Category: Mavis Peterson

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Mavis Peterson, June 29, 2005

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Mavis Peterson
Onboard NOAA Ship Fairweather
June 21 – July 9, 2005

Mission: Hydrographic Survey
Geographical Area: North Pacific, Alaska
Date: June 29, 2005

Lat.:54 56.5’N
Long.:160 16.7’W
Visibility: 10+
wind direction: 308
wind speed: 10
Sea wave height: 1
swell wave height: 4
sea water temperature: 9.5
sea level temp.9.6
sea level pressure: 1013.6
cloud cover and type: mostly clear, few high cum. clouds

Science and Technology Log 

Today was another slow day. I spent some time on the bridge just observing and watching. I worked on some lesson plans, sat in on one interview with Matt, and looked at a lot of ocean. I observed a transmission of weather information to the National Weather Service and visited with John French a “weatherman,” as his degree is in atmospheric science.  He was very knowledgeable and we discussed the uses of the information that is being gathered on this ship and compared that to what other NOAA ships are doing. This ship gathers information and uses it to make charts and maps.  Some of the other NOAA ships serve as a platform for scientist to do their special projects. We also discussed the incredible differences in background that the crewmembers have. From past fishermen to specialists in several different areas, the combination gives the ship a well-rounded crew.

Personal Log 

Not much to report.  I spent my free time reading.  The rock and roll of the ship certainly is sleep-inducing. I don’t think any emails are getting through to me.

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Mavis Peterson, June 28, 2005

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Mavis Peterson
Onboard NOAA Ship Fairweather
June 21 – July 9, 2005

Mission: Hydrographic Survey
Geographical Area: North Pacific, Alaska
Date: June 28, 2005

Weather Data 

Lat.:55 o7.2 N
Long.: 160 07.4W
Visibility:  1
Wind direction: 123
True wind speed: .9 knts
Swell wave height: 1
Sea water temperature: 9.15 C
Dry bulb 19.8
Wet bulb 9.0
sea level pressure: 1011.5
Cloud cover and type: cumulus overcast

Science and Technology Log 

I was fortunate to sit with some of the crew at the breakfast table this morning and was able to take part in a discussion regarding what we were doing today.  This gave me an opportunity to ask some questions.  I’m getting the idea of the science that is taking place here, but conversation today helped me understand the connections that I have been missing.  For example there are about eight programs that are used on board to gather and process the data. There are four important data gathering devices that are merged together: The exact time, the GPS location, the motion of the ship and the sonar.  Interestingly, as in many computer programs there is a “Bug” that they call the “Midnight Bug” that causes them to sometimes, not always, lose data for about half an hour.  The question is whether to stop and circle around and pick up what was missed or to continue. There are pros and cons and are decided by those colleting the data.  The information gathered on this ship is processed quickly.  This is an advantage because if there is an error or discrepancy the ship has not already moved out of the area so they can adjust or redo immediately.  Of course this allows for accurate information to be gathered.

An aside on time:  All NOAA ships use the same Greenwich Time no matter what time zone they are in. This saves confusion when crossing time zones.  Midnight here, in this time zone is 4:00 in the afternoon.  That is then the beginning of a new day.  There are three ways the ship can gather bottom data. (1.) When the main ship is “hydroing” as we will be doing for the next few days, 24 hours a day the ship is sonarring the bottom in a wide swath in deep water. (2.) When the water is too shallow for the ship to hydro that is when the launches are sent out to do basically the same thing, although they use less power because the water is not as deep.  (3.) The third way of collecting information is by shoreline observations, using the flat-bottomed small boat and physically eyeballing the area, taking notes and pictures and entering that data into the programs when they return to the ship. I discovered today that although all the ships in the fleet that are doing the same type of science use the same programs, they may not be using them in exact manner.  I would liken this to the example that although all fourth grade teachers must meet the same state standards of curriculum, they don’t all approach the task in the same way. An example is how the scientists “draw lines” of an area to be hydroed.  The FAIRWEATHER marks off polygon areas that need to be scanned.  This can be done in any fashion, across-up and down or in any pattern as long as the whole area gets covered. Other ships opt to draw in lines to follow in a selected area.  If they can’t follow the lines because of swells, or whatever, then they are out of luck as far as surveying that day. However because we are scanning the channel with the ship today, we are following lines.

I am going to observe a training demonstration at 1:00 P.M. in the boiler room and then tour the boiler room.  The training session went as planned.  It was how to use the oxygen mask and how and when to use the fire extinguishers.

