RHOMA_LEG1

Type Oceanographic cruise
Ship Téthys II
Ship owner CNRS until 2019 - IFREMER since 2020
Dates 09/03/2011 - 20/03/2011
Chief scientist(s) PAIRAUD Ivane ORCID, VERNEY Romaric ORCID

LABORATOIRE D'OCÉANOGRAPHIE PHYSIQUE ET SPATIALE - UMR 6523

Centre Ifremer Bretagne

ZI Pointe du Diable

CS 10070

29280 Plouzané

+33 (0)2 98 22 42 76

dirumr6523@ifremer.fr

http://www.umr-lops.fr/

DOI 10.17600/11450040
Objective Characterization of the Rhone plume and coastal water bodies between the Rhone and the bay of Marseille. The Rhone river is the main source of input of dissolved and particulate matter (sediment, nutrients, chemical and metallic contaminants) to the Gulf of Lion, thus strongly controlling the ecosystem dynamics, especially primary production, in this zone. Seeing its key role, many studies have been made on the area of the near plume of the Rhone, particularly on hydrodynamic forcing and sedimentary dynamics. The RHOMA 2011-leg1 cruise, focusing on the Rhone-Marseille zone, provides a significant contribution to the measuring efforts made. It had three major objectives: i) Calibrating and studying how representative the MESURHO high frequency measuring station is; ii) Studying the Rhone plume, both in terms of hydrological structures and sedimentary and biogeochemical processes, to improve knowledge about the plume and adapt the algorithms used to process MODIS and MERIS satellite images, and iii) Studying interactions between the Rhone and the bay of Marseille. The cruise is related to Ifremer/Metroc, Ifremer/Ecolarge, GIRAC, EC2CO/Massilia, ANR/COSTAS and Mistrals/MERMEX project.

Bibliography

Thesis using campaign data

Gangolff Aurélien (2017). Devenir des apports solides du Rhône dans le Golfe du Lion : étude de la dynamique du panache turbide du Rhône en réponse aux forçages hydrométéorologiques. PhD Thesis, Université de Bretagne Occidentale.