Deployment of a glider on the MOOSE T02 radial by the MIO/OSU Pytheas teams

To get the year 2024 off to a good start, a CNRS SeaExplorer glider managed by the SAM team at MIO was deployed on Tuesday January 9, 2024 on the MOOSE T02 radial (Marseille-Minorque) aboard the OSU Pytheas Astroidès vessel (pilot D. Malengros). The autonomous device, which records temperature, salinity, oxygen and fluorescence, was launched south of Riou Island by Nagib Bhairy and Jean-Luc Fuda (MIO), with Christopher Luneau (OSU Pytheas) completing the team by piloting it on land. To ensure that the glider makes a complete round trip along the radial, the three colleagues will take it in turns until the end of February, on a weekly basis, to monitor and pilot the glider 24/7 under the scientific direction of Anthony Bosse (Physicien-adjoint CNAP / OSU Pytheas / SNO MOOSE).

This endurance radial has been repeated as part of the MOOSE National Observation Service every winter since 2010, to monitor the long-term evolution of deep convection off the Gulf of Lion.

Following the glider missions of the BioSWOT-Med and APERO campaigns in 2023, this operation represents the first MIO contribution to recurrent observation within the MOOSE framework, and to the restructuring of the Glider National Park, formerly managed by the DT-INSU.