2024 R/V Thompson Transit

Float deployments on the R/V Thompson transit from Honolulu, Hawaiʻi to Apra Harbor, Guam.

A true cruise of opportunity, GO-BGC will deploy six WHOI floats from the R/V Thompson as the ship transits from Hawaiʻi to Guam. The ship is headed to Guam to pick up another scientific party, but on this transit, there is no other science purpose except float deployment and concurrent water sampling. Cora Hersh, a graduate student in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program, will be on the transit cruise in charge of deployment and sampling for the six floats on board.


Chief Scientist: Deborah West-Mack, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Ship: R/V Thomas G Thompson

Dates: September 30 – October 11, 2024

Honolulu, Hawaiʻi to Apra Harbor, Guam

cruise track for transit 436

Map showing the R/V Thompson transit track.

R/V Thompson Transit Expedition Logs

Halfway there!

Halfway there!

Argo float deployments continue! And we skip Monday.Since I last wrote, the Thompson crew and I have deployed three more Argo floats, two BGC floats and one core float. That brings us to just past halfway through the journey! Every single deployment so far has, by...

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First two BGC floats

First two BGC floats

We deploy the first two biogeochemical Argo floats of the trip, and I try my hand at seawater samplingI’m delighted to report that two new BGC Argo floats have been sent off on their watery adventures!  Our BGC floats are shipped in sturdy wooden crates. To deploy...

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First core float

First core float

We deploy our first Argo float of the cruise, all goes smoothly!Last night we deployed our first Argo float of the trip, a core float that measures the basic physical properties necessary to understand the ocean state: temperature, salinity, and pressure. Liz, one the...

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Heading Out

Heading Out

Our intrepid float deployer Cora arrives solo in Honolulu to board the R/V ThompsonHello Argo enthusiasts! My name is Cora Hersh, and I’m a graduate student in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (MIT/WHOI) Joint Program. I’m...

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