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July 14, 2010

CTD grill

BY: Silvia García

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© OCEANA / Carlos Suárez

 

We are once again in Seco de los Olivos to take measurements with the CTD. These measurements will give us information about the physical and chemical composition of these waters, increasing the knowledge of the area and the information available to work in pro of its protection.

We designed a grill with 16 sampling points with which we’ll cover the study area. The work is repetitive: we get to the site, we prepare the CTD, we put it in the water with the help of the winch, which would allow us to submerge the CTD to 1000m depth. We bring it back up and go the next site. All that up to 16 times. It takes us more or less time to reach the seabed depending on the depth, which varies between 630 and 110 meters at the chosen sites. In total, it takes us exactly 8 hours to finish the work.

On our way back to port, we study some of the data collected by the temperature sensor, which indicates a gradual decrease as depth increases, from 23ºC down to 13ºC, stabilising after 50m, as is the case in the entire Mediterranean.