buoy – NOAA Teacher at Sea Blog

July 25, 2019

Catherine Fuller: National Mooring Day, July 11, 2019

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Catherine Fuller

Aboard R/V Sikuliaq

June 29 – July 18, 2019

Mission: Northern Gulf of Alaska (NGA) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER)

Geographic Area of Cruise: Northern Gulf of Alaska

Date: July 11, 2019

Weather Data from the Bridge

Latitude: 59° 00.823 N
Longitude: 148° 40.079 W
Wave Height: 1 ft, ground swell 3-4 ft
Wind Speed: 5.4 knots
Wind Direction: 241 degrees
Visibility: 5 nm
Air Temperature: 13.3 °C
Barometric Pressure: 1014.6 mb
Sky: Overcast

Science and Technology Log

At home, I regularly check information from the buoys that literally surround our islands. They give me real time, relevant data on ocean conditions and weather so that I am informed about storm or surf events. We also have buoys that track tsunami data, and the accuracy and timeliness of their data can save lives. Deploying and monitoring these buoys is a job that requires knowledge of ocean conditions, electronics, rigging and computer programming.

preparing buoy system — Pete (foreground) and Seth set up the buoy system in preparation for deployment

buoy anchors — The anchors for the buoys were made of train wheels

Pete Shipton is onboard as the mooring technician from UAF’s Seward Marine Center. This morning, he, Dr. Danielson and the crew deployed three moorings near oceanographic station GAK6i (about 60 miles offshore in the Northern Gulf of Alaska) at a depth of 230 meters. The search for the right depth required that R/V Sikuliaq do an acoustic survey of the area last night to find a kilometer-long area of the right depth and bottom slope. The three moorings will be situated close enough to each other that for all purposes they are collecting a co-located set of readings representative of this site, yet far enough apart, with small watch circles, that they don’t overlap and foul each other. The set of three is designed to have one surface buoy on either side with sensors at the surface and through the water column and a third buoy in the middle with sensors also distributed across all depths.

The first buoy, GEO-1, gives information on physics, optics, nutrient
chemistry and has a profiling instrument that will “walk” up and down the mooring wire from about 25 m above the seafloor to 25 m below the surface, collecting profiles four times a day. The mooring has many of the sensors that the ship’s CTD has, including an ADCP (Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler), a weather station with a GPS that measures wind speed, relative humidity, sea level pressure, and air temperature. The buoy system was designed to withstand and operate in 8 m waves; in larger waves the surface buoy is expected to become submerged. At one meter of depth, GEO-1 measures the temperature, salinity, chlorophyll fluorescence and photosynthetically available radiation.

On GEO-2 (the center buoy), similar data is recorded at 22 m below the surface. There will also be a sediment trap, mammal acoustics recorder, particle camera, and an AZFP (acoustic zooplankton fish profiler), which has four frequencies that can detect sea life from the size of fish down to the size of zooplankton. It records sound reflections from all sizes of creatures and can see fish migrations during day or night within a range of 100m (from 100m depth to the surface).

Buoy GEO-3 is the primary “guard” buoy, or marker for the whole set. It also has a real-time transmitting weather station and near-surface measurements.

Linking the mooring lines and the anchors are acoustic releases,
which are remotely controlled tethers whole sole function to listen for a “release” command that will tell them to let go of the anchor. Since the limiting factor on the instruments is the life of the batteries, they will be picked up in a year and the acoustic release will allow the instruments to be brought back aboard Sikuliaq. These buoys will be providing real time information for groups such as the Alaska Ocean Observing System (www.aoos.org) about weather and ocean conditions, while also collecting
information about sea life in the area.

Pete and Seth on buoy — Pete (left) and Seth (right) test the stability of the buoy

Deploying the buoys was a lengthy process that required careful
coordination of parts, lines, chains and personnel. Luckily everything
went off perfectly! As the anchor weights for the two surface buoys deployed, they briefly pulled the buoys under, causing a bit of joking about whether the line length was calculated correctly. The brief “dunk test” was an excellent first trial for submergence during this coming winter’s storm conditions.

The second buoy briefly scares us by going under!

MarTechs:

There are opportunities for careers at sea in a wide variety of positions on board a research vessel. One of the most interesting is the MarTech (Marine Technician), because of their dual role during a scientific cruise.

The Marine Technicians are technically assigned to the science team although they are a part of the ship’s crew. Bern and Ethan are the MarTechs on this cruise and both work specifically with R/V Sikuliaq. They are considered a part of whatever science team is on board at the time. The MarTechs are on 12-hour shifts, from 8:00 to 8:00. Ethan is on at night, and Bern is on during the day, although there is some overlap. The two men help to deploy and recover instruments for the science team and as well as helping the crew with any deck operations. They also are responsible for the computer lab and overseeing the data displays and production from the various sensors, as well as maintaining the instruments on the ship that provide information. Although they are always at hand to help when we need it, you will often find them also repairing and upgrading ship’s equipment and helping with engineering tasks.

Bern sets up camera — Bern setting up one of his cameras.

Bern has been a MarTech on R/V Sikuliaq since 2013, and had previous experience on other research vessels, both American and international. Bern is also the ship’s unofficial documentation guy; he has a number of small cameras that he regularly uses to capture the action on board, whether from the vantage point of one of the cranes or on top of his own helmet. You can find examples of Bern’s camera work on R/V Sikuliaq’s Instagram site (@rvsikuliaq).

Ethan and Ana — Ethan helps Ana with the iron fish.

Like Bern, Ethan has also worked on other research vessels but has been on R/V Sikuliaq since it was built. This is the only ship he’s been a MarTech on. His interest in oceanography, especially marine acoustics, led him to this career. Marine acoustics is more than just listening for large species such as whales. There are acoustic sensors that “listen” to the ship and help ensure that it is functioning normally. Other acoustic sensors, such as the ones based in the open keel of the ship use sound technology to map the ocean floor as we progress on our path. Ethan was kind enough to show me the keel and explain the instrumentation. In addition, there are instruments that constantly record salinity, temperature, current strength, solar radiation and other measurements along the path we travel to provide a more complete picture of the environmental conditions existing at every point.

