Laboratory of Physical and Chemical Oceanography

Equipment

In more detail, the group,

• Operates a HF radar (co-owned with the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research) monitoring the surface currents in the marine region east of Lemnos island, focusing on the exchanges with the Black Sea. The radar has been upgraded in the framework of the project HIMIOFoTS.
• has installed and operates two tide-gauges in the Gulfs of Kalloni and Gera to improve the oceanographic monitoring of the coastal areas in Lesvos island in the framework of the coastal observatory AEGIS.
• An oceanographic and meteorological platform has been moored in Kalloni Gulf in the framework of the coastal observatory AEGIS.
• A new ocean glider has just been delivered to the group before the end of 2021, in the framework of the project AEGIS+.
• Water and oil-spill motion and dispersion is studied using a number of drifters specially designed by the group.

• Current monitoring is performed by a number of instruments co-owned with the Morphodynamics and Coastal Geology Group (1 Nortek AWAC 600 MHz, 1 Nortek Aquadopp HR 2 MHz, 1 Nortek Continental 75 Hz, 2 Nortek Vector velocimeters and several mechanical current meters).
• Temperature and Salinity are recorded using two portable CTDs: an Ocean Seven 316+ by Idronaut and a Seabird Electronics SBE19, equipped with a Wetlabs FLNTU-RT optical scatterometer for turbidity measurements and a chl-α fluorometer.
• Sampling of chemical parameters in the water column is conducted using Niskin bottles. More recently a small portable oceanographic rosette has been acquired in the framework of the infrastructure programme AEGIS and has being used within the projects EMERGE and AEGIS+.
• Chemical analyses are performed in the Department’s chemical laboratories.
• Meteorological measurements are obtained via two portable meteo-stations (with mechanical anemometers), one meteo-station permanently installed at our Lemnos HF radar site, equipped with an acoustic anemometer and the oceanographic / meteorological mooring at Kalloni Bay.
• Numerical simulations, data analyses and communication with field instruments (HF radar and drifters) take place using our computer resources, comprised of four servers and 5 desktops, while currently the provision of more computers is under way to create a cluster for more computational power.
• Data storage, backup and exchange is performed through a NAS system.