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‘Challenger’ at RAMA mooring
View(s):Unobtrusively, ‘Challenger’ has glided along underwater on a journey that began in November last year, to pause awhile this week at a RAMA mooring, before smoothly and silently starting its next lap checking out the mysteries of the ocean, before arriving at its final destination of Sri Lanka in mid-September.
Prof. Charitha Pattiaratchi
It is expected to reach the oceanographic mooring at the Equator at 90oE that has been deployed as part of the Research Array for African-Asian-Australian Monsoon Analysis and Prediction (RAMA) and spend a few days in its vicinity undertaking rapid vertical profiles with the aim of capturing the variability in the diurnal cycle (a basic form of the climate pattern).
‘Challenger’ the ocean-glider, is the special baby of Prof. Charitha Pattiaratchi, Leader of the Australian National Facility for Ocean Gliders and Professor of Coastal Oceanography at the Oceans Institute of the University of Western Australia.
Launched from Fremantle in Western Australia, this ocean-glider mission is a joint project of Rutgers University (Center for Ocean Observing Leadership) in the United States of America and University of Western Australia which operates the IMOS (Integrated Marine Observing System) Ocean Glider Facility.
The mission by this unmanned, seven-foot mini-submarine aims to cover a distance of 6,200 km and, if successful, will set a new world record for distance covered by an ocean glider in a single journey.
After its pause at the RAMA mooring at 90°E, ‘Challenger’ will head west along the Equator to another RAMA mooring at 80.5°E and then north to Sri Lanka where it is to be recovered in mid-September.
On its way to Sri Lanka, as it zig-zags in saw-tooth style, ‘Challenger’ is sending data including the impact of climate change on the Indian Ocean back to the laboratory via satellite.
Its position can be tracked via the IMOS Ocean Glider Facility website or via the Rutgers University site. It is also available through the IMOS Ocean Current website. Measurements of temperature and salinity at depths up to 1000m are available in near real-time, a press release said.
The Sunday Times in ‘Lankan professor’s ocean glider maps the mysteries of the Indian Ocean’ published on November 20, 2016, reported the launch of ‘Challenger’.