Personal Log 

I spent a couple of hours listening and asking questions of those present, and then I worked on some lesson plans after lunch.  I also spent a little while at the bridge.  It is a beautiful day, bright and sunny. I will be going out on one of the smaller boats tomorrow.  I spent the rest of the day answering emails and working on lesson plans.  These are pretty heavy concepts for fourth graders, but I am getting some ideas simplified to their level.

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Mavis Peterson, June 26, 2005

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Mavis Peterson
Onboard NOAA Ship Fairweather
June 21 – July 9, 2005

Mission: Hydrographic Survey
Geographical Area: North Pacific, Alaska
Date: June 26, 2005

Weather Data 

Lat.:55 o7.2 N
Long.: 160 07.4W
Visibility:  1
Wind direction: 123
True wind speed: .9 knts
Swell wave height: 1
Sea water temperature: 9.15 C
Dry bulb 19.8
Wet bulb 9.0
sea level pressure: 1011.5
Cloud cover and type: cumulus overcast

Science and Technology Log 

I spent the morning in the radar (chart?) room listening and taking in what I could of a training session on putting the physically captured information into a program called Pydro. Obstructions like new rocks are marked as primary or secondary, or for example a ledge with a rock together may be marked as primary.  There seems to be a lot of room for discretion by the person entering the information.  There are many folders of information such as AWAIS, which means there is a shipwreck feature.  There is an entry called reports that allows information to be included in sentence form.  This information will not show up on the finished product but is helpful to the cartographer that is actually making the final map.  It may make his work more accurate.  Yesterday I talked about the dotted line that might be drawn in that shows an area that is not navigable–I think I called it an obstruction line, in reality it is called a foul line. I was also given a Julian calendar which means the days are numbered 1-365.

We are pulling anchor and getting underway.  We will be leaving Eagle harbor for Sandpoint, which I have not found that on the map.  We pulled anchor at 1:30.  It is quite a process and again it is necessary that the crew is communicating effectively with one another. The crew uses some sort of sign language as well as radio communication with the bridge. It is necessary the bridge knows what is going on because they may have to move the ship in order to keep the anchor in the correct position for retrieving it.  The anchor is pulled up by a large motor and stored in a side well of the ship.  There are actually two anchors on this ship; the size of the ship dictates how many anchors it has.  I thought maybe they used both of them when anchoring in deep water, but was assured that using both was not done very often because of the motion of the water and the possibility of “braiding” the anchor lines is very real and an immense problem.  If for some reason they would use both anchors, there is a way to do it that puts the ship and the two anchors in sort of a “V” pattern and this would help with the braiding problem.  As the chain of the anchor was rolled onto the ship it was hosed off.

Answer to yesterday’s question about what happens to this information:  The completed maps are used by any ocean going vessels.  Because shorelines and the ocean floors change constantly, and because new technology is constantly being developed, this is an ongoing process that needs to be continually updated.  Charting the coastal waters was first begun under the direction of President Thomas Jefferson and has continued on to today. The first use of the information is for commerce and right behind that is the fisheries industry.  The information is available on a web page.  Some of the specialized equipment actually comes from those other countries, especially the Nordic countries.  The davits come from England.

Personal Log 

As I visit with Crewmembers, I have found that there is a great deal of turnover in this profession. NOAA ship personnel are required to spend two years at sea, then three years in offices, in places like Seattle, then another rotation at sea.  Many wage mariners choose to quit after the first five years.  Being at sea means making many sacrifices.  The FAIRWEATHER goes out on “legs” of about 10-12 days and then comes in at one of several ports for a couple of days. They are on the water over 200 (220?) days a year.  During the off-season they go to school to learn to use new equipment, and/or work on repairs for the ship.

I dropped one of my cameras on the way to the laundry room and parts fell everywhere.  Hopefully I found all the pieces and will try putting it back together later.  The LCD is not readable so I will use the other camera a lot.  I did my laundry this evening and while waiting I did some reading.  Some of the crew visited Sandpoint by launch.  I chose not to go. The last launch that returned about 12:30 a.m. had some trouble when they went to dock at the FAIRWEATHER. According to stories this morning the adrenaline was running a little high for a few minutes, but they managed to get the launch in safely, and there was no imminent danger involved.