The ship’s acoustic instruments are mounted in the open keel; it’s open to the sea!

The marine technicians manage the computer lab when they are not needed for operations. This lab is the nerve center of the ship and allows the science team to work closely with the bridge to coordinate the movement of instruments and the speed of the vessel through the water to achieve optimum results. You can find information on meteorology, navigation, engine performance, depth sounders, closed circuit monitors, ship acoustics and deck winch statistics by looking at specific screens. In addition, the staterooms have monitors that also allow viewing of certain screens.

By far the two displays that are followed most closely are the CTD cast screens and the AIS screen. The AIS screen gives our course on a map, and shows our progress as well as future waypoints. It also shows our speed and bearing to our next point as well as ocean depth and wind speed and direction. The CTD screen shows real-time results in a number of categories such as salinity, oxygen, chlorophyll, temperature, nitrates and light as the CTD descends and ascends through the water column. Based on the results of the down cast, the teams determine the depths from which they’d like water samples collected as the CTD rises.

The CTD screen looks like spaghetti until you understand the color code for each line.

The Bridge:

The equipment on the bridge represents the pinnacle of technology as far as ship operations go. The captain’s chair has been described by some members of the science team as the “Battlestar Galactica” or “Star Trek” chair, and it really does look like it fits in a science fiction movie. Displays on the bridge show performance of the engines, radar returns and our bearing and range from them, and any other pertinent information to vessel performance. Ship movement and waypoints are hand plotted by the second mate, who also oversees ship movement along with the captain, chief mate and third mate. The ship’s officers work the bridge on a rotating watch schedule. One of the cool features of this ship is that it operates two Z-drives, similar to what is used on tugboats. These are propellers that can move independently of each other and turn in any direction. They allow the ship to be maneuvered precisely, which is a great help when we need to stay on a station through multiple operations. Various views of the bridge and the navigational instruments used by the ship’s crew are shown in the gallery below.

View of the bridge
View of the bridge
View out the bridge
The Captain’s Chair

Captain Eric Piper shows off his new jacket

Personal Log

Happy Mooring Day! It’s our self-declared “national holiday”! Because the process of deploying the moorings and buoys took up all of the morning and a part of the afternoon, most of the rest of the science team took the morning off and slept in. So many of them ran on the treadmill that running might become a part of our “holiday” tradition. My roommate even took bacon back to her room to eat in bed. Gwenn brought out her Twizzlers…somewhat appropriate because they look like steel cable (even though the moorings did not use cable). It was a nice breather for the science team, who have been working very hard to collect samples and run experiments. Somewhere along the line, the idea of making Mooring Day a “holiday” caught on, and it’s become a bit of a joke amongst the team. We’re down to a week to go, and everyone is beginning to think about what happens when we get in and when we all go home. But… we’re not quite there yet, and there’s a lot of work left to do.

Animals Seen Today

We apparently have a stowaway…a small finch-like bird that flits about the ship. It must have joined us when we were near land, and now we ARE the land.

August 19, 2018

Tom Savage: What is Life Like aboard the Fairweather? August 17, 2018

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Tom Savage

Aboard NOAA Ship Fairweather

August 6 – 23, 2018

Mission: Arctic Access Hydrographic Survey

Geographic Area of Cruise: Point Hope, northwest Alaska

Date: August 17, 2018

Weather Data from the Bridge

Latitude 64 42.8 N
Longitude – 171 16.8 W
Air temperature: 6.2 C
Dry bulb 6.2 C
Wet bulb 6.1 C
Visibility: 0 Nautical Miles
Wind speed: 26 knots
Wind direction: east
Barometer: 1000.4 millibars
Cloud Height: 0 K feet
Waves: 4 feet

Sunrise: 6:33 am
Sunset: 11:45 pm

Personal Log

I was asked yesterday by one of my students what life is like aboard the NOAA Ship Fairweather? So I thought I would dedicate this entry to address this and some of the other commonly asked questions from my students.

Life on board the ship is best described as a working village and everyone on board has many specific jobs to ensure the success of its mission; check my “Meet the Crew” blog. The ship operates in a twenty four hour schedule with the officers rotating shifts and responsibilities. When the ship is collecting ocean floor data, the hydrographers will work rotating shifts 24 hours a day. With so much happening at once on a working research vessel, prevention of incidents is priority which leads to the ship’s success. A safety department head meeting is held daily by the XO (executive officer of the ship) to review any safety issues.

During times when the weather is not conducive for data collection, special training sessions are held. For instance, a few days ago, the officers conducted man over board drills. Here, NOAA Officers practice navigating the ship and coordinating with deck hands to successfully rescue the victim; in this case it’s the ship’s mascot, “Oscar.”

(Fun fact: at sea, ships use signal flags to communicate messages back and forth [obviously, this was more prevalent before the advent of radio]. For example: the “A” or “Alpha” flag means divers are working under the surface; the “B” or “Bravo” flag means I am taking on dangerous cargo [i.e. fueling]; and the “O” flag means I have a man overboard. The phonetic name for “O” is, you guessed it, “Oscar” … hence the name. You can read about other messages here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_maritime_signal_flags).

Precision and speed is the goal and it is not easy when the officer is maneuvering 1,591 tons of steel; the best time was 6:24. This takes a lot skill, practice and the ability to communicate effectively to the many crew members on the bridge, stern (back of boat), and the breezeways on both port and starboard sides of the ship. Navigating the ship becomes even more challenging when fog rolls in as the officers rely on their navigation instruments. Training can also come in the form of good entertainment. With expired rescue flares and smoke grenades, the whole crew practiced firing flares and activating the smoke canisters. These devices are used to send distress signals in the event of a major ship emergency. I had the opportunity of firing one of the flares !

