* June 2010*

Integrated Ocean Observation in the Ligurian Sea: DYFAMED mooring

EuroSITES partner CNRS has just completed a succesful maintenance of the DYFAMED moorings on R/V Tethys II. This included the sediment trap mooring and the collection of a 12 month dataset of CTD and currents.The new mooring line consists of 2 sediment traps at 200 and 1000m, 8 CTD sensors and 2 currents sensors below the sediment traps. This stand-alone mooring will be maintained in June 2011. In addition, a glider is running the Nice-Calvi transect from 0 to 1000m depth

The PAP site has a makeover

The EuroSITES PAP mooring was redeployed in the North Atlantic on 1st June 2010. The mooring is full-depth with a Met Office Ocean Data Acquisition System (ODAS) buoy at the surface, already transmitting meteorological and ocean datasets in near real-time.

“This is a huge achievement marking the first collaboration between the UK Met Office and NERC (NOC) since the move of the Met Office marine engineering team to the NOC in Southampton in 2008,” explained Richard Lampitt (EuroSITES Coordinator and cruise P.I.) from onboard the RRS James Clark Ross.

The new mooring design is a great enhancement of the ocean observation capability of the North Atlantic time-series site.

Visit the EuroSITES PAP cruise diary to find out more

APRIL 2010: EuroSITES 2nd Annual meeting

EuroSITES Consortium and Oversight Committee members met in Trieste, Italy for the 2nd Annual meeting between 20th-22nd April 2010. An open session was held on 21st April for external projects. The meeting was a success despite the travel trials as a result of the Icelandic volcano disruptions. A video conference will be held in late June 2010 with all partners as a follow-up.

*April 8th 2010: New mooring deployed at ESTOC*
On 8th April 2010 EuroSITES partner ICCM led a cruise to the ESTOC observatory where the mooring was redeployed at 3pm local time. Positioned at 29.04N, -15.50W north of Gran Canaria, Canary Islands the ESTOC mooring includes a full set of sensors to monitor physical and biogeochemical environmental variables. In addition, the deployment included a pH sensor (at 1-1.5m) developed by partner ULPGC.

December 2009:

NEPTUNE Canada LIVE on 8th Dec 2009! The Pacific Ocean is live…online for you to explore! NEPTUNE Canada is starting operations and encourages you to join us for this very exciting event: 10 a.m. – 11 a.m. PST (6-7pm GMT)
Online via webcast at http://www.neptunecanada.ca>

November 2009:

EuroSITES WP3 held a technical meeting on 23rd-24th November to discuss technical issues for water column variables specifically focusing on biogeochemical variables e.g. pCO2, nutrients, chl-a fluorescence and pH. The meeting was hosted by partner CNRS at the OOV, Villefranche, France.

October 2009:

EuroSITES partners OGS performed the maintenance and upgraded the second mooring line of the E2-M3A site, Adriatic Sea, including the deployment of a surface buoy. OGS carried out these operations on board the R/V Explora from 12-16 October 2009 and measurements (for calibration TD cast and water samples) were taken at the site during the MSM 12-3 cruise on board the R/V Maria S. Merian.

ESONET Second All Regions and Best Practice Workshop

EuroSITES participants attended the ESONET 2nd All Regions and Best Practice Workshop in October 2009. The 2nd Best Practices workshop video presentations and All Regions oral presentations are now on-line:
http://www.esonet-noe.org/news_and_events/esonet_workshops_and_meetings/

3rd GEO European Projects Workshop

Presentations and posters from the 3rd GEO European Projects Workshop held in Istanbul on 8-9 October 2009 are now available online: Click Here

September 2009:

Seabed observatory is redeployed off Patras, Greece
Following the successful deployment of a seabed observatory off Patras, Greece in May 2009, EuroSITES partners NERC-NOCS and HCMR successfully serviced the seabed observatory in September 2009. The seabed observatory is inside an active composite pockmark outside Patras harbour, Greece. The observatory was re-deployed at a position closer to the centre of the pockmark, chosen to provide a second dataset. The new experiment should have sufficient battery power for another 3-4 months.

