On board of Cruzeiro do Sul Oceangraphic ship, will be accomplished the first national expedition for data collect between Brazil and Africa coast. Fostered by the Science and Technology Ministry and by Marine Hydrography Center, the transatlantic mission will count on researchers from USP, UERJ, UFRJ, UENF and FURG, besides INPE.
The journey starts on October 19th, sailing from Rio de Janeiro. The arrival on Cape City in South Africa is foreseen for November 16th. On December 22 the researchers will land on Rio bringing with them information about a very important oceanic area and little known as well.
Data about temperature, saltiness, liquid oxygen and chlorophyll, among others, and samples for material in suspension and nutrients analysis will be gathered. Also are programmed launchings of both drift buoy and radio probe which will measure ocean and atmospheric temperature vertical profiles.
These data shall contribute for the studies over the Subtropical front influence for mass water formation along the South Atlantic extension between Brazil and South Africa, one of the main factors for the weather and climate forecast, for instance.
To INPE’s researcher, a mission like this is the basis for the improvement of the scientific knowledge about South Atlantic and, specially, the mesoscale and big scale process that occur in this ocean.
Source: INPE