Flares — Practicing the release of emergency smoke canisters ~ photo by Tom Savage

What are the working conditions like on board?

At sea, the working environment constantly changes due to the weather and the current state of the seas. Being flexible and adaptive is important and jobs and tasks for the day often change Yesterday, we experienced the first rough day at sea with wave heights close to ten feet. Walking up a flight of stairs takes a bit more dexterity and getting used to. At times the floor beneath will become not trustworthy, and the walls become your support in preventing accidents.

NavigatingFog — View from the Bridge in fog. ~ photo by Tom Savage

Where do you sleep?

Each crew member is assigned a stateroom and some are shared quarters. Each stateroom has the comforts from home a bed, desk, head (bathroom & shower) sink and a port hole (window) in most cases. The most challenging component of sleeping is sunlight, it does not set until 11:30 pm. No worries, the “port holes” have a metal plate that can be lowered. It is definitely interesting looking through the window when the seas are rough and watching the waves spin by. Seabirds will occasionally fly by late at night and I wonder why are they so far out to sea ?

Generally, when sharing a stateroom, roommates will have different working shifts.

Meals are served in the galley and it is amazing! It is prepared daily by our Chief Steward Tyrone; he worked for the Navy for 20 years and comes with a lot of skills and talents ! When asking the crew what they enjoy the most on board the ship, a lot of them mention the great food and not having to cook.

Fairweather's Galley — Fairweather’s Galley ~ photo by Tom

Are there any activities?

Keeping in good physical shape aboard any vessel out at sea is important. The Fairweather has a gym that can be used 24 hours a day. The gym has treadmills, elliptical, weights and a stair climber.

ExerciseRoom — The exercise room – photo by Tom

There is the lounge where movies are shown in the evening. Interestingly, the seats glide with the motions of the waves. Meetings are also held here daily, mostly safety briefings.

What are the working hours like?

During any cruise with NOAA, there is always things that come up that were not planned, staff and schedules are adjusted accordingly. On this leg of the trip during our transit back to Kodiak Island, we stopped by Nome, Alaska, to pick up a scientist from NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Lab PMEL office. One of their research buoys separated from its mooring and went adrift in the Bering Sea (it drifted over 100 miles before we were able to catch up to it. The Fairweather was dispatched to collect and store the buoy aboard, after which it will eventually be returned to PMEL’s lab in Seattle Washington.

Buoy Retrieval — Retrieval of NOAA’s PMEL (Pacific Marine Environmental Lab) buoy. photo by NOAA

The place with the most noise is definitely the engine room. Here, two sixteen piston engines built by General Motors powers the ship; the same engine power in one train engine ! It is extremely difficult to navigate in the engine room as there is so many valves, pipes, pumps, switches and wires. Did I mention that it is very warm in the room; according to the chief engineer, Tommy, to maintain a healthy engine is to ensure that the engine is constantly warm even during times when the ship is docked.

Tom in Engine Room — Navigating the engine room …… I did not push any buttons, promise! Photo by Kyle

Until next time, happy sailing !

~ Tom

August 13, 2018

Roy Moffitt: Moorings All Day, August 12, 2018

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Roy Moffitt

Aboard USCGC Healy

August 7 – 25, 2018

Mission: Healy 1801 – Arctic Distributed Biological Observatory

Geographic Area: Arctic Ocean (Bering Sea, Chukchi Sea, Beaufort Sea)

Date: August 12, 2018

Current location/conditions: mid day August 12 Northwest of Icy Point Alaska

Air temp 34F, sea depth 43 m , surface sea water temp 43F

Moorings all day

Moorings are essentially anything left tied to an anchor at sea. In this case, moorings hold many different types of scientific instruments that have been anchored at sea for a year. We are only here in the Arctic for a couple weeks. In order to monitor the ocean when people are not here, many different kinds of underwater instruments that have been designed to record ocean conditions are left under the ocean attached to moorings. To service these moorings they must be retrieved. This is one of the main tasks of this trip. When we arrive at a mooring station, one would not know it as the mooring is underneath the ocean, hidden from sight. A audio signal is sent to the underwater release and a buoy (a large yellow float) is deployed. Then, the Coast Guard steps into action. This picture below shows a Coast Guard crew fishing for a buoy in a not-so-calm sea. When they hook the buoy they will tie it to a rope that is hooked into the Healy‘s on board winch. The winch will pull in the buoy as the rope is wrapped around a turning spool.

Moffitt_Mooring Retrieval_small — The Coast Guard crew fish for a buoy in a not-so-calm sea

When the buoys and attached instruments come out of the ocean they can be covered with sea life, such as barnacles which you may be able to see as small white shell looking creatures in the picture below. The buoy in the picture is mostly covered in bryozoans. Although it looks like seaweed, bryozoans are not plants, but tiny sea filtering animals chained together. Either way it has got to go. This was my job today. I washed all the buoys and cleaned the instruments. For the sensitive parts on the instruments, this meant using a sponge and toothbrush. For the rest of the instrument, I used a power washer.

Mooring retrieved from the ocean — A mooring retrieved from the ocean, covered in marine life – mainly bryozoans.

cleaned instrument — A close-up of the mooring instrument, post-cleaning

Once this instrument is in the science lab, the sound recorder (as mentioned in the August 8th blog post) was taken apart and thoroughly cleaned. It will be reused at another station during this trip if all is functioning well. In the next picture, this equipment is now shown cleaned and sitting in the lab. Much of the cleaning was done with toothbrushes and a wire brush. So another important role for a scientist is spending a lot of time cleaning equipment! Not exactly glorious!

