Rosette sampler

Description

A rosette sampler is made of an assembly of 12 to 36 sampling bottles. Each bottle is a volume that range from a minimum value of 1.2 L to a maximum value of 30 L. The bottles are clustered around a cylinder situated in the center of the assembly, where there is a sensing system called Sea-Bird or CTD, that stands for "Conductivity, Temperature and Depth", although other variables can be measured by modern CTDs (e.g. water turbidity, dissolved oxygen concentration, chlorophyll concentration and pH).

The apparatus is attached to a wire rope. A winch on board of the boat unrolls the rope during descent and rolls up it during the ascent (i.e. at the end of the samples collection). During operations in the ocean, a rosette sampler can approach the seabed at a distance from 1 to 5 m, depending on the particular sea conditions.

The opening of each sampling bottle can be automatic (by reaching a certain depth) or manual (by operator, remotely).