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Mavis Peterson, June 25, 2005

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Mavis Peterson
Onboard NOAA Ship Fairweather
June 21 – July 9, 2005

Mission: Hydrographic Survey
Geographical Area: North Pacific, Alaska
Date: June 25, 2005

Weather Data 

Lat.: 55 07.2N
Long.:160 07.4W
Visibility:  3
Wind direction: Dir (true) 177
Wind speed: 7 knts
Sea water temperature: 9.15
Sea level pressure: 1011.9
Cloud cover and type: cumulus 5/8

Science and Technology Log 

Today I went out on the Ambar, a flat-bottomed boat that can get in quite close to the shore. It was a training session for one of the interns.  We had with us several pieces of equipment (that we had to set up) and a satellite map of the area, which showed major islands, rocks, and the shoreline. The point of the activity was to “ground truth” (my term) the area at low tide to add to what was already known from the satellite pictures.  According to the satellite pictures, boats would have been able to navigate around the large rocks and get into the shore while in reality what we saw was that there were many more obstructions, rocks and kelp beds that would be a hazard.  We not only took photographs of the obstructions, we added their positions to the map, made notes, and measured with the radar.  We also estimated visually and drew in a dotted line around the whole area of rocks and kelp a hazard line, which would keep boats out of that area.  All this information was recorded on a chart and on the weatherproof laptop computer and will be incorporated into the original map once we get back to the ship.  This activity certainly showed that even with extraordinary equipment, it is important to have scientists who know their business and can recognize when the naked eye observations are just as important as those picked up by the equipment.

Question of the Day: What happens when this is all recorded?  Do you just stay here and start over?

Personal Log 

I really enjoyed being out on the Ambar.  This day is what one would call a hands-on activity.  I have great respect for the scientists’ knowledge and dedication.  It gets cold out there and yet they go out day after day to do their work.  Living on board ship is also an interesting life style.  The crew is literally cut off from their family and any social interactions outside of the ship for two weeks at a time and then they may well be in ports that are not near their homes for the two or three days before they go out again.  Life on the ship is good however–great food, polite people, a lounge with many, many movies (although I don’t see many viewing them,) email services, and other necessities to make living here comfortable.  I have even managed to stay warm most of the time and the constant noise does not seem to be affecting me except for the fact that I can’t hear conversations very well sometimes.

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Mavis Peterson, June 24, 2005

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Mavis Peterson
Onboard NOAA Ship Fairweather
June 21 – July 9, 2005

Mission: Hydrographic Survey
Geographical Area: North Pacific, Alaska
Date: June 24, 2005

Weather Data 

Lat.:55 o7.2 N
Long.: 160 07.4W
Visibility:  1
Wind direction: 123
True wind speed: .9 knts
Swell wave height: 1
Sea water temperature: 9.15 C
Dry bulb 19.8
Wet bulb 9.0
sea level pressure: 1011.5
Cloud cover and type: cumulus overcast

Science and Technology Log 

We were in the launches on the water shortly after 8:00 A.M.  We are again headed out to scan around the Shumigan Islands.  I am with a different crew today, and the officer in training is doing the computer work under the guidance of a trained tech.  It is pretty much the same procedure as yesterday.  We travel to the position we want to scan, set up equipment, line up and begin scanning.  A basic map of the area that shows what has been scanned is on the computer as well as in a folder as hard copy.  The coxswain has a monitor that shows the same map.  It is interesting to note that the two GPS units travel through an “adjusting machine” that calculates and takes in consideration the pitch roll and yaw of the boat and thus makes a more accurate location measurement.  Today did not go quite as smoothly as yesterday.  There were more swells and our “rows” of scanning were more like ribbon candy than straight strips, but the area got covered.  The crew doing the work seems very efficient and followed procedures exactly.  This is very important.  An example would be if the radar and the GPS units were left on at the same time, the GPS units would be burned out.  A heavy fog bank moved in so we left without finishing the polygon we were scanning.

While on the bridge after dinner everyone suddenly noticed that the ship was listing by several degrees. Department heads began popping onto the bridge, full of concern.  It was soon discovered that the list is due to refueling of small boats, not a concern as it evened out when all were fueled.

Personal Log 

The seasickness seems to be gone for good.  I spent the evening on the bridge planning for our scientist interviews and just generally taking in information abut the usage of all the equipment.  Although we are anchored, readings on location are still taken on an hourly basis, to ensure that we are not drifting.  I read through a notebook listing about everything an officer needs to be signed off on in order to become an Officer on Duty or in charge of the bridge. They need to know the where and why of almost every room and equipment, procedures and all types of information such as how much and how many of many of everything.  It looks like an incredible amount to learn.

Question of the day: Who uses this information?

