The Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands -PLOCAN-has been for the past two weeks the venue chosen by the British government to train its new generation of glider pilots.
Members of the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), an international reference oceanographic institution that currently is the UK’s hub for the management and operations of underwater vehicles, have moved to PLOCAN to carry out the acceptance testing in deep waters of a glider fleet (twelve new units) recently acquired to the U.S. company Teledyne Webb Research, who also attended some of their members these days in Gran Canaria to teach a group of twelve new technicians and pilots from different British institutions linked to technology and marine research.
On 4th February, technicians by the Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands -PLOCAN- have put into operation an underwater glider in the surrounding waters of Gran Canaria for a three weeks mission, with the goal to gather oceanographic data in the North side of the archipelago.
The mission is part of the regional contribution to the international and systematic multidisciplinary marine observation strategy addressed for a better understanding of the processes and phenomena that rule internal variability of the ocean at different spatial and temporal scales with impact on global climate, as established by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Taliarte, Gran Canaria, 5 de febrero de 2014.- Las aguas de Taliarte, en la isla de Gran Canaria, próximas al banco de ensayos de la Plataforma Oceánica de Canarias (PLOCAN) son el escenario de la investigación científica KOSMOS 2014 GC emprendida por el GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, para estudiar el efecto de la acidificación del océano a causa de las emisiones de dióxido de carbono.
El investigador principal del proyecto, el profesor de Oceanografía del GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Ulf Riebesell, el gerente de PLOCAN, José Joaquín Hernández Brito, y el profesor Ricardo Haroun Trabaue, de la Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, presentaron hoy el estudio a los medios de comunicación.
El KOSMOS 2014 GC es una actividad conjunta de la red de investigación alemana BIOACID (Impactos Biológicos de la Acidificación Biológica, por sus siglas en inglés) y SOPRAN (Procesos Oceánicos Superficiales en el Antropoceno, por sus siglas en inglés) y pretende averiguar cómo reacciona la comunidad del plancton de las aguas oceánicas abiertas y pobres en nutrientes ante la acidificación del océano.
PLOCAN assisted to the kick-off meeting of the OCEANERA-NET project -the coordination of national research activities of Member States and Associated States in the field of Ocean Energy (ERA-NET)- that took place in Brussels. The aim of this European ERA-Net is to create an integrated network to carry out national/regional research activities within the Member States and Associated States in the field of Ocean Energy.
OCEANERA-NET is funded by the 7th European Framework of the European Commission (FP7-ENERGY.2013.10.1.3), it is coordinated by the “Scottish Enterprise-SEN” from the United Kingdom, and it will be executed during 4 years from the 1st of December of 2013 that began.