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3rd Baltic Earth Conference
Earth system changes and Baltic Sea coasts
Jastarnia, Hel peninsula, Poland
1 - 5 June 2020

BACC II


 

Article from Baltic Earth Newsletter 3 (June 2017):


FMI’s Baltic Sea Argo Update

by Tero Purokoski (tero.purokoski@fmi.fi) and Simo Siiriä, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland

In 2010 the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) decided to test the suitability of Argo-floats for the Baltic Sea. After contacting the float manufacturers it became evident that no-one else at that time was using the floats in the Baltic Sea like environment i.e. in a shallow and low-salinity sea.

In 2011 the first Baltic test dive was performed and in May 2012 one float was deployed into the Gulf of Bothnia in the northern Baltic Sea. The float operated flawlessly until December when it was recovered by a coast guard helicopter.

In 2013 two floats were deployed: one to the Gulf of Bothnia and the other to the central Baltic Sea (i.e. Gotland Deep area). Since that FMI has had continuously at least one float measuring in the Baltic Sea. Both bio-optical and basic (CTD) floats are used. The routes of the floats are shown in map below.

At present FMI has three active floats in the Baltic Sea. One (WMO #6902024) at the Gotland Deep area surfacing weekly and one (WMO #6902023) in the Gulf of Bothnia. That float, nicknamed “Ape1”, is our oldest float and now on its third mission. The first six month mission was in 2012. The second was from May 2014 till November 2015. After each mission it has been serviced and recalibrated at Teledyne Webb Research. Altogether, it has performed almost 500 dives during its lifetime.

The third float was just deployed in the beginning of May to the Gulf of Bothnia. In addition to CTD it has also an oxygen sensor aboard. Our intention is to recover that float in summer 2018.

We will deploy one more float at the end of May into the Bay of Bothnia. It will be the first time that we operate an Argo-float in that northern sea area. Salinity there is very low and there will be ice cover during winter time. Challenging dives ahead!

Figure 1. Routes of FMI’s Baltic floats during 2012-2017. Dots indicate the latest position / recovery point of the float. Credit Simo Siiriä (FMI).

For inquiries about this research, please directly refer to the authors.


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Last update of this page: 22 June 2017