NZDF helps launch drifting buoy in Southern Ocean
The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) has helped launch a new-generation drifting buoy in the Southern Ocean that captures data vital for forecasting weather and designing ships.
The buoy was launched this morning. Lieutenant Commander Damian Gibbs, the Commanding Officer of offshore patrol vessel HMNZS Wellington, said MetService would be launching four drifting buoys from the ship during the last leg of a three-phase resupply mission to the sub-Antarctic islands, which ends onMarch 18.
MetService is launching the buoys for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, one of the world’s oldest, largest and most important centres for ocean, earth and climate science research.
“We are pleased that we are able to support MetService and also the Department of Conservation in their work in this remote region,” Lieutenant Commander Gibbs said.
Steve Knowles, Network Operations Manager at MetService, said this marked the first time the new generation of drifting buoys would be used in the Southern Ocean.
“These buoys capture data, which is used in predicting sea and weather conditions such as atmospheric pressure and sea surface temperature,” said Mr Knowles, who is leading a six-member team from the agency.
He team is also carrying out maintenance work on the meteorological buildings on Campbell Island.
“The buoys also capture the height of waves, which is vital in designing ships that would be operating in the Southern Ocean,” Mr Knowles said.
Lieutenant Commander Gibbs said on Campbell Island, Department of Conservation staff and a French naval officer, Aspirant Alex Moisset, would be installing a refurbished cross on the grave of French sailor Paul Duris.
Duris, 24, died of typhoid during a French expedition to observe the transit of Venus in 1874.
Campbell Island, which is 700 kilometres south of the South Island, is the most southerly of the five New Zealand sub-Antarctic groups, and one of the cornerstones of New Zealand’s sub-Antarctic World Heritage site.