The Mustang Suit

In my life, I have power washed many things, but aboard the Healy in the Arctic, for safety reasons, I have to wear a Mustang suit. Essentially the Mustang is an oversized orange snowsuit designed to save a life if anyone falls overboard into the near freezing Arctic waters. It has a light beacon and a whistle attached for rescuers to find you and it is designed to keep body heat in for a longer amount of time than plain clothes. This is to try to keep anyone from immediately getting hypothermia and hopefully provide the additional few minutes it would take to rescue a man overboard. I prefer to call the Mustang a big fluffy orange sweat suit– even though it was 34 degrees out I was sweating in it!

NH dudes — Teacher at Sea Roy Moffitt (left) and UNH researcher Anthony Lyons (right) wearing Mustang Suits

Here I am, in this picture, looking like an orange Pillsbury doughboy with fellow New Hampshire resident Anthony Lyons. Anthony is from the University of New Hampshire (UNH) and is a Research Professor at the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping, School of Marine Science and Ocean Engineering. Anthony is retrieving and deploying moorings with passive acoustic devices that record animal sounds and rain from under the ice. The instruments also measure the density of plankton and fish in the water, both food sources for marine animals. With data over time, changes in density of these populations with changes of ice cover can be found.

Today’s Wildlife Sightings

Sometimes life clings on to the moorings. These basking starfish were attached to a mooring we pulled in yesterday. Then, the next picture is an Anemone curled up in a ball that was also attached to another mooring.

Basking Starfish

Anemone

Now and Looking Forward

Air temperature has dropped to 34 degrees F, and although the surface sea temperature is 43, lower in the water column the temperatures are actually near or below freezing. It looks like we may see some pieces of ice as soon as next mooring stations tomorrow. Those changing conditions will have to be monitored for mooring retrieval, as a buoy cannot pop up through ice!

August 3, 2017August 15, 2017

Samantha Adams: Day 8 – My, What a Fabulous Smell You’ve Discovered, July 31, 2017

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Samantha Adams

Aboard Hi’ialakai

July 25 – August 3, 2017

Mission: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Hawaii Ocean Time-series Station deployment (WHOTS-14)

Geographic Area of Cruise: Hawaii, Pacific Ocean

Date: Monday, 31 July 2017

Weather Data from the Bridge:

Latitude & Longitude: 22^o45’N, 157^o45’ ^oW. Ship speed: 0.8 knots. Air temperature: 27.9^oC. Sea temperature: 27.3^oC. Humidity: 72%.Wind speed: 11.2 knots. Wind direction: 93 degrees. Sky cover: Few.

Science and Technology Log:

blog.5.Day8.image1 — The WHOTS-13 buoy after a year at sea. These three red-footed boobies will lose their perch soon!

It’s deja vu all over again! The WHOTS-14 buoy is stable and transmitting data, and all the in situ measurements necessary to verify the accuracy of that data have been taken. Now it’s time to go get the WHOTS-13 buoy, and bring it home.

WHOTS-13 Buoy Diagram — Diagram of the WHOTS-13 mooring. Image courtesy of the University of Hawaii.

The process of retrieving the WHOTS-13 buoy is essentially the same as deploying the WHOTS-14 buoy — except in reverse, and a lot more slimy. Take a look at the diagram of the WHOTS-13 buoy (to the left), and you’ll notice that it looks almost identical to the WHOTS-14 buoy. Aside from a few minor changes from year to year, the configuration of the buoys remains essentially the same… so the three and a half miles of stuff that went into the ocean on Thursday? The same amount has all got to come back up.

At 6:38AM HAST, a signal was sent from the ship to the acoustic releases on the WHOTS-13 buoy’s anchor. After a year under three miles of water, the mooring line is on its way back to the surface!

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From the time the signal was sent to the acoustic releases on the anchor to last instrument coming back on board, recovering the WHOTS-13 buoy took 9 hours and 53 minutes.

Personal Log:

Now that I have witnessed (and participated in, however briefly) both a buoy deployment and retrieval, one of the things that impressed me the most was how well coordinated everything was, and how smoothly everything went. Both deployment and retrieval were reviewed multiple times, from short overviews at daily briefings (an afternoon meeting involving the ship’s officers, crew and the science team) to extensive hour long “walk throughs” the day before the main event. Consequently, everyone knew exactly what they were supposed to be doing, and where and when they were supposed to be doing it — which lead to minimal discussion, confusion and (I assume) stress. Each operation ran like a well choreographed dance; even when something unexpected happened (like the glass ball exploding on deck during deployment of the WHOTS-14 buoy), since everybody knew what the next step was supposed to be, there was always space to pause and work through the problem. Communication is most definitely key!

The other thing that really made an impression was how much emphasis was placed on taking breaks and drinking enough water. It was hot, humid and sunny during both deployment and recovery, and since Hi’ialakai had to be pointed directly into the wind during the operations, there was virtually no wind on the working deck at all. I’ve always thought as the ocean as a place you go to cool off, but, at least for these few days, it’s been anything but! With apologies to Coleridge: “Water, water, everywhere, nor any place to swim!”

Did You Know?

blog.5.Day8.image17 — A tangled mess of anything can be called a wuzzle. For example: “I don’t know how my headphones got into such a wuzzle.” The mess of glass balls on the deck is most definitely a wuzzle.

July 29, 2017August 15, 2017

Samantha Adams: Day 6 – Testing… 1 – 2 – 3, July 29, 2017

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Samantha Adams

Aboard NOAA Ship Hi’ialakai

July 25 – August 3, 2017

Mission: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Hawaii Ocean Time-series Station deployment (WHOTS-14)

Geographic Area of Cruise: Hawaii, Pacific Ocean

Date: Saturday, 29 July 2017

Weather Data from the Bridge:

Latitude & Longitude: 22^o45’N, 157^o56’W. Ship speed: 1.3 knots. Air temperature: 27.8^oC. Sea temperature: 27.0^oC. Humidity: 72%.Wind speed: 14 knots. Wind direction: 107 degrees. Sky cover: Few.

