Some Earth Observation Imagery used on JR200

25 March, 2009 RRS James Clark Ross

jr200 Autumn Science Cruise in the Scotia Sea

The current series of Ecosystem Science cruises have run since 2006. The series is examining latitudinal changes in the biology of the Scotia Sea over the Antarctic Season. So far we have completed Austral Spring and Summer cruises, currently doing an Autumn cruise and have a Winter cruised planed for next year.

Through out these cruises we depend on having up-to-date satellite imagery in order to locate, optimise and understand the areas of the Scotia we visit on each cruise. The each cruise has a series of stations in the same location and by looking at the near-real-time information from the ship, our scientific instrumentation and satellite imagery, we can accurately categories the stations into high and low productivity, ice conditions and influence from oceanographic fronts.