The FASTNEt consortium is a four-year physical oceanography research programme that started on 1 October 2011. FASTNEt recognises that shelf seas are a critical interface, linking the terrestrial, atmospheric and oceanic carbon pools and acting as a physical gateway to key biogeochemical fluxes.
The programmes main aim is to construct a new paradigm of ocean-shelf exchange using novel observations and model techniques to resolve the key seasonal, interannual and regional variation absent from existing knowledge.
Oceanographic moorings measuring water column structure and currents have been deployed, complemented by 60 satellite tracked drifters and a fleet of eight Gliders patrolling the shelf break. As part of the FASTNEt project a research cruise to the Malin Shelf off the west coast of Scotland was undertaken in July of 2013. NOC scientist Dr Jo Hopkins was part of the science team onboard. In the video she talks about the importance of understanding shelf seas surrounding the UK, a dye release experiment designed to track the movement and dispersion of currents along the shelf edge, and what life onboard a research cruise is really like.
Find out more about the FASTNEt project →