We had a busy first day at sea. Among the highlights was deploying Prof. Chris Roman’s “wire flyer,” an ocean sensing system that is towed by the ship but is designed to quickly slide up and down a wire in the water column, taking measurements en route. A 2000lb weight holds the wire taut, and the operators “flies” the towed body by issuing commands to the fins.
Later that day, we deployed and retrieved a Conductivity, Temperature, Depth (CTD) sensor system.
The CTD measures many of same ocean parameters as the wire flyer, but takes water samples in one place only. The wire flyer can provide continuous readings.