The working strategy was based on meteorological and hydrological measurements and was carried out by a preliminary survey of the interested area in order to localise the dynamical structures (if any) and the frontal area. The investigation on the dynamic structures would have been performed in a much greater detail over a smaller area, centered around the ODAS buoy.
The survey was planned to carry out the following tasks
The areas planned for surveying were :
Area A and C, being considered the boundary for the Ligurian Basin, would have to be investigated in detail by hydrological casts and XBT launches, whereas area B would have been surveyed for ODAS buoy data and CM mooring QC and data validation, and for defining fine structures and front systems.
The ODAS Buoy and mooring servicing were planned for the second part of the cruise.
The whole daylight time in favourable weather conditions was devoted to Cetacean sighting.
Several measurements of the optical properties were scheduled on some CTD stations on different water bodies (Thyrrhenian, transition and Ligurian).
Any transit or available time was devoted to Multibeam (and SBP) acquisition. In particular, the ISMAR of Bologna team planned to collect data primarily on an area NNW of the Capraia Island, were ancient deep sea corals were dredged from mounds and small reliefs and other research studies have been carried out by ISMAR-Bologna [Remia et al.(2003),Remia and Taviani(2005)]). The possibility to take the opportunity of transits and any other available ship time for multibeam surveying, nevertheless, pointed toward the build-up of high resolution, publicy available, bathymetric databases.