National Facility Research Vessel

Voyage Plans and Summaries

Franklin Voyage PlanNo. FR05/2001

Title

Monitoring ocean climate change around Australia.

Itinerary

Leg 1:
Depart Wellington, New Zealand, 1000 hrs Thursday 24 May, 2001
Arrive Nuku’alofa, Tonga, 1000 hrs Saturday 16 June, 2001

Leg 2:
Depart Nuku’alofa, Tonga, 1000 hrs Sunday 17 June, 2001
Arrive Apia, Western Samoa, 1000 hrs Saturday 7 July, 2001 (Western Samoa Local Time)

Principal Investigators

Susan E. Wijffels (Chief Scientist)
CSIRO Marine Research
GPO 1538
Hobart, Tasmania 7000 Australia
Phone: 03 6232 5450?Fax: 03 6232 5123
e-mail: Susan.Wijffels@marine.csiro.au

John Church, Bronte Tilbrook and Steve Rintoul
Antarctic CRC and CSIRO Marine Research

Nathan Bindoff
Antarctic Co-operative Research Centre, University of Tasmania

Mark Warner and Chris Sabine
University of Washington, Seattle, USA

John Bullister
NOAA-PMEL, Seattle, USA

Scientific Objectives

Establish a time series of full-depth repeat ocean measurements capable of resolving decadal and longer time scale changes in the structure and carbon storage of the oceans around Australia, from Antarctica to the equator.
Use these data to test climate model predictions and to determine whether and how fast climate is changing due to the Greenhouse Effect and/or natural decadal variability.

Cruise Objectives

The proposed work involves standard full depth CTD and Niskin bottle casts that measure salinity, temperature and pressure continuously and the major nutrients discretely. We will be relying on achieving WOCE accuracy in order to measure what might be small but significant changes at depth. Samples will be analysed on board for dissolved inorganic carbon concentrations (DIC) and alkalinity. Samples will also be collected for carbon isotope analyses. Through collaboration with the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratories and the University of Washington in the US we will be able to measure concentrations of freons, which are an important indicator of ventilation rates and are particularly useful for testing ocean circulation models.

Cruise Track

Starting in Wellington, Franklin will steam into deep water north of the Chatham Rise, and weather allowing will perform a test station. If all goes well, she will steam directly to ~170^o W, 50^o S where the meridional survey line begins. From here the ship will work northwards and westwards to near Chatham Island crossing a deep western boundary current (see Figure 1). From here, the track works northeastward recrossing the boundary current back to 170^o W. The sampling remains along 170^o W, until interrupted by a leg break in Tonga. On Leg 2, near 17^o S, the meridional line will also be interrupted in order to complete an additional crossing of the deep boundary currents found between 170^o W and the Tonga-Kermedac Ridge. After completing this short zonal line, the 170^o W meridional line resumes until interrupted again near 10^o S for a section across the deep Samoa Passage. From here the meridional line is completed to the equator along 192^o W.

Time Estimates

At 11kns and repeating the sampling dictated by the past WOCE line P15, we anticipate reaching Tonga on June 16, 2001, having ceased work after station number 67. Leg 2 will consist of stations 68-130, with a 77-hour steam between the last station at the equator and arriving in Apia. Total CTD time is about 22 days, time steaming at 11 knots is about 23 days, total distance steamed about 5970nm. A list of stations and estimated ETA’s will be supplied to the Master at the start of the cruise.

Franklin Equipment

CTD/Hydro system:

24 bottle CTD frame, pylon, dual sensor SeaBird CTD units, altimeter, 24 10L Niskin bottles, tensiometer at termination and at the block. Processing required for salts, oxygens and nutrients samples.

NOTES:

Franklin’s 10L bottles will be used as spares - the primary Niskins to be used will be supplied by John Bullister from NOAA-PMEL. This is to avoid contamination of the CFC measurements. To ensure the lowest possible background in the Franklin set, we request these be ‘weathered’ for as long as possible before the cruise i.e. left outside or on fantail, open in the weather to degas the PVC.
To maintain as stable a temperature as possible in the hydrochemistry laboratory, the weather door between the clean container and the chemistry laboratory must be closed.
As much as possible, CTD data processing to be done at sea to help ensure that instrument errors will be picked up in near real time.

Clean container: this container will be utilised for CO2 analysis of both underway and deep ocean water samples. Services required are as FR09/2000 and set up will be overseen by Bronte Tilbrook in the Hobart port period before FR04/2001.

NOTES:

We request to not run the Chloropac system at all during FR05 because the measurements will be made on water from the fire mains line and the Chloropac system could interfere with the measurements.
Request a fire hose to be run overboard from mains outlet near the bosun's store to improve the flushing time of seawater in the fire mains to improve the measurement quality by reducing the time for seawater to travel through the fire mains line.

Post Cruise Data Delivery: We request receiving calibrated TSG and meteorological data as soon as possible after the cruise, and final CTD data within 3 months of the cruise ending.

Underway Measurements: ADCP, TSG, meteorological suite, GPS, DGPS and 3-D attitude.

User Equipment

Chemical analysis van for chlorofluorocarbons (NOAA-PMEL/University of Washington). Services required for this container are being discussed directly between the operations officer (Ron Plaschke) and NOAA-PMEL.

Personnel List

LEG 1

Neil White, CMR, Chief Scientist/CTD watch leader
Ming Feng, CMR, CTD watch leader
New Electronics tech. CMR, CTD watch
Mark Pretty, CMR, CO2
George Anderson, USA, CO2
Fred Menzia, USA, CFC
Regina Cesario, USA, CFC
Mark Underwood, ORV, Electronics
Lindsay Pender, ORV, Computing/CTD watch
Val Latham, ORV, Hydrochemistry
Dave Terhell, ORV, Hydrochemistry
Neale Johnston, ORV, Hydrochemistry

LEG 2

John Church, CMR, Chief Scientist/CTD watch leader
Mark Rosenberg, Antarctic CRC, CTD watch leader
Michele Hollister, CMR, CTD watch
Unknown, CMR, CO2
George Anderson, USA, CO2
Fred Menzia, USA, CFC
Regina Cesario, USA, CFC
Lindsay McDonald, ORV, Electronics
Bob Beattie, ORV, Computing/CTD watch
Gary Critchly, ORV, Hydrochemistry
Mark Raynor, ORV, Hydrochemistry
Neale Johnston, ORV, Hydrochemistry

This cruise plan is in accordance with the directions of the National Facility Steering Committee for the Research Vessel Franklin.

John Wallace
Ships Manager

Figure 1: Franklin cruise track on FR05/2001 (black line) and locations of hydrographic stations (circles). Every 10th station is highlighted and the estimated arrival date marked (with no allowance for bad weather). Also marked, as red crosses, are the CTD stations to be occupied by the NIWA (New Zealand) cruise concurrent with the Franklin cruise. These data, together with Ridgway’s cruises, close the Tasman Sea ‘box’.

Updated: 31/01/03