Science and Technology Log:

The most difficult part of Thursday’s buoy deployment was making sure the anchor was dropped on target. Throughout the day, shifting winds and currents kept pushing the ship away from the anchor’s target location. There was constant communication between the ship’s crew and the science team, correcting for this, but while everyone thought we were close when the anchor was dropped, nobody knew for sure until the anchor’s actual location had been surveyed.

blog.4.Day6.image1 — Triangulation of the WHOTS-14 buoy’s anchor location. Look at how close the ‘Anchor at Depth’ location is to the ‘Target’ location — only 177.7 meters apart! Also notice that all three circles intersect at one point, meaning that the triangulated location of the anchor is quite accurate.

To survey the anchor site, the ship “pinged” (sent a signal to) the acoustic releases on the buoy’s mooring line from three separate locations around the area where the anchor was dropped. This determines the distance from the ship to the anchor — or, more accurately, the distance from the ship to the acoustic releases. When all three distances are plotted (see the map above), the exact location of the buoy’s anchor can be determined. Success! The buoy’s anchor is 177.7 meters away from the target location — closer to the intended target than any other WHOTS deployment has gotten.

After deployment on Thursday, and all day Friday, the Hi’ialakai stayed “on station” about a quarter of a nautical mile downwind of the WHOTS-14 buoy, in order to verify that the instruments on the buoy were making accurate measurements. Because both meteorological and oceanographic measurements are being made, the buoy’s data must be verified by two different methods.

Weather data from the buoy (air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, etc.) is verified using measurements from the Hi’ialakai’s own weather station and a separate set of instruments from NOAA’s Environmental Sciences Research Laboratory. This process is relatively simple, only requiring a few quick mouse clicks (to download the data), a flashdrive (to transfer the data), and a “please” and “thank you”.

blog.4.Day6.image2 — July 28, 2017, 5:58PM HAST. Preparing the rosette for a CDT cast. Notice that the grey sampling bottles are open. If you look closely, you can see clear plastic “wire” running from the top of the sampling bottles to the center of the rosette. The wires are fastened on hooks which, when triggered by the computer in the lab, flip up, releasing the wire and closing the sampling bottle.

Salinity, temperature and depth measurements (from the MicroCats on the mooring line), on the other hand, are much more difficult to verify. In order to get the necessary “in situ” oceanographic data (from measurements made close to the buoy), the water must be sampled directly. This is done buy doing something called a CTD cast — in this case, a specific type called a yo-yo.

The contraption in the picture to the left is called a rosette. It consists of a PCV pipe frame, several grey sampling bottles around the outside of the frame, and multiple sets of instruments in the center (one primary and one backup) for each measurement being made.

blog.4.Day6.image3 — July 28, 2017, 6:21PM HAST. On station at WHOTS-14, about halfway through a CDT cast (which typically take an hour). The cable that raises and lowers the rosette is running through the pulley in the upper right hand corner of the photo. The buoy is just visible in the distance, under the yellow arm.

The rosette is hooked to a stainless steel cable, hoisted over the side of the ship, and lowered into the water. Cable is cast (run out) until the rosette reaches a certain depth — which can be anything, really, depending on what measurements need to be made. For most of the verification measurements, this depth has been 250 meters. Then, the rosette is hauled up to the surface. And lowered back down. And raised up to the surface. And lowered back down. It’s easy to see why it’s called a yo-yo! (CDT casts that go deeper — thousands of meters instead of hundreds — only go down and up once.)

For the verification process, the rosette is raised and lowered five times, with the instruments continuously measuring temperature, salinity and depth. On the final trip back to the surface, the sampling bottles are closed remotely, one at a time, at specific depths, by a computer in the ship’s lab. (The sampling depths are determined during the cast, by identifying points of interest in the data. Typically, water is sampled at the lowest point of the cast and five meters below the surface, as well as where the salinity and oxygen content of the water is at its lowest.) Then, the rosette is hauled back on board, and water from the sampling bottles is emptied into smaller glass bottles, to be taken back to shore and more closely analyzed.

On this research cruise, the yo-yos are being done by scientists and student researchers from the University of Hawaii, who routinely work at the ALOHA site (where the WHOTS buoys are anchored). The yoyos are done at regular intervals throughout the day, with the first cast beginning at about 6AM HAST and the final one wrapping up at about midnight.

blog.4.Day6.image4 — July 29, 2017, 9:43AM HAST. On station at WHOTS-13. One CDT cast has already been completed; another is scheduled to begin in about 15 minutes.

After the final yo-yo was complete at the WHOTS-14 buoy early Saturday morning, the Hi’ialakai traveled to the WHOTS-13 buoy. Today and tomorrow (Sunday), more in situ meteorological and oceanographic verification measurements will be made at the WHOTS-13 site. All of this — the meteorological measurements, the yo-yos, the days rocking back and forth on the ocean swell — must happen in order to make sure that the data being recorded is consistent from one buoy to the next. If this is the case, then it’s a good bet that any trends or changes in the data are real — caused by the environmental conditions — rather than differences in the instruments themselves.

Personal Log:

blog.4.Day6.image5 — The *Hi’ialakai*’s dry lab. Everyone is wearing either a sweatshirt or a jacket… are we sure this is Hawaii?

Most of the science team’s time is divided between the Hi’ialakai’s deck and the labs (there are two; one wet, and one dry). The wet lab contains stainless steel sinks, countertops, and an industrial freezer; on research cruises that focus on marine biology, samples can be stored there. Since the only samples being collected on this cruise are water, which don’t need to be frozen, the freezer was turned off before we left port, and turned into additional storage space. The dry lab (shown in the picture above) is essentially open office space, in use nearly 24 hours a day. The labs, like most living areas on the ship, are quite well air conditioned. It may be hot and humid outside, but inside, hoodies and hot coffee are both at a premium!

Did You Know?

The acronym “CTD” stands for conductivity, temperature and depth. But the MicroCats on the buoy mooring lines and the CTD casts are supposed to measure salinity, temperature and depth… so where does conductivity come in? It turns out that the salinity of the water can’t be measured directly — but conductivity of the water can.

