Recent expeditions
At any one time NOC scientists and technicians can be at sea on numerous vessels. Discover where they are and what they are trying to achieve.
Ship Positions
This map shows the positions of the NOC operated vessels RRS Discovery and RRS James Cook. While every effort is made to keep this map up to date sometimes postion updates are not possible, so please bear with us.
Updates From the Ship (PIM)
Subject: PIM Report
Cruise: JC087
Ships Time: UTC +1
DTG: 20-06-13 07:00
Stbd side to No2 Berth KGV, Glasgow
Status. Alongside No2 Berth KGV, Glasgow
Yesterday. Completed Demob for JC087. MCA in attendance for ISM/ISPS audits
Intentions. Routine maintenance and surveys by PFC and SWL
Regards,
John A Leask
Master
RRS James Cook.
| Cruise | Principal Scientist | Organisation | Location | Duration in days (begins) | Aim |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D374 | Dr Jonathan Copley | University of Southampton | Cayman Trough, Caribbean | 3 (March 2012) | This cruise will be recovering deep-water moorings that were deployed on the Mid-Cayman Rise during a previous cruise on the James Cook in April 2010. The moorings will be inspected and have their batteries replaced so they will continue to record data. |
| D376 | Colin Griffiths | Scottish Association for Marine Science | Celtic Sea | 23 (June 2012) |
This forms part of the Ocean Shelf Exchange – FASTNET programme, which aims to construct a new view on ocean/ continental shelf exchange. Using new observations and model techniques, the team will look at the key seasonal, interannual and regional variation information missing from current knowledge. Standard oceanographic moorings will be paired with 60 satellite tracked drifters and a fleet of 8 Gliders patrolling the shelf break from west of the Scilly Isles to north Scotland. Find out more about Gliders here. |
| D377 | Henry Ruhl | National Oceanography Centre | Porcupine Abyssal Plain, North Atlantic | 14 (July 2012) | Using Autosub and Benthic trawling, the team aims to look at a possible link between the sea floor features and the related disbursement of marine life at depths of up to 100km. The information gained form this study will provide information as to how surface climate change activity impacts life in the deep oceans. |
| D378 | Henry Ruhl | National Oceanography Centre | Porcupine Abyssal Plain, North Atlantic | 7 (July 2012) |
This cruise adds time to the above cruise and aims to look at the same objectives over a larger scale. Follow thier progress from this blog: |
|
D381a
D381b |
Dr Alberto Naveira Garabato Dr John Allen |
National Oceanography Centre | Porcupine Abyssal Plain, North Atlantic | 32 (September 2012) | This cruise will be supporting the OSMOSIS project, which aims to understand the physical processes that control the depth and other aspects ocean surface boundary layer and upper thermocline. It also seeks to develop and define the parameters of some of those processes so they can be included in accurate climate-scale ocean models. |
| D382 | Dr Gerard McCarthy | National Oceanography Centre | Sub tropical North Atlantic | 35 (October 2012) | This cruise forms part of the ongoing RAPID-WATCH programme. This visit will monitor the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which is a major part of Earth's climate system. It has specific effects on the UK, and is responsible for increasing UK air temperatures to 5-10°C warmer than would be expected for the UK’s position on the globe. Information from these moorings is fed into climate change research and potentially influences national and international government policy. |
RRS James Cook
| Cruise | Principal Scientist | Organisation | Location | Duration in days (begins) | Aim |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JC067 | Dr Jonathan Copley | National Oceanography Centre | South West Indian Ridge, Indian Ocean | 40 (November 2011) | This cruise aims to complete the first ROV dives at a deep-sea hydrothermal vent field on the Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR). The information from these dives will help to test key theories relating to the global biogeography and ecology of chemosynthetic ecosystems. It is hoped to both conduct video surveys and to collect a number of samples from these dives. |
| JC068 | Professor Gideon Henderson | Oxford University | South Atlantic | 34 (December 2012) | This project is looking to answer three questions: how are micronutrients supplied to support the productivity in a specific ocean floor basin in this region, and how does this supply influence the nature of the ecosystem across the basin? Which processes control the concentration and distribution of micronutrients in deep waters in the South Atlantic, and how do these get to the surface systems? Finally, what are the changes of micronutrients in the global ocean, and what are the key processes that control these levels? |
| JC069 | Dr Alberto Naveira Garabato | National Oceanography Centre | Southern Ocean / Scotia Sea | 51 (January 2012) | This expedition forms the third leg of the UK DIMES project. The project aims to complete a CTD survey, recover 6 moorings at the blue star in Drake Passage and recover 5 sound sources en route. |
| JC071 | Henry Ruhl | National Oceanography Centre | Porcupine Abyssal Plain, North Atlantic | 13 (April 2012 |
This cruise will conduct maintenance on the Porcupine Abyssal Plain - Sustained Observatory. Use will be made of the PAP3 sediment trap mooring and the bathysnap camera system. A replacement ODAS buoy will be brought to the site and the existing buoy will be returned to shore. |
| JC073 | Dr. John Roberts | Heriot-Watt University | North East Atlantic | 29 (May 2012) | This expedition will look at the impacts of ocean acidification on key benthic ecosystems, communities, habitats, species and life cycles. An ROV will be used to survey, sample and experiment within cold-water coral habitats at two contrasting areas where it is predicted there will be differences in aragonite saturation state within the coming century. This cruise is linked to the European EPOCA (ocean acidification) and HERMIONE (deep-sea ecology and anthropogenic impact) projects. The Changing Oceans blog is underway so you can follow the cruise. |
| JC077 | Dr Rachel James/ Doug Connelly | National Oceanography Centre | Central North Sea | 24 (September 2012) | This cruise will investigate the carbon capture storage at the Sleipner Site in the North Sea. The project is to assess the marine environmental risks associated with sub-bed CO2 storage. Little is known about the short-term and long-term impacts of CO2 storage on marine ecosystems even though CO2 has been stored in the North Sea (Sleipner) for over 13 years with injection of over 12 million tonnes of CO2 some 800-1000 m beneath the seafloor. The team will be examining the Sleipner Site to establish the effects of possible leakage, and develop novel monitoring techniques will be applied to detect and quantify the fluxes of formation fluids, natural gas, and CO2 from storage sites. This cruise is part of the National Capability programme and is jointly funded by the EU and NERC National Capability fund. |
