Tag Archives: Arctic Ocean

Gliders: The start of operations (Part 1)

After spending several months preparing our ocean gliders activities very carefully (see http://greenedge-expeditions.com/takuvik-glider-team-carries-test-deployments-slocum-gliders/), we finally  left Quebec city on board the Amundsen icebreaker. We spent the entire week of transit making final preparations for deployment. We installed all the communication gear.  We measured what we call the dark offsets of each of the scientific sensors (i.e. the baseline noise measurements).  We ran, for the nth time, simulated missions under a virtual ice floe (either the gliders have this capability of simulating missions, or we use a pocket-sized computer which is identical to that inside the glider).  

Continue reading Gliders: The start of operations (Part 1)

How to “QIK-up” a phytoplankton experiment on the ice

In order to see how phytoplankton cells (primary producers) could live in a changing environment with increasing irradiance and possible nutrient replenishment, we decided to investigate how both increasing factors could impact cell growth as well as their pigment and taxonomic composition, and production. In order to do this we set-up incubators on the ice… and here is how we did it: Continue reading How to “QIK-up” a phytoplankton experiment on the ice