4. Standard research operations

COLLECTION OF SAMPLES

• Atmospheric aerosols;
• Sea waters;
• Phytoplankton (protoplankton) and zoo-plankton;
• Larval and juvenile fish;
• Benthic epifauna and infauna;
• Layer sediments;
• Sea birds.

PHYSICAL MEASUREMENTS IN SITU

• Meteorological measurements conforming the "ship" standard;
• Solar radiation;
• Measuring winds components and air temperature in the near-water layer;
• Aerosol, gas concentration and humidity above sea surface;
• Vertical profiling of basic properties of the atmosphere, seawater, and marine environment:
     - solar radiation through the clean atmosphere, atmospheric optical depth;
     - temperature and salinity;
     - water currents;
     - light attenuation at selected wavelengths;
     - photosynthetic active radiation, (FAR);
     - light transmission in the sea at selected wavelengths;
     - chlorophyll fluorescence;
     - active acoustics: seabed mapping and inspection of objects on the bottom, water column
       echosounding;
     - passive acoustics: measurements of underwater ambient noise.
  

POSTPROCESSING OF HYDROPHYSICAL DATASETS

• Distributions of sea temperature, salinity and density within the basic scales of their variability: large scale, fine-structure and micro-structure;
• Parameters of internal waves;
• Vertical distributions of mean velocities of the water flow;
• Dynamical height distributions;
• Turbulent diffusion coefficients of heat, salinity and passive suspended matter;
• The value and distributions of Brünt-Väisäla parameter and Richardson number;
• Dissipation rates within turbulent inhomogeneities of the temperature, salinity and density fields in the sea;
• Power spectrum analysis of the temperature, salinity and density fluctuations;
• Daily doses of the sun radiation at sea surface and within the water column;
• Vertical distribution of light attenuation coefficient at several selected wavelengths;
• Diffusive light attenuation coefficients in the sea in the FAR range;
• Sound propagation conditions: vertical sound speed profiles;
• Seabed bathymetry and morphometry;
• Spatial distribution of marine organisms and gas bubbles in water column and at a seabed;
• Characteristics of underwater ambient noise;
• Wind speed distribution in the air-sea interface layer;
• Air humidity and temperature distributions near the sea surface;
• Spatial distributions of sea surface temperature and the chlorophyll in the near-surface layer;
• Degree of foam coverage of at the free sea surface.

PROPERTIES STUDIED

• Suspended matter composition;
• Oxygen content;
• pH and alkalinity;
• Nutrients composition;
• Organic and total carbon content;
• Heavy metals concentration;
• Phytoplankton (protoplankton) and zoo-plankton composition and abundance
• Particles and plankton distribution;
• Epifauna and infauna composition and abundance;
• Primary production measurements;
• Food composition of selected marine organisms;
• Photosynthetic pigments composition and concentration;
• Toxic compounds in seawater and bottom sediments;
• Geochemical characteristics of sediments;
• Radionuclides content in seawater, bottom sediments and marine organisms;
• Bottom sediments and marine organisms.