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Mavis Peterson, June 23, 2005

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Mavis Peterson
Onboard NOAA Ship Fairweather
June 21 – July 9, 2005

Mission: Hydrographic Survey
Geographical Area: North Pacific, Alaska
Date: June 23, 2005

Scientific Log 

This is my first day out on the launch.  The computer on the launch stays there all the time and is loaded with the programs that are needed.  The sonar scanning devices, GPS and radar are also on the launch. The launch makes sweeping rows across the chosen area to be scanned overlapping each row slightly to prevent “holes” in the information gathered. The operators keep a close watch on the depth and if it gets too shallow, they leave that area for the smaller shore boats to gather information on.  I am learning so much, and trying to decide how I can share this information with my fourth graders.  Surely reading maps and following directions accurately will be lessons.

Personal Log 

The sea air has gotten to me in more ways than one.  Not only did I feel the wave action this afternoon, but upon returning, I am very cold so I am retiring early tonight after writing some notes, and checking out tomorrow’s schedule.

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Mavis Peterson, June 21, 2005

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Mavis Peterson
Onboard NOAA Ship Fairweather
June 21 – July 9, 2005

Mission: Hydrographic Survey
Geographical Area: North Pacific, Alaska
Date: June 21, 2005

Weather Data
Lat.: 56 30.3’N
Long.: 156 21.4’W
Visibility: 10+
wind direction: 110
true wind speed: 16 knots
Sea wave height: 1
swell wave height: 175 Dir (true) 2ft.
seawater temperature: 10.3
sea level temp.: dry bulb 10 wet bulb 9
sea level pressure: 1014.4
cloud cover and type: cumulus nimbus overcast

Science and Technology Log

I arose before seven and after breakfast spent most of the morning in the chart room learning about the sonar testing. The sensors are attached to the bottom of the ship and fan out to each side. As the information is picked up by the sweeping action of the sonar, it is then transmitted to the computers, which have several programs to break down the information. The other piece of equipment that was used today was the “fish” or sound velocity profiler. It is an expensive piece of equipment that has many sensors in it that collect information that is relayed back to the computers. The fish is pulled behind the ship on a cable and taken down, for a dive reading, about every fifteen minutes to within about twenty-five meters from the ocean floor. This is a relatively new way of doing this test. It used to be that the ship would have to stop and they would physically have to drop and retrieve the fish do the test, read the results and then go at it again. This was a much slower process and often took a couple hours. The newer equipment usually works; however today they had to pull the fish in by hand, cranking it.

I spent the afternoon on the bridge. We saw a whale and some porpoises, but not close by. I just observe proceedings.

Personal Log

All day today, we were clipping right along rocking and rolling with the sea. I can’t imagine how sick I would have been if I had not gotten a patch. At least half of the crew are lying down and are as sick as I am. I was sitting in a chair at a computer on the bridge and on one heave, it rolled the chair right towards the door–just a little thrill. I went to my bunk early, got up for a few minutes at dinnertime and then was back down until ten. It seemed a little quieter, but I could not keep the chair at the table where I was writing, and the words on the page were jumping around like crazy so I called it a night.

I am paranoid about these tests they keep saying we will be doing. I keep my jacket at the ready and have a cheat sheet of where I am to go in my pocket.

Question of the day: What force causes the “fish” to go down when they want it to?

 

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Mavis Peterson, June 20, 2005

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Mavis Peterson
Onboard NOAA Ship Fairweather
June 21 – July 9, 2005

Mission: Hydrographic Survey
Geographical Area: North Pacific, Alaska
Date: June 20, 2005

Science and Technology Log 

Departure time was 1:00 and we actually left dock at 1:20.  A beautiful day with puffy cumulus clouds in a bright blue sky.  Getting ready to go was quite a process.  Everything was tested. I watched as they checked the readouts on all the monitors throughout the ship. Equipment, like the rudder, the water and fire doors, were carefully checked.  A different flag was put out. Garbage was taken off the ship and the department heads were called to the bridge to check in with the captain.  The gangplank onto the deck and the anchor were lifted and we were off.

I was given a tour of the ship and places for me to be during different drills were pointed out. I received a “bunk card” on my door that explained the three alarms, what the alarm sounds would be, and what to have with me for each.

Once we reached deeper water, the rock and roll of the ship increased.  We were scanning our path, not because it was a work order, but because we were there.  The path we were taking was on the way to our work area and had not been scanned so they were making good use of their position. They had scanned a path on their way to this area last week, so now they were lined up right beside their old path.

Personal Log 

I spent most of the afternoon and evening familiarizing myself with the ship.  There are actually seven levels. My room is on level C.  It is small and very noisy but efficient.  I retired early, as laying down seemed to make me feel better.