 ANTARES now part of CIESM HydroChanges
April 2006, CIESM News
Thanks to its collaboration with COM (Centre d'Océanologie de Marseille,: http://www.com.univ-mrs.fr, ANTARES (Astronomy with a Neutrino Telescope and Abyss environmental RESearch: http://antares.in2p3.fr/ ) now participates in the CIESM Hydrochanges programme ( http://www.ciesm.org/marine/programs/hydrochanges.htm).
The ANTARES Collaboration is constructing a telescope in the deep Mediterranean Sea optimised for the detection of muons from high-energy astrophysical neutrinos. Such a telescope will consist in hundreds of photo-multipliers set for years on an array of sub-surface moorings immersed at ~2400 m, ~20 km off the French Mediterranean coast (42°50’N / 6°10’E). All instruments will be permanently connected to a shore station in La Seyne-sur-mer (near Toulon) via a junction box and an electro-optical cable that will transmit both power and data. The first mooring with 75 photo-multipliers has been successfully connected in March 2006 and the whole array is expected to be operational within ~1 year (Antares).
To detail the environmental conditions, a series of parameters is permanently measured, in particular temperature and conductivity at ~2300 m (~100m from the bottom) with a SBE 37-SI. This Sea-Bird CT has sensors whose accuracy, resolution and stability are similar to those equipping the SBE 37-SMP that are the CTs set on most of the moorings of the Hydrochanges programme; although not equipped with a pump, one can thus consider that the SI (Serial Interface) is equivalent to the SMP (Serial interface, Memory and Pump).
Already available data (since April 2005) are presently analysed and validated. Because acquisition will continue for at least five years, interesting relations can be expected with the time series collected nearby, in particular off the Gulf of Lions and off Barcelona. Therefore, the ANTARES site and its equipment now constitute an additional station of the Hydrochanges programme. Moreover, monitoring the temperature and salinity variations in real-time will allow specific studies of major hydrodynamical events occurring in the vicinity, such as dense water formation during especially severe winters, when newly formed water sinks down to the bottom.
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