Investigator completes cold water trials in Antarctic waters

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

THIS MEDIA RELEASE WAS DISTRIBUTED BY CSIRO ON MONDAY 2 MARCH 2015

The new Marine National Facility research vessel Investigator has returned to Hobart after successfully completing its cold water trials, which took the vessel to 65°S 146°E, which is about 2,500 km south of Hobart.

The Executive Director of the project to build and test the vessel, Toni Moate said the voyage to the ice-edge tested out key capabilities of the ship, to ensure the vessel can operate in low water temperatures.

The ship has been designed to operate in water temperatures of -2ºC to +32ºC, from the Antarctic ice edge to the tropics.

“On this cold water commissioning voyage we tested everything from the winches to the dynamic positioning system, to make sure they were operational in very cold conditions,” Ms Moate said.

The voyage left Hobart in late January and returned this week. Work that occurred on board included:

  • Commissioning equipment in the Atmospheric and Air Chemistry Laboratories. Investigator is the first Australian research vessel to have laboratories dedicated to collecting aerosol data.
  • Testing and opportunistic seafloor and sub-seafloor sonar mapping in areas not previously surveyed.
  • Testing and opportunistic gravity meter readings, which will improve understanding of the crustal structure of the region
  • Operating on-deck scientific equipment handling systems such as winches, A-Frame, coring boom and CTD boom.
  • Operating communications systems and video conferencing live from the ice-edge.
  • Testing cold water survival and ship manoeuvring systems.

One of the Marine National Facility’s Operations Officers, Max McGuire, was on board for the voyage.

“It’s the most southerly voyage any Marine National Facility vessel has ever travelled, so everyone was really excited to reach the 65 degree south line, which is around 90 nautical miles from the Antarctic continent,” Mr McGuire said.

On board were scientists from the Queensland University of Technology, Melbourne University, CSIRO and the University of Wollongong, who were testing atmospheric research capabilities and equipment.

Under direction of an independent Steering Committee, the Marine National Facility is owned and operated by CSIRO on behalf of the nation.

Investigator’s first research voyage is scheduled to leave Hobart on 22 March to deploy deep sea oceanographic moorings in the Southern Ocean. The voyage is a collaboration between the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, the Integrated Marine Observing System, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, and will be led by CSIRO’s Professor Tom Trull.


Animating Investigator’s science capabilities: moorings

A mooring is a long anchored line of scientific equipment and floats, deployed to collect data from the ocean for 1-2 years.

Surface moorings collect ocean, meteorological and atmospheric data, like wind speed, wave height and temperature and sub-surface moorings measure things like temperature and conductivity (saltiness) at the same depth, across an ocean current.

This animation explains how this equipment is used on board Investigator, Australia’s new Marine National Facility research vessel.

Transcript:


RV Investigator: atmospheric research capabilities

Australia’s new Marine National Facility research vessel, Investigator, is so jam packed full of scientific equipment we have produced some fact sheets, so you can read about all of the capabilities.

There are five categories: oceanographic research, geoscience research, biological research, atmospheric research and Investigator.

Check out the atmospheric research fact sheet!

RV Investigator's atmospheric research fact sheet RV Investigator's atmospheric research fact sheet (back)

Download the fact sheet:


The weather research radar on the monkey island!

Also located on RV Investigator’s monkey island is the main mast, which houses a weather research radar.

Scientists hope to answer some of the big questions about weather, climate, and the atmospheric conditions in remote areas of the world’s oceans with the a dual-polarisation radar.

It will collect cloud and weather data from clouds towering 20 kilometres over the tropical ocean to cold ice storms in the Antarctic, in a 150 kilometre radius from the ship, and will have a broad range of research applications.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.


Check out Investigator’s air chemistry and aerosol laboratories!

One of the new capabilities for Australia’s Marine National Facility research vessel is atmospheric research.

Check out the plans, and the photos of the fit-out onboard RV Investigator!

RV Investigator's atmospheric laboratories

RV Investigator's foremastRV Investigator under construction 1

RV Investigator under construction 1

RV Investigator's atmospheric laboratories 2  RV Investigator under construction 5 RV Investigator under construction 5 RV Investigator under construction 5RV Investigator's atmospheric laboratoriesRV Investigator's atmospheric laboratories


Science onboard RV Investigator is going atmospheric!

One of the new and exciting capabilities for Australia’s Marine National Facility is in the scientific discipline of atmospheric research.

There are two dedicated atmospheric laboratories onboard RV Investigator, and a suite of instrumentation that will passively, continuously, collect data wherever the vessel goes.

Part of this suite of instruments is the nephelometer.

The what?

It’s a tricky name, nephelometer, which comes from the Greek word for cloud, nephos.

NephelometerIt uses light beams to tell us about the particles in the atmosphere – it can tell us how clean the air is.

Did you know that light coming from the sun can actually be deflected by the particles suspended in our atmosphere? That’s why when it’s a hazy day you can’t see very far.

The nephelometer can tell us how much light from the sun is making it through the atmosphere and how much is being reflected back into space!

The nephelometer that will be used onboard RV Investigator has been delivered to Jason Ward (below), from the Atmosphere and Land Observation and Assessment section of CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research.

Nephelometer


RV Investigator’s aerosol laboratory

RV Investigator will have a two dedicated laboratories for atmospheric research, an aerosol laboratory located at the bow of the ship and an a air chemistry laboratory on the foredeck.

Air will be drawn into the laboratories via an aerosol sampling tube, which is inside the foremast and the inlet is about 24 metres above the sea surface.

To give you an idea of what’s being built, here are some drawings and a photo to help to explain.

The first diagram from the Draft General Arrangement, is a cross section indicating the location of the mast and laboratory.

RV Investigator's draft inboard profile - aerosol laboratory

This second image is a bird’s eye view of the laboratory beneath the deck level, with the dots indicating the tie down sockets.

RV Investigator's draft focsle Deck - aerosol laboratory

And this is the actual laboratory under construction. You’re looking facing forward in the ship, the very tip of the bow, and the silver dots on the floor are the tie down sockets.

RV Investigator's aerosol laboratory


Follow