be considered for the future and issues with time and location and a more transparent ship data-logging system that need to be resolved. 5 1. Introduction and cruise objectives 1.1 Introduction The EU-GO project is an ambitious and challenging project that matches the spirit of adventure and risk inherent in the EU-NEST programme.