There are 28 science staff, 6 ROPOS crew and 33 Canadian Coastguard crew currently on board the Hudson who work in 12 hours shifts. The 2010 field program spans two weeks and includes the deployment of a remotely operated deep water submersible (ROPOS) at depths up to 3000 m, in 5 major study areas: Brown's Channel, Jordan Basin, German Bank, Northeast Channel and Northeast Fan. The field program will happen in two legs shown in green and black in the figure above.The ROPOS is scheduled for 12 hour extended operations from 7 AM to 7 PM daily. It is equipped with both forward-looking and downward-looking high definition cameras, and one forward looking DSC camera. For sampling the ROPOS has two robotic arms, sampling jars, a rock box and a bio-box.
Microbial samples (using a water rosette sampler and attached Conductivity Temperature Depth water column profiler (CTD)) along with cores of soft sediment bottom will be taken throughout the nights, but also sometimes during the day, as time permits. These operations are mainly scheduled from 7 PM to 7 AM daily.
Seabird and marine mammal surveys are also taking place from the bridge during daylight hours.
