The Navy Alliance multi-purpose research vessel arrived yesterday in the Icelandic port of Isafjordur to make a stop that will allow the alternation of a part of the scientific team of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), at the end of the first part of the naval campaign between the seas of Iceland and Greenland, north of the Arctic Circle.
The campaign, organized with NATO's Center for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE), has the main purpose of studying the air / water interaction and the relative ventilation that is created in the Arctic Sea, with the aim of achieving a better understanding of the circulation of marine currents.
In the areas of sea explored, characterized by ice and low temperatures, the researchers, with the support of the Alliance crew, have performed, up to now, measurements of electrical conductivity parameters such as temperature, depth, geochemical analysis and speed of the sound in water, bati-thermographic surveys, bathymetry measurements and meteorological measurements (marine and aerial), in addition to the correlation and statistical collection of the acquired data, as part of the Iceland-Greenland Seas Project multidisciplinary program - IGP (https: //www.bas.ac.uk/project/afis/).
Among the instruments used a meteorological buoy released in the area of operations to detect meteorological and marine data to support the activity of CTD (measurements and measurements of electrical conductivity, temperature and depth of water) and some semi-autonomous vehicles submerged in remote control called oceanic gliders that have the function of measuring the marine currents and the characteristics that make up the various layers of the Arctic Ocean.
Match last 17 January from La Spezia, under the command of Captain of Fregata Daniele Cantù, ship Alliance can count on a crew composed of military 47 to which, for the occasion, is added a research group consisting of 22 scientists from different international organizations. Responsible for the scientific mission is Dr. Robert Pickart, WHOI scientist, assisted by the Chief Military Navy Mission, Captain of Vascello Massimiliano Nannini.
The ship will resume its activity at sea next 26 February, to return to Italy in April 2018.