32
BAMOS
Dec 2018
Article
A voyage on RV Investigator—Training
observers of the deep ocean
Helen Phillips, Nathan Bindoff, Pete Strutton
University of Tasmania
RV Investigator returned to Hobart after a 32-day voyage to
map a meander of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC)
Polar Front. This meander is known to funnel large amounts of
heat toward Antarctica and is one of four major hotspots for
poleward heat transfer in the Southern Ocean. In the science
party were 11 CLEX students and post-docs, three international
students, a film maker and visual artist, and collaborators from
CSIRO, Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research
Centre and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Led by Nathan Bindoff and Helen Phillips from the University
of Tasmania, with a biogeochemistry component led by
Pete Strutton, the voyage delivered a full-depth, full-width,
700 km long survey of the meander (see Figure 1). These new
observations are a world-first that will be used in conjunction
with super-high resolution computer simulations to investigate
the small-scale ocean processes that slow down the ACC and
control poleward heat transfer. This voyage and the observations
were funded by ARC Discovery Projects, and support for
participation of investigators and students was provided by
CLEX and the Australian Government’s National Environmental
Science Programme.
RV investigator. Image: Josué Martinez-Moreno
Figure 1. Meander of the Polar Front southeast of Tasmania
and initial sampling plan.