NOAA – Page 49 – NOAA Teacher at Sea Blog

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Kathleen Brown
Aboard R/V Hugh R. Sharp
June 7 – 18, 2011

Mission: Sea Scallop Survey
Geographical area of cruise: North Atlantic
Dates: June 8-9, 2011

June 9, 2011

Weather Data from the Bridge
Time: 10:00 am
Winds 10 to 20 knots
Seas 3 to 4 feet

Science and Technology Log

This morning is the first day that I have awoken on board the ship. It will be my first twelve-hour shift. The scientists work either from noon until midnight or from midnight to noon. Kevin, the chief scientist, has assigned me to the day shift. I am very happy about this! We suit up in our foul weather gear. Those who have done this before explain to me that it is easiest to slip on the black rubber boots and rain pants like a firefighter who just got a call might do. We eagerly wait for the winch to pull the catch out of the water. The net drops everything out on the table. When we receive word from the engineer that all is clear, I don a hardhat, and hop up on the table with a white board that lists the station, strata and tow. My shipmate, La Shaun, snaps a photo record of the catch. We stand around the table and begin the inventory. We are looking for sea scallops and any we find go into a big orange basket. Other species that we separate out include: red hake, monkfish, haddock, skate, and ocean pout. We measure the length of the fish that we have separated. I imagine how the data might be used by scientists back on land to indicate the health of that portion of the ocean. As soon as we finish the haul and clean up, it is time to do it all over again. Every third catch we count the number of starfish and cancer crabs. I am excited to hold sponges, sea urchins, and hermit crabs. I am surprised to learn that the sand dollars are red.

Once all the sea life on the table has been sorted, it is time to head to the wet lab. There, the buckets of animals are counted and measured. Two persons work at each table measuring the fish. The fish is laid flat against the scale and one scientist uses a magnetic tool to capture the length electronically. During one catch, Aaron and I measured the length of 37 skate. I am impressed by the knowledge of the scientists who can easily tell the difference between a winter skate and a little skate. I hope by the end of the trip, I will be able to do so as quickly as they can.

Personal Log

I hardly notice the rocking of the ship while we are working. I think I may be starting to get my sea legs. On this first day there is very little time in between stations, and there is no real down time. I have learned how to shuck a sea scallop and seen the anatomy of the animal for the first time. I had been promised that I would get to work hard out on the open ocean and I am not disappointed.

Question of the Day Do you know the shape of the sea scallop shell? If you open the shell of a sea scallop you can immediately tell if it is a male or a female. How?

June 8, 2011

Personal Log

I reported to the Woods Hole dock at 7:30 in the morning. The day was bright and sunny, with temperatures in the 70s. The sight of the ship docked next to the NOAA building was so exciting. I climbed on board and introduced myself to Captain Jimmy who showed me right to the galley and offered me a cup of coffee. He was so welcoming! The ship had arrived in port at about 5:00 am and the crew and scientists were working to get everything ready to go by noon. I was shown my room, which is meant for four persons and has two sets of bunk beds. The room is so much bigger than it appeared in the photographs I saw! I chose a lower bunk and stowed my duffel bag underneath the bed in a cubby that was designed just for that. As more of those traveling on the journey arrived, I was interested to find that five of us have ties to Maine. We gathered to hear a briefing on the research that we will be supporting while on board the ship. Did you know that the American Sea Scallop is the most valuable fishery in the United States? Then we went off to lunch in the galley. The cook, Paul, served us an amazing lentil soup and sandwiches. The galley is full of snacks, a fridge with ice cream, and milk juice, coffee and tea, all of which are available day and night. As we were eating, I felt the ship start to move. We were told our first station is about eight hours away. (A station is a place where we collect a sample of the sea life.) Away we go!

Question of the Day What is the reason that Woods Hole became the location on Cape Cod for ocean research?

NOAA Teacher in the Air
Lindsay Knippenberg
Aboard NOAA Aircraft Kermit
May 5 – 6, 2011

My adventure with the NOAA Hurricane Hunters started bright and early in Savannah, Georgia. I met the crew in the hotel lobby before the sun had even begun to rise and we were off to the airport. The crew of the aircraft were Aircraft Commander Carl Newman, Co-Pilot Cathy Martin, Flight Engineer Dewie Floyd, Crew Chief Wes Crouch, Flight Director Barry Damiano, Program Manager Jim McFadden, and Technicians Bill Olney and Todd Richards. Once we got to the airport the crew immediately got to work preparing our aircraft, a Lockheed WP-3D Orion, for departure.

Our Transportation for the Day — The Hurricane Hunter aircraft is a Lockheed WP-3D Orion

kermit — NOAA has two WP-3D's. We would be flying on Kermit today. The other plane is named Miss Piggy and is currently in Fairbanks, AK.

While they were working, Barry gave me a safety briefing and showed me where I would sit, how to put on my seat belt, and what to do in case of an emergency. During our preparations the rest of the passengers arrived. Besides myself, several people from the National Hurricane Center, and Rick Knabb from the Weather Channel would be accompanying us on our flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Once the crew had gone through their pre-flight checklists, we all gathered for a pre-brief. The Commander went over the flight plan and the flight director briefed us on the weather that we would encounter on our flight.

Everything looked good and we were ready to take off. I was so excited for takeoff. I have flown in airplanes before, but for this flight I would get to see what happens in the cockpit. I got to sit in the chief scientist’s seat and it was pretty amazing. I put on my headset so that I could hear the pilots communicate with each other and the tower.

It was amazing how many buttons and switches there were and how the pilots knew what each one did. When it was our turn to take off the propellers got louder and we raced down the runway until we lifted off the ground.

My favorite part was when we went through the clouds. It was surreal to watch them get closer and closer and then we cut through them effortlessly.

Our flight to Fort Lauderdale was just over an hour long and we flew along the Atlantic coastline. It was cloudy for the majority of the flight, so we didn’t see too much, but the clouds did open up as we flew over Cape Canaveral and we saw the NASA Vehicle Assembly Building and the shuttle landing strip.

VAB — The NASA Vehicle Assembly Building at Cape Canaveral. The landing strip for the shuttles is also in the picture in the bottom right corner.

Watching the landing from the cockpit was also pretty cool. The plane lined up with the landing strip and we got closer and closer until we gently touched down.

As we pulled up to the tarmac we could see everyone waiting for us. Several emergency response professionals, local National Weather Service employees, and volunteers would be helping out with the Hurricane Awareness Tour today. Together we would educate school groups, the media, and the public on hurricanes, how they are studied, and what to do in the event of a hurricane.

firetruck — A firefighter telling students about his job during a hurricane and how they can prepare for hurricanes at home.

Our morning started out with over 500 students from 13 schools. My job was to talk to the students about the instruments on the outside of the plane while they waited for their turn to tour the inside of the plane. The students were a lot of fun and they had some really good questions and observations about what they saw on the outside of the plane.

kidsoutside — I got to teach the students about the outside of the plane before they went inside.

The students liked the stickers on the outside of the plane showing the hurricanes that the plane had flown through and the countries that it had visited.

Are those torpedoes? No, they are cloud physics probes that image individual cloud particles by using lasers (much cooler).

bellyradar — What is attached to the belly of the plane? It's a C-Band lower fuselage radar

In the afternoon we opened up the tours to the public. A long line formed and we slowly made sure that everyone got to see the inside of the plane. There were people of all ages and they were all very excited to see the plane and learn about hurricanes. I helped the meteorologists from the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center answer questions from the people waiting in line. I’m definitely not a hurricane expert, but after listening to the meteorologists all day I was beginning to feel like one.

vets — It was very rewarding for the crew to give tours of the plane to war veterans.

After everyone had seen the plane, the crew began to prepare the aircraft for the trip home. The crew had been to four different cities over the past week on the Hurricane Awareness Tour and they were ready to go home and see their families and get some much-needed rest.

MICrew — Two of the crew members were even from my home state of Michigan.

Kathy — The co-pilot, Cathy Martin, and I. It was an inspiration for many of the students to see a woman hurricane hunter pilot.

For the flight home I got to sit in the navigator’s seat. It wasn’t as exciting as sitting in the cockpit, but it was cool to be able to see our course and watch our changes in altitude. The flight home was pretty amazing because we flew below the clouds at 4,000ft. I had never seen the Everglades before and it was incredible to see them that closely. It took us about an hour to get to MacDill Air Force base in Tampa, FL where NOAA’s Aircraft Operations Center is located.

When we landed, we unloaded our gear and put the plane to bed in the hanger. I really liked the hanger because there were several NOAA planes that are used for a variety of different observations and projects.

AOC Flag — The NOAA flag hanging in Hangar 5 at MacDill AFB. Home to NOAA's Aircraft Operations Center (AOC).

It was a very long day and when I finally made it to my hotel that night, I collapsed. It was an awesome day and I was so appreciative of the commander and crew of the hurricane hunter for welcoming me onto their aircraft and teaching me about hurricanes and about what they do.

Category: NOAA

Kathleen Brown: First Days at Sea, June 8-9, 2011

June 9, 2011

June 8, 2011

Lindsay Knippenberg: Hurricane Awareness Tour, May 5-6, 2011