When salt is dissolved into water, it breaks into ions, which have positive and negative charges. In order to determine salinity, an instrument measuring conductivity will pass a small electrical current between two electrodes (conductors), and the voltage on either side of the electrodes is measured. Ions facilitate the flow of the electrical current through the water. Therefore conductivity, with the temperature of the water taken into account, can be used to determine the salinity.

July 26, 2017August 15, 2017

Samantha Adams: Day 1 – Things You Never Think About, July 24, 2017

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Samantha Adams

Aboard NOAA Ship Hi’ialakai

July 25 – August 3, 2017

Mission: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Hawaii Ocean Time-series Station deployment (WHOTS-14)

Geographic Area of Cruise: Hawaii, Pacific Ocean

Date: Monday 24 July 2017

Weather Data from the Bridge:

Latitude & Longitude: 21^o22’N, 157^o57’ W. Ship speed: 0 knots. Air temperature: 82^oF. Humidity: 74%.Wind speed: 8 knots. Wind direction: East-South-East. Sky cover: Broken.

Science and Technology Log:

One of the first things you learn to do as a teacher is to plan for things to go wrong. When you put a lesson together, you try to identify potential problem areas, and then try to figure out how you could address those problems when they do arise, or try to avoid them altogether. One of the next things that you learn is that the biggest problem is invariably going to be something you never anticipated being a problem at all. Deploying a research buoy, it turns out, works essentially the same way.

Bird Wire

WHOTS stations are massive, self-contained buoys, designed to stay at sea for up to eighteen months, collecting data the entire time. There are redundant systems on top of redundant systems. Multiple meteorological instruments, measuring exactly the same thing, sprout from the buoy’s tower like misshapen mushrooms. If one instrument fails, there is always another — to ensure that, no matter what, the data is collected. And surrounding it all, like the spines of a porcupine, is the bird wire.

Anything that floats on the ocean winds can be a perch for birds, and the WHOTS buoys are no exception. I’ve been told that after a year at sea, the buoy is absolutely disgusting. I’ve seen some of the mess New York City pigeons can create, and I’m willing to bet that what I’m imagining cannot even come close. I’ll find out for myself later this week, when we retrieve the WHOTS buoy that was deployed last year!

Ick factor aside, birds (and their waste products) pose a real danger to the instruments on the buoy’s tower. If something is pecked or perched on or — use your imagination — otherwise damaged, the instruments may record corrupted data, or no data at all. Which is why there are redundant systems, and why Monday morning was spent making the buoy look like a porcupine. But wait! There’s more! It turns out all bird wire is not created equal. All of the spikes are made of stainless steel, but the spikes can be mounted on different things. Bird wire with a stainless steel base is more effective at repelling birds (because the spikes are closer together)… but the spikes have to be welded into the base, which magnetizes the bird wire. And if this wire is placed the instruments, it can affect their internal compasses and, in turn affect the data the bird wire is intended to protect! Bird wire with a plastic base is less effective (because the spikes are further apart), but much safer for the buoy’s instruments.

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Cayenne Pepper, Copper and Things Covered in Tape

The tower of the WHOTS buoy isn’t the only thing that is absolutely disgusting after spending a year at sea. Everything that spends the year below the surface of the ocean (which will be described in a post later this week) comes back absolutely disgusting, too. And it’s not as though it can all just be thrown away. Of particular importance are the instruments attached under the buoy and about every 10 meters (down to 150 meters) along the buoy’s mooring line. All of these instruments must be returned to the manufacturer for calibration (to make sure they were working properly). But there’s a catch — they must be returned clean! Which means that everything that has been growing on them while they’ve been under water must be scrubbed, scraped or peeled off. To make the job easier, the search is always on for ways to keep things from growing on the instruments in the first place. This is called antifouling.

One antifouling method is painting. There are specialized antifouling paints available, but they can be toxic. So the paint that covers the exterior of the buoy contains cayenne pepper (!), which has proven to be as effective as specialized paint, but is much safer. Another antifouling method used on many of the instruments under the buoy involves replacing some stainless steel components with specially made copper ones, as copper also naturally impedes growth. And a third method that’s very popular is simply to cover the instruments with a layer of electrical tape, which can just be peeled off — no scrubbing or scraping involved!

blog.2.Day1.image4 — MicroCats covered in black electrical tape. Notice the bracket on the top of each instrument — they are custom-made, out of copper, to make the cleaning process that much easier when the buoy is retrieved next summer.

blog.2.Day1.image5 — Instruments on the bottom of the buoy. Once deployed, these instruments will be approximately three feet under water, which is why so much copper is used.

Personal Log:

blog.2.Day1.image3 — “You’re lucky you weren’t here when we had to load for three months!”

Throughout the day, refrigerated trucks pulled up on the dock next to the Hi’ialakai. They were not full of delicate scientific instrumentation, but something just as vitally important to the cruise — food! The same crane that had been used to hoist instruments on board was also used to carry pallets of food from the dock to the deck of the ship. Then it was passed from hand to hand (by members of the ship’s crew, the science team, the ship’s officers, and the Teacher at Sea) all the way down to the galley’s refrigerators and freezers. The ice cream was handled with particular care — no surprise there!

Did You Know?

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s acronym — WHOI — has a pronunciation! You can say it like “hooey”. Or “whoo-ey!” It means the same thing either way!

May 18, 2015August 21, 2021

DJ Kast, Pre-Cruise, May 18, 2015

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Dieuwertje “DJ” Kast
Aboard NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow
May 19 – June 3, 2015

Mission: Ecosystem Monitoring Survey
Geographical area of cruise: East Coast
Date: May 18, 2015 (Pre-cruise)

Personal Log

Chris Melrose picked me up from the hotel and really helped me get a grasp of life aboard a research vessel. I learned all about Narragansett Bay and the lab here in Rhode Island.

