The routes of Sunflower 2 from 1994 to 1997 and its predecessor, Sunflower Ivory, are shown in Figure 1. They departed Osaka in the evening and arrived at Beppu in the following morning. The schedules and ports have changed over the years as shown below. The Sunflower Ivory (Figure 2) stopped at Kobe and Matsuyama on westbound route only ( Figure 3).

Figure 2. Sunflower Ivory (Kansai Kisen Co. Ltd.)

Figure 3. Route of Sunflower 2 and Sunflower Ivory

Sunflower 2 (from March 1994 to November 1997)
Eastbound	Beppu ->	Kobe ->	Osaka
	19:10	6:50-7:20	9:00
Westbound	Beppu <-	Kobe <-	Osaka
	7:40	19:40-20:10	18:40
Sunflower Ivory (from April 1998 to March 2005)
Eastbound	Beppu ->		Osaka
	19:00 ->		6:20
Westbound	Beppu <-	Matsuyama <-	Kobe <-	Osaka
	10:10	6:05-6:30	22:00-22:25	21:00

Figure 4. A Schematic Diagram of the Monitoring System

Figure 5. A picture of the monitoring system. From left: a) automatic filtration samplers, b) a tank where the multiple sensors are stored, and c) tap for manual sampling. The further right is a drain tank for used water. (Since the system is located below the surface, the throw-in pump was used to discharge the water from the tank).

Basic configuration of the monitoring system has been identical, with several improvements and renewals, since 1991. It is composed of three units: a) automated filtration and sampling system, b) multiple sensors, and c) taps for manual sampling.
This system was located above the shaft room, which was behind the engine room (Figure 5). The seawater is pumped from the sea chest at the hull, used for monitoring, stored in the drain tank, and then pumped back out to the sea.

In a), the seawater sampling is operated basically every two weeks on the eastbound cruise. In these cruises the samples were taken every 30 minutes, which were roughly every 18km and total of 20 samples. The filtered water and the filter were stored in a cool condition (< 8^oC) and picked up in the next morning at Osaka Port.

In b), fluorometric chlorophyll-a, temperature, salinity, pH, and dissolved oxygen (DO), along with GPS signals, were recorded with a 10 second interval on every cruise. The fluorometric chlorophyll-a was measured using Turner-Design Fluorometer and the rest were measured by Hydrolab-H20R Water Quality Multiprobe. The sensors were calibrated and the recorded data were collected once a week at Osaka Port.

The c) was used for optional observation with attendance of researchers to sample the seawater for the analysis, e.g., taxon-specific biomass of phytoplankton, biogenic sulfur compounds such as di-methyl sulfide (DMS), Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) such as pesticides. A method to monitor the partial pressure of CO₂ dissolved in seawater was developed on c) by creating a fast response equilibrator to fit the flow-through system on the ship of opportunity⁵⁾. These works are listed in the table of cooperative works.