The Quinlan-Owens family from Galway gave the Marine Institute a helping hand recently when they deployed an Argo float in the Atlantic Ocean while sailing their yacht Danu.
Vera Quinlan, Peter Owens and their two children Lilian and Ruairi deployed the Argo float en route from Cape Verde to French Guiana as part of their 14-month sailing trip around the Atlantic from Galway to New York.
Vera is a hydrographer for INFOMAR, the national seabed mapping programme, which is jointly managed by the Marine Institute and Geological Survey Ireland.
Thanks to the Quinlan-Owens family from Galway for sharing this video of the deployment of a Marine Institute Argo Float in December.
— Marine Institute (@MarineInst) January 23, 2020
For more on this story please see - https://t.co/yWmgLbTLdD #marine #argofloat #ocean #data #research @EuroArgoERIC pic.twitter.com/5TXeTWZ9io
Argo floats are deployed across the world’s oceans to continuously monitor the ocean and provide essential data to help marine scientists understand oceanic conditions, interactions between the ocean and the atmosphere, as well as long-term climate trends.
The devices distribute real-time information on temperature and salinity up to a depth of 2,000 metres below the ocean's surface.
Measuring the temperature and salinity of the ocean is crucial in better understanding climate change and the role of our oceans on our climate.
Before departing on their sailing voyage in June last year, Lilian and Ruairi showed the Argo float to their classmates at Kilcolgan Educate Together National School. The pupils signed their names on the float, which is now in the Atlantic Ocean and collecting measurements on temperature and salinity.
Measuring the temperature and salinity of the ocean is crucial in better understanding climate change and the role of our oceans on our climate
This data is transmitted via satellite every 10 days for the three to four years of the float’s lifespan and its location can be tracked at digitalocean.ie.
Alan Berry, of ocean science and information services at the Marine Institute, says it usually deploys Argo floats on research surveys carried out in the North Atlantic.
“Vera’s sailing trip offered the opportunity for an Irish Argo float to be deployed much further south, near the equator. We thank Vera and her family for participating in the Argo programme, and to Lilian and Ruairi for sharing this experience with their classmates so they can also learn about the importance of monitoring our oceans.”
As part of the Marine Institute’s participation in the Euro-Argo ERIC programme, 20 Argo floats have been deployed by the Marine Institute in the North Atlantic over the last 10 years, with a sustained deployment of three Argo floats per year since 2015.
The international Argo Programme currently has a network of some 4,000 Argo floats taking measurements in the world’s oceans.
The story of Danu’s 2019-2020 Atlantic circuit will feature in W M Nixon’s up-coming Sailing on Saturday here