On 27th September 2024, an EMSO Generic Instrument Module (EGIM) was deployed at Station M in the Norwegian Sea for a four month test period as part of the GEORGE project.
The EGIM, EMSO Generic Instrument Module, is a multimodal platform to which numerous sensors can be clamped on to measure diverse ocean variables, EGIM core EOVs, temperature, salinity, pressure, waves, oxygen, turbidity and sound and more specific variables. These ocean observations are crucial to better assess fish activity, hydrothermal vent fluids and particle dispersion, passive acoustic monitoring of marine mammals and to long-term time series of ocean environmental variation in the water column for instance.
The beauty of such a measuring system? It is relatively easy to connect to other platforms like moorings and sea bottom landers (see Lanteri et al., 2022), making it an ideal tool for achieving the objectives of the “Next Generation Multiplatform Ocean Observing Technologies for Research
Infrastructures” (GEORGE) project.
The EGIM will be retrieved in January 2025 and should be further tested for a longer deployment at high latitudes, at a hydrothermal vent at the Mohn Ridge between the Norwegian and Greenland Seas. This area has been chosen because it represents the northernmost node of the EMSO consortium.
Sharing knowledge between Norway and France for a collaborative deployment focusing on pCO2
After careful planning of the campaign and testing at the Ifremer facility, under supervision of Nadine Lantéri, the equipment was shipped to Bergen for other pre-cruise tests, and further to Tromsø, from where the cruise departed. The EGIM was deployed from the Norwegian research vessel G.O.Sars with help of experts from Ifremer and the University of Bergen.
On September 27th, the deployment started with a test at 10 m depth in the water column for a couple of hours, to compare the EGIM pCO2 observation with the high precision pCO2 measurements already performed onboard. Indeed, R/V G.O.Sars is one of the 29 ICOS stations collecting underway pCO2 measurements. This fits in well with the type of collaboration between ERIC partners, which is fostered by the GEORGE project.
The EGIM was deployed at a depth of 2000 m close to Station M in the Norwegian Sea. NORCE and the University of Bergen have been monitoring hydrography and inorganic carbon cycle for many years at this station. Thus, this site will ensure data for validation of the EGIM sensor performance in the future.
Adrien Chauvet (Ifremer) is preparing the EGIM deployment (Photo: Tor de Lange, University of Bergen)
Photo: Tor de Lange, University of Bergen
Text by: Ingunn Skjelvan, NORCE Norwegian Research Centre, partner in EMSO through the Nordic Seas facility and Marine Bollard, Euro-Argo ERIC
References:Lanteri et al. (2022), The EMSO Generic Instrument Module (EGIM): Standardized and Interoperable Instrumentation for Ocean Observation, doi: 10.3389/fmars.2022.801033