The water column profiler, the first component of the EMSO-PT Cadiz Station, was successfully tested for the second time in Sesimbra on October 26. The test was conducted on the IPMA vessel, the NI Diplodus, by our researcher Carlos Sousa with the collaboration of Luciano Junior (CIMA-UAlg) and Zuzanna Stroynowski (IPMA/CCMAR).

The test was carried out under challenging conditions and with waves close to three meters. However, the team was able to position the profiler drifting for one hour, to observe the mechanical behaviour of the equipment and the sensitivity of the sensors that measure temperature, salinity, turbidity, dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll up to 150 meters deep.

This test allowed to confirm the capacities of the profiler for the collection of data at down to 150 meters of the water column, providing four complete profiles very homogeneous. With these results, the profiler is now considered ready to be permanently installed in Sagres, which is a component key of the Cadiz Station as foreseen in the EMSO-PT project.

As a member of the EMSO-PT consortium, CCMAR is a pioneer in the continuous and autonomous acquisition of this type of data that will promote the knowledge of the functioning of the European ocean and evaluate the consequences of climate change on the structure of the water column and the functioning of the coastal ocean, to improve the strategy for mitigation of the effects of climate change.