R/V Mirai, her missions, facilities and special project "BEAGLE 2003"

The R/V Mirai, with its large ice-strengthened sturdy hull, was launched in 1997 (dimension: L/spl times/B/spl times/D=128.58 m/spl times/19 m/spl times/13.2 m; 8,687 gross tons). The ship, in particular, with its large size and its anti-rolling device of special design, is capable of undertaking missions to high-latitude and polar regions exposed to extremely harsh weather and sea conditions. The ship is equipped with many state-of-the art oceanographic and marine meteorological instruments and is expected to act as a floating platform for sophisticated interdisciplinary researches, emphasizing on global change. One advantage of Mirai is that highly trained marine technicians with many observation and data analysis devices support the scientists onboard. This arrangement allows the scientists to develop onboard research results efficiently. The missions of Mirai include making clear the role of the oceans on heat transport, material cycle and marine ecosystems as well as seafloor plate dynamics. The R/V Mirai surveyed vast sea areas ranging from the Arctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean to the eastern tropical Indian Ocean during 1997 to 2003. In 2003 we will have a round world trip survey mainly in the southern hemisphere called "BEAGLE 2003" cruise after Charles Darwin's voyage of Beagle. The R/V Mirai will start from Brisbane and end at Fremantle, Australia via Papeete (Tahiti), Valparaiso (Chile), Santos (Brazil), Cape Town (South Africa), Tamatave (Madagascar) and Port Luis (Mauritius). The BEAGLE cruise will focus on the studies of three main themes: the heat and material transports and their variability in the general ocean circulation, the basin-scale biogeochemical changes of the chemical properties and chemical interaction between air and sea water, and the paleo-environmental changes in the ocean. The cruise is designed to revisit WOCE (World Ocean Circulation Experiment) Hydrographic Program (WHP) lines in the southern hemisphere to detect the long term change in the hydrographic structure and the Antarctic overturn by surveying WHP lines in the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Indian oceans at one cruise. This southern hemisphere circumnavigation was highlighted POGO (Partnership Of Global Observation)-3 (December 2002) as a following up action of the San Paulo Declaration announced by POGO-2 (January 2001) that encourages and promotes both oceanographic studies and scientific capacity building in the southern hemisphere. It is expected that many overseas scientists and young trainees will be onboard as well as Japanese scientists.