In May 2010, the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) joins forces with the UK Met Office to enhance ocean monitoring at the Porcupine Abyssal Plain sustained observatory (PAP-SO), the longest multidisciplinary open-ocean time-series observatory in Europe. This collaboration should both advance scientific understanding of the ocean and improve climate prediction.
The PAP-SO is located in the North Atlantic off the Irish continental margin, where the water depth exceeds 4000 metres. With over 20 years of time-series research, it has grown from an environmental study site established in 1989 to become an important focus for international, multidisciplinary scientific research and monitoring.
The PAP-SO is currently operated by the NOC. It is one of nine key ocean observatories across Europe in the EuroSITES network and is part of the OceanSITES international network of deep-water reference stations.
A memorandum of understanding between the NOC and the Met Office will affirm the vision for sustained observations at the PAP site beyond 2010.
'We are delighted with the collaboration with the UK Met Office because it marks the first collaboration between the NOC and Met Office at the PAP site since the relocation of the Met Office marine engineering team to the NOC in Southampton in 2008,' explains PAP-SO co-Principal Investigator Professor Richard Lampitt of the NOC.
Infrastructure already established at the PAP-SO since 2002 includes mooring lines and sensors. Ocean data are transmitted to shore within hours of collection and are sent as daily deliveries to global data assembly centres.
This year, the Met Office will supply an Ocean Data Acquisition System (ODAS) surface buoy with sensors to measure air pressure, air and sea temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, wave height and period. This will enable the first simultaneous monitoring of meteorological and ocean variables at the site.
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| Contact: Dr. Rory Howlett r.howlett@noc.soton.ac.uk 44-238-059-8490 National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (UK) Source:Eurekalert |
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