Testing and service the construction

The functioning of the measurement instruments is extensively tested at NIOZ. The construction itself can only be tested if it is in use at its destination. The first time we used the dust-collecting buoys -together with sediment traps- was in the period 2012-2015 in the DustTraffic project.  It started with a monitoring experiment and since then it has been converted into long-term time series of measurements.  Once a year we service our instruments that are monitoring Saharan dust that is transported to the Atlantic Ocean. We are collecting this material continuously with different instruments that are placed under the main dust plume leaving the Northwest part of the African continent.  Watch the video how we pick up the dust-collecting buoys, service them and collect the samples.

Video: Jan-Berend Stuut

Expedition 64PE464

It is always exciting to find back the instruments that we deployed long time ago (in this case: one year) at sea. The dust-collecting buoys have an area with a diameter of about 3 miles in which they can move freely, depending on wind and currents. The sea state did not allow to see the buoy on the radar but through a connection with the iridium satellite, twice a day we receive an update on the buoys’ positions, meteo conditions, battery- and filter status etc. As a result, we know the actual position of the buoy relatively precisely. Nonetheless it is always a big relief to actually see the buoy floating about. The buoys have a diameter of three meters but at sea they seem very tiny!  Blog Dust expedition 64PE464