I have received today the first solid information from the Spanish vessels management comission that is preparing the 2013 schedule. Pending official confirmation, our SPURS cruise on board the Sarmiento de Gamboa (http://www.utm.csic.es/sarmiento.asp) should start on 14 March 2013 somewhere in the Caribbean (connected to a previous cruise in the region) and finish on April 20 in Vigo (NW Spain).
As no major changes are expected, it is time to start the scientific planning. I attach the original cruise plan (early 2010) drafted after some discussions within the international SPURS team. At that time it was expected to be the first SPURS cruise, in spring 2012, and hence moorings and other deployments were included in the plan. Later on the overall SPURS planning was changed, and our cruise was delayed by one year.
In the SPURS meeting in Seattle last January, we envisaged the possibility of having the Sarmiento cruise in coincidence with the Endeavour, and then thinking on some parallel/complementary sampling. According to the last news forwarded by Ray in August, it seems this will be the case.
Then I suggest starting a discussion within this list to propose a feasible implementation of a 2 vessels campaign. Our 2010 cruise plan can be substantially modified, as it was drafted to meet the SPURS needs and this is still our current philosophy. We can accomodate on board several participants from other SPURS groups (probably up to 12-15) with their specific instrumentation and/or measurement objectives, either those mentioned in the 2010 plan or others. Our available equipment will include VM-ADCP, underway surface TS+fluorometer, CTD+LADCP+rosette, SeaSoar, multibeam echosounder, meteo package, 10-12 surface salinity drifters, and maybe 1-2 Argo floats. We can of course deploy instruments from groups not embarking on the Sarmiento.
You are invited to send suggestions and proposals of participation, so that we can have a consistent and final planning on time to implement all the logistic requirements.
Best regards,
Jordi
-- Jordi Font Institut de Ciencies del Mar
Email: jfont@icm.csic.es CMIMA - CSIC
http://www.icm.csic.es Dept. Physical Oceanography
Tel: +34 93 230 95 12/00 Passeig Maritim, 37-49
Fax: +34 93 230 95 55 08003 Barcelona
Email: jfont@icm.csic.es CMIMA - CSIC
http://www.icm.csic.es Dept. Physical Oceanography
Tel: +34 93 230 95 12/00 Passeig Maritim, 37-49
Fax: +34 93 230 95 55 08003 Barcelona
