The PLUMRHO field campaigns (2 surveys in 2015, early and late february) complemented a campaign series at the mouth of the Rhone River (started in 2010, until 2017). They are dedicated to investigate the characteristics and behaviour of suspended particulate matter coming from the rhone river, and their fate in the coastal sea. This series of field campaign allow to span a diversity of hydrologic regime of the Rhone river.

Major results are listed below. Some of them were analyzed in depth within the PhD study from A. Gangloff.

1. intercalibration of optical sensors on-board the coastal glider (turbidity and fluorescence), compared with reference sensors and samples
2. Deployment and recovery of a coastal glider (one-month deployment) to track the 2DV cross-shelf variability of the SPM dynamics during a moderate rhone river discharge. An ARVOR-CM was also deployed.
3. Vertical optical-CTD-ADCP rosette profiles, conducted along a cross-shelf transect similar to the glider course. These profiles provide reference measurements to investigate the vertical structure of the coastal waters and SPM variability.  Optical measurements provided the characterisation of the turbidity plume and its advection/dilution off shelf. LISST measurements described the particle size distribution of the SPM along the vertical gradient, from surface to bottom, and cross-shelf, from the Rhone mouth to the shelf break. Combining all information also provided knowledge about the mean settling velocity of SPM populations in the plume, the water column and the bottom nepheloid layer. SPM analysis provided both SPM concentration and deflocculated size spectrum.