AL HOCEIMA LAUNCHES ITS FIRST FUNCTIONAL MARINE OBSERVATORY IN NORTH AFRICA
AL HOCEIMA LANCE SON PREMIER OBSERVATOIRE MARIN FONCTIONNEL EN AFRIQUE DU NORD
Résumé
In the framework of the European project ODYSSEA, the Moroccan Association leader of the Marine Observatory of Al Hoceima AGIR, has successfully performed two glider missions in the South Alboran Sea. The vehicle was a SeaExplorer glider (manufactured and commercialized by ALSEAMAR, France) equipped with a CTD probe (GPCTD, seabird) and a novel microplastic sensors (LEITAT). These glider missions, permitted the acquisition of hydrological parameters at an unprecedented high spatio-temporal resolution for the area, and to fill a huge data gap. The first glider mission was mainly dedicated to the sampling of the western gyre of the Alboran Sea (WAG), a major dynamical structure of the area. During this mission the glider dived following a typical sawtooth trajectory within the water-column, from the surface and up to 500 m-depth. Glider data revealed the vertical structure of the WAG and provided an interesting insight of its dynamics (water-currents, variability, etc.), supplementing information obtained by satellite. To our knowledge, this pioneer work is among on the first oceanographic survey entirely dedicated to the study of the WAG.
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