Underway – Specialized personnel in oceanography, meteorology, hydrography and buoyage from the Argentine Navy, aboard the icebreaker ARA “Almirante Irízar”, launched the first of three profiling buoys in the Drake Passage, sent by the Woods Hole Oceanographics Institution, for the international ARGO program.
During the crossing and prior to its launch, the buoy was set up, activated and linked to the satellite to confirm its correct emission and operation. Once the “Irízar” reached the strategic point established for this first positioning, it was launched into the sea.
Second Warrant Officer Ramón Miño, in charge of the Meteorological Station on board, explained that “once launched, the buoy submerges to 2,000 meters while collecting and recording data such as water temperature and salinity at different depths, which are sent by satellite. After ten days, the device emerges and remains adrift on the ocean currents, providing periodic information.”
During this campaign, in addition to the buoy launched in the Drake Passage, two other strategic points were identified: in the Weddell Sea, southeast of the Orkney Islands, and in the Bellingshausen Sea, west of the Antarctic Peninsula. In turn, the work team will carry out bottom sampling tasks, bathymetry in bays such as López Bertodano or Esperanza and buoyage work.
One of the main environmental benefits of this type of buoy is that they remain working for a period of approximately 5 years, after which they biodegrade and are replaced by others.