NOC News Round Up - 21 July 2017

Gliding through the Barents Sea This week the team on board the RRS James Clark Ross have deployed a glider from the NOC's fleet into the Barents Sea. This glider will travel through the sea in order to get a better understanding of changing sea-ice levels. This NOC-led expedition forms part of the NERC funded Changing Arctic Ocean programme, which aims to better understand how the Arctic Ocean is responding to a changing climate. Read more about the programme on our website here. 'Gauging' tropical storm Don This week a tide gauge NOC scientists installed in St Lucia has recorded the impact of tropical storm Don on tide levels. NOC scientist, Dr Angela Hibbert, said "Being able to monitor the impact of events like this tropical storm is important not only because it facilitates a rapid hazard warning and response systems, but also because it improves our understanding of how sea level responds locally to these storms and therefore helps us to plan for future events. It is a great example of how science can benefit communities, business and infrastructure at the coast." NOC's ROV helps investigate life in the Labrador Sea NOC's ROV Isis has been deployed from RRS Discovery this week as part of a University of Bristol led project ICY-LAB. This project aims to investigate controls on nutrient supply to the oceans and how they may change in the future. Below is an exert from the project blog, which can be found here; When you're in midst of a vast ocean, the unbreakable continuity of the undulating steely-blue waters at the surface can trick you into thinking it's a barren abyss that's void of life. However, within the first 200 metres of the descent, while the ROV was still warming up its 'arms', the computer monitors back onboard lit up with chaotic clouds of phytoplankton darting in all directions. Dazed fish and rays meandered before the robot's cameras, and the sky-blue colour of the water developed into a rich, full indigo as the kit sank lower and lower. The main laboratory was rapidly converted to a makeshift cinema as onlookers gathered to take in the spectacle.   This email was sent using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of: National Oceanography Centre · Waterfront Campus · European Way · Southampton · SO14 3ZH · United Kingdom