CIESM SUB2 cruise, Leg I (6-13 December 2005)

 

Physical and coastal oceanography are the main scientific interests of Francesco Raffa. During his stay on board of the R/V Urania, he conducted inter alia measurements with the CTD. After processing, the data will be used to compare, for example, with biological data. Also, other sea temperature and salinity data previously collected in this area will be used for comparison. Trying to track the important water mass exchange, Francesco Raffa found another aspect of working in the deep part of the Sardinia-Sicily Channel exciting: Its proximity to land and, therefore, the possibility of studying there land-ocean interactions.

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Some personal comments and impressions from Francesco Raffa

(Original text)

“In the framework of the oceanographic cruise, I performed research activity for the acquisition, management, elaboration and restitution of monitoring data in marine-coastal environments. As regards the oceanographic data acquired in the course of the cruise, my activity consisted in: pre-deployment instrument setup, real-time acquisition, post-deployment data retrieval, data processing & data graphic display, water samplings of seawater for physical, biological and chemical laboratory analyses.

My personal feeling about the field activity is positive. As regards the scientific aspects, the organization of the tasks of the participants has been cared respecting the multi-disciplinary nature of the cruise. The planned activities has been respected according to the weather conditions. Scientists coming from many Mediterranean countries have seen exalted their personal individualities and also felt that their particular work was important.

In the future I hope to develop work and collaborations with the participants of other institutions on my research interests: coastal marine systems & anthropogenic forcing, thermohaline circulation & water mass analysis.”