FK180310 SCOPE-Falkor cruise, Seaglider 148, Mission 15

The SCOPE-Falkor cruise was a month long expedition, primarily to conduct mapping of the deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM) within a mesoscale cyclonic eddy. The procedure was to utilize two Long Range Autonomous Vehicles (AUVs) near the center of the eddy and to capture the microbial ecology within the DCM over several diel cycles. Two autonomous Seagliders, sg148 (mission 15) and sg626 (mission 2) were deployed along the exterior boundary of the cyclonic eddy to conduct spatial surveys of salinity, chlorophyll, optics, and oxygen, diving generally from 200 to 600 meters depth. Since the R/V Falkor and the LRAUVs would be drifting near each other and sampling close to the center of the cyclonic eddy, both Seagliders were to give the regional context by simultaneously traversing the margin of the eastern edge of the cyclonic eddy and western edge of the anti-cyclonic eddy.