I then met Jerry Prezioso, the Chief Scientist for the voyage, who gave me a great tour of the Narragansett Bay Lab. I learned what an XBT (expendable bathythermograph) was and how it measures temperature at various depths.

XBT Photo by: DJ Kast — XBT
Photo by: DJ Kast

I learned how a Niskin bottle works and how many Niskin bottles lined up in a circle to make a piece of equipment called a rosette. The Niskin bottle is like a hollow tube with a mechanism that closes the tube at a specific depth that will then bring a water sample indicative of that depth. They apparently cost $400 each. I am already making plans on how to make a DYI one for the classroom.

Niskin Bottle Photo by: DJ Kast — Niskin Bottle
Photo by: DJ Kast

This is a Rosette with 12 niskin bottles. Photo by: DJ Kast

With Jerry, I also met Ruth Briggs who works for the Narragansett Bay Apex Predators division and she showed me the shark tags that she has citizen scientists put onto sharks on the base of their dorsal (top) fin that they catch. When the sharks are caught again, the information she requests is sent back to her and includes species, size, sex, location to shore, and weight. She even let me borrow a decommissioned tag to show to my students in California.

Decommissioned shark tag from the Narragansett Bay Apex Predators Division Photo by: DJ Kast — Decommissioned shark tag from the Narragansett Bay Apex Predators Division
Photo by: DJ Kast

I saw a drifter buoy that I will be decorating with all of my programs (USC, JEP, YSP and NAI) logos.

Jerry also sent me the map of all the stations that we will be visiting on our ship and at each station we are projected to measure salinity, depth, temperature, nutrients and plankton! I am so excited! We are expected to go as far south as North Carolina and as far north as the Bay of Fundy in Canada (International Waters!!!).

TAS and the NOAA Ship Arrival

My stateroom is amazing! My roommate and I even have our own head (bathroom) in our room with sink, shower and all. There are two beds in a bunk bed format, and since I showed up about 6 hours before the other scientists I chose the bottom bunk and the cabinet I wanted for my stuff. I unpacked (and gladly didn’t over pack) and managed to fit it all in the closet that was given to us. I feel so fortunate to have such amazing accommodations like this.

Important People who Keep the Ship Afloat and on Course

Today I met the Operations Officer, Laura, who showed me the ropes and introduced me to people on the ship at dinner at the bowling alley on the naval base here in Newport, RI. She also showed me the buoy yard filled with lots of different buoys that indicate different paths of travel and safe/unsafe waters for ships coming into port.

I entered a yard of buoys on the Newport Naval Base and here I am for a size comparison. They are HUGE!

Here is a look at what happens when a buoy is freshly painted and when its being fouled by marine organisms and algae (RUST!) Photo by: DJ Kast

Important Ship Personnel
CO: Commanding Officer
XO: Executive Officer
CME: Chief Marine Officer
OO or Ops: Operations Officer= Laura
NO: Navigational Officer or Nav= Eric
CB: Chief Boson or Deck Boss= Adrian
AB: Able Seaman or a Deckhand = Roger

Meal Schedule
I also learned about food times (Very important).
7AM- 8 AM or 0700-0800 hours= Breakfast
11- 12 PM or 1100-1200 hours= Lunch
5- 6 PM or 1700-1800 hours = Dinner

Roommate in Stateroom 2-22

DJ Kast on the Gateway Photo by: DJ Kast — DJ Kast on the Gangway
Photo by: DJ Kast

Here I am boarding the NOAA Henry B. Bigelow Photo by: DJ Kast — Here I am boarding the NOAA Henry B. Bigelow
Photo by: DJ Kast

I met my amazing roommate Megan and she is a master’s student at the University of Maine. We will sadly have opposite schedules for most of the trip because I will be on the 12 PM- 12 AM shift and she will be on the 12 AM- 12 PM shift. We have a lot of things in common including our love of the ocean, geology and Harry Potter. She will be looking at dissolved nutrients in the water and she will be monitoring the instruments that measure conductivity, temperature and depth or (CTD) and requesting water samples while at various stations.

September 4, 2014April 28, 2021

Sue Zupko, Getting Ready: Is it a Go? September 4, 2014

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Sue Zupko
(soon to be) Aboard NOAA Ship Henry Bigelow
September 7-19, 2014

Mission: Autumn Bottom Trawl Survey Leg I
Geographical area of cruise: Cape May, NJ to Cape Hatteras, NC
Date: September 4, 2014

Personal Log

I am a teacher of the Gifted and Talented at Weatherly Heights Elementary School in Huntsville, AL. I am so very humbled by the opportunity I have been given to conduct research aboard the Henry B. Bigelow with NOAA scientists. This is my second NOAA cruise. I studied deep-water corals aboard the Pisces in 2011 and thought it was my only chance to do something like that. They told me if I did all my homework, and did all my projects well, that good things would come my way. I say that to my students and this is an example of why one should do one’s homework and try hard. You’d better believe that I did my best. I love to learn so a NOAA research cruise and projects with my students are a perfect fit.

Sue in sweatshirt looking up from microscope. Diego in the background. — Me on the Pisces, It was cold in this lab.

In preparing for my first entry I asked my students for advice on what to include. They insisted that I include a “shout out” to them and tell how fabulous our school is.

Here are a few highlights. Weatherly has been recycling aluminum cans to help pay for our outdoor classroom since 1998 when I helped write a grant to get a trailer to collect cans and take them to the recycling center. We have made thousands of dollars through the years and have an Alabama Certified Outdoor Classroom now. Students, parents, faculty, and community volunteers help with it and enjoy learning there. We have raised Monarch butterfly larvae, viewed Ladybug larvae under a microscope from the Tulip Poplar tree, grown melons, touched plants in the sensory garden, and myriad other activities.

We piloted a recycling program for our district. Every classroom has a bin to collect clean paper and plastic. It is collected weekly and tons of items have been recycled as a result.

We participate in a plastic bottle cap recycling program. This is an annual contest city-wide and Weatherly counts and recycles thousands of caps to be made into paint buckets rather than taking up room in the landfill. For many years we recycled phone books and were one of the top three recyclers.

In addition to helping the environment, we are a No Place for Hate school. We also study about the ocean. A lot. I am the faculty advisor for our morning announcements. Our quotes of the week this year are about the ocean and we highlight an ocean literacy principle every day. We now know that marine biologist Sylvia Earle pointed out that “With every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you’re connected to the sea. No matter where on Earth you live. Most of the oxygen in the atmosphere is generated by the sea.”

On my upcoming voyage with NOAA, I will launch two drifters. In order to be selected for this drifter project, a teacher must have an international partner to share lessons with to learn about the ocean. After an extensive search I found the perfect match. Sarah Hills at the TED Istanbul College teaches English. Her students will be studying map reading starting in September when they return to school. We have already decided that our students will plot the course of the drifters and hypothesize where they will be at specific times based on the ocean currents and winds which will carry them.

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These drifters measure ocean salinity, surface water temperature, velocities (speeds) of the current, and air pressure and are important for understanding more about our weather and the ocean. I can’t wait to get our students communicating. Weatherly’s school theme is “A Village of Learners and Leaders.” Outside my classroom on the bulletin board are some wonderful items from Turkey provided by Mrs. Hills and it says, “A Global Village of Learners and Leaders.” In preparation for tracking our drifters, we are currently tracking former hurricanes and researching how the ocean changes our planet. On their exit ticket today, my 5th graders commented that they liked tracking the hurricanes since they will use the same technique to track my journey and the drifters.

I am so excited. I have spoken with the Chief Scientist, John Galbraith, and understand that I will be working side-by-side with scientists on this fisheries cruise. We will drop a trawl net behind our 209 foot long ship and catch marine creatures. Our job will be to sort the fish (and other marine animals) and learn more about them using measurements and other means such as dissection. Computers play a role in our study and my first assignment will be to collect data in the computer. Wonder what program I will use, and is it similar to Excel which we use a lot?

I asked my fourth graders if they thought I might see a whale. They all responded yes in that group. What do you think?

Teachers at Sea need to be flexible, have fortitude, and follow orders. Let me explain. Right now I am waiting to see if my ship will even sail. The engineers have found a problem and are working to make the ship seaworthy for our voyage. Already our cruise date has changed twice. I must be flexible and be ready to leave on a moment’s notice. There are always some changes, it seems, when dealing with the ocean. On my last cruise a tropical depression (storm) formed over us and we couldn’t begin our research for an extra day.

Sailing is not for the faint of heart. I must be able to work long hours in uncomfortable conditions (they say this is having fortitude). They do supply my “foul weather” gear. Wonder if I will smell like fish at the end of my shift.

One handy piece of equipment I will take is ear plugs. The engines are loud and that helps when it is time to sleep. My shift will be either from midnight to noon or noon to midnight. That’s a long time to work. If we have a good catch, we will be working a lot. That is good for weight loss, as long as I don’t overdo with the fabulous food prepared by the stewards (cooks) in the galley (kitchen).

I was in the U.S. Army years ago and learned to follow orders, the third of the 3Fs. There are NOAA officers whose orders I must follow for my safety and the safety of the other scientists. I also must follow the orders of the NOAA Teacher at Sea directors and my chief scientist. Add to that my principal and superintendent in my district. That’s a lot of bosses giving orders.

Lastly, my students requested that I tell everyone our school motto. “We are Weatherly Heights and we…GO THE EXTRA MILE.” Well, pretty soon I can say, “We are the crew and scientists aboard the NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow and we…GO THE EXTRA NAUTICAL MILE.” Can’t wait to see what treasures we will uncover in the ocean.

April 27, 2013August 11, 2021

Rita Salisbury: Popika, April 27, 2013

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Rita Salisbury
Aboard NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette
April 14–29, 2013

Mission: Hawaii Bottomfish Survey
Geographical Area of Cruise: Hawaiian Islands
Date: April 26, 2013

Weather Data from the Bridge:
Wind: NE 3KT
Pressure: 1017.1 mb
Air Temperature: 74 F (23C)
Water Temperature: 78 F (25 C)

Science and Technology Log

Jamie Barlow and Bo Alexander getting ready to deploy the BotCams

I was extremely fortunate to be invited to ride along on a day-long BotCam deployment aboard the Huki Pono along with IT Scott Wong. Dr. Kobayashi got approval for it and before I knew it I was descending down a rope ladder and on my way in a small boat to rendezvous with the Huki Pono to work with scientists Jamie Barton, Chris Demarke, and Bo Alexander.

The BotCams are designed to descend to the sea floor, attract fish with bait, and video record the fish that are in range of the camera. The BotCam is then retrieved, the video uploaded, and then the BotCam is deployed again until the mission is completed. The videos are saved and someone then reviews them and classifies the fish by species and counts how many there are of them. The results are added to a multi-year study of the fisheries in the area.

The BotCams are heavy and deploying and retrieving them takes a lot of skill, so I stayed out of the way while that was going on. However, there were things I was able to do, and the three scientists walked me through them.

Throwing the grappling hook to catch the buoy line

The first thing I got to do was to throw the grappling hook to retrieve the buoys for a BotCam. Captain Al of the Huki Pono skillfully brought the boat up next to the buoys at a good angle and I was able to snag the buoy line with my first throw every time. Then I got out of the way so the hundreds of meters of line that attached the buoys to the BotCam was pulled on board. Once the BotCam was pulled to the surface, a cable from the winch on the back of the ship was attached to it and the BotCam was pulled to the back work area and pulled on board. The video was retrieved, the bait renewed, and the BotCam was ready for deployment again. On this day, the crew was working with two BotCams, but they had a third one on board that they also use, depending on the requirements of the day. (The Bluejay is my school mascot and