To get 2024 off to a good start, a CNRS SeaExplorer glider managed by the SAM team at the MIO has been deployed. Tuesday 9 January 2024 on the MOOSE T02 radial (Marseille-Minorca) aboard the OSU vessel Pytheas Astroidès (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 enable the glider to make 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 supervision of Anthony Bosse (Assistant Physicist CNAP / OSU Pytheas / SNO MOOSE).
This endurance radial has been repeated every winter since 2010 as part of the MOOSE National Observation Service, in order to monitor the long-term evolution of deep convection off the Gulf of Lion.
After the glider missions of the BioSWOT-Med and APERO campaigns in 2023, this operation is the MIO's first contribution to recurrent observation as part of MOOSE, and to the restructuring of the Glider National Park, formerly managed by the DT-INSU.