September 2009: OceanObs'09: Between 21st-25th September 2009, over 600 ocean observationalists from more than 35 countries gathered together to discuss the current status and future developments in ocean observation. Science and technology/infrastructure were presented and the societal benefits and services. View the Final Draft Conference Statement and Community White papers online at: http://www.oceanobs09.net/. For OO'09 outreach information visit: http://outreach.eurosites.info/

August 2009: EuroSITES partners CNRS deployed the DYFAMED mooring in the NW Ligurian Sea (August 2009)

July 2009: Cruise to the PAP observatory, NE Atlantic: moorings and the mesopelagic
NERC-NOCS and CNRS participants joined the RRS Discovery (D341) on a 5 week process cruise to the Porcupine Abyssal Plain (PAP) site, NE Atlantic. To see the cruise diaries and onboard activities visit the EuroSITES Outreach pages or ClassRoom at Sea pages

July 2009: Arctic, oxygen dynamics on Polarstern
As part of the HYPOX FP7 project, AWI scientists (Michael Klages et al) are currently onboard the Polarstern at the Hausgarten site, Fram Strait. In situ chamber incubations and O2 optodes on moorings will be deployed as well as flux measurements in retrieved cores will contribute to oxygen consumption parameters in the water column and sediments. This work also contributes to ESONET (FP6 NoE) and HERMIONE (FP7) [HYPOX is a FP7 project focusing on oxygen dynamics and fluxes in coastal and open ocean to contribute to assessing the status of ocean hypoxia. Web site: www.hypox.net] The first cruise diary is available as a pdf here. and the second here. and the third and final report here.

Upcoming Meetings and Events

SEPTEMBER 2010

Future Ocean: Kiel, 13-16th September

2nd ESF Marine Board: Brussels, 16 September

GEOSS: Evolution of Ocean Observing Systems, Seattle, U.S.A., 19 September

OCTOBER 2010

EurOCEAN, Ostend, 12-13 October

MARITIME RAPID ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT, Lerici, Italy, 18-22 October

Past meetings: January - May 2010:

Ocean Sciences meeting 2010:
22-26 February 2010: Portland, Oregon
Web site:http://www.agu.org/meetings/os10/
*15th October 2009 abstract submission deadline*

International Conference on Marine Data and Information Systems - IMDIS 2010 Paris, 29th-31st March, 2010 First Call for Papers: IMDIS 2010 will be organised in four sessions where developments on standards, data circulation, services, and interoperability will be shown and compared: Abstract submission: Open now: Extended abstract (1 – 2 pages) must be submitted through SeaDataNet web pages: http://www.seadatanet.org/imdis2010

EuroSITES Annual meeting 2010
20th-22nd April 2010, Trieste, Italy. http://www2.ogs.trieste.it/eurosites/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

42nd International Liège Colloquium on Ocean Dynamics
Multiparametric observation and analysis of the Sea
Liège, Belgium, 26th-30th April 2010
*Register online and send abstracts* http://modb.oce.ulg.ac.be/colloquium/
Deadline for contributions: 31st December 2009

GEO GEPW-4 workshop, Athens 29-30th April 2010

EGU 2010, Vienna 2nd-7th May 2010 http://meetings.copernicus.org/egu2010/

EuroSITES Coordinators will present in a special session dedicated to European observatories:
Session: GI3: "Towards establishing permanent infrastructures for ocean
observations: instrumentation, measurement strategies and methods for ocean observatories". Conveners: Christoph Waldmann and Laura Beranzoli | Co-Conveners: Ingrid Puillat-Felix , Laura Beranzoli , Ralph Stephen More information and registration on:
http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2010/session/1948/observatories

39th CIESM Congress 2010:
10 - 14 May 2010, Venice, Italy
Web site: www.ciesm.org/marine/congresses/index.htm