CRUISE SUMMARY
The cruise 104 of ORV Sagar Kanya was conducted in the Arabian Sea with the following objectives:
To study the oceanographic processes that govern the flux of carbon and other biogenic elements during the monsoon,
To understand the physical processes that trigger and transport the carbon in the monsoon regime of the Arabian Sea and
To study the distribution of aerosol particles in the monsoon influenced Arabian Sea.
The cruise started from Mormugao harbour on 20.7.95 towards the southwest coast. The ship occupied 39 CTD stations and 19 XBT stations for observations. The first 20 and last five CTD observations were made on the shelf for studying upwelling. Though all sections have signatures of upwelling, it was more prominent at the section off Mangalore. Strong southward drift all along the cruise with intense westerlies was felt. Seatruth parameters were collected at every six hourly interval. Less wind was observed along the south and it ranged to the maximum towards the farthest northwest. Water samples were collected for analyses of oxygen, nutrients, pH, alkalinity and total carbon dioxide at 31 stations. The results suggest deepening of thermocline south of about 14 N and shallowed towards the north. Turbulence dominated the biological production at the surface causing changes in total carbon dioxide. Water samples were collected for chlorophyll concentration and productivity studies. Shallow stations registered higher biomass values compared to the deep stations. Zooplankton prodution was low in Goa region compared to Bombay, Mangalore and Cochin. Nitrous oxide and methane were measured from samples collected at JGOFS stations and CTD stations. Surface sea air was also monitored on daily basis.
After completing the observations, the ship sailed back and arrived at Mormugao harbour on 12 August 1995.
PARTICIPANTS
Scientific
Component
P.M.A.
Bhattathiri
Chief Scientist ( NIO Goa)
S.Raghukumar
NIO, Goa
R.Mohanraju
NIO, Goa
V.
Subramaniam
NIO, Goa
Mangesh
U. Gauns
NIO, Goa
Surekha
Sawant
NIO, Goa
A.S.
Muralinath
NIO, Goa
P.M.
Muraleedharan
NIO, Goa
A.
Almeida
NIO, Goa
M.
Dileepkumar
NIO, Goa
A.
Rajendran
NIO, Goa
P.V.
Shirodkar
NIO, Goa
M.D.
George
NIO, Goa
S.N.
De Souza
NIO, Goa
V.V.S.S.
Sharma
NIO, Goa
Sunoj
P. Raikar
NIO, Goa
Ganesh
Chandavale
Shipboard Trainee
T.C.
Gopalakrishnan
N.I.O. Regional Centre, Cochin
P.N.
Aravindakshan
N.I.O. Regional Centre, Cochin
R.
Rengarajan
PRL, Ahmedabad
M.
Dixit
PRL, Ahmedabad
T.K.
Sunil Kumar
PRL, Ahmedabad
Aditi
Pant
NCL, Pune