Testing instruments

In preparation for our cruise, Susan and I have been conducting bench and dock tests of the instruments that will go on our moorings. For example, the photo shown here was taken during our test of an Aanderaa RCM8 current meter. This current meter is an older style, with a rotor and vane. It has served our lab group well on previous cruises, and we hope it will do the same at 3000-m depth in the southern Mariana Trough. The current meter will help us know whether the near-bottom flow was along- or across-axis during our plankton pump sampling near on- and off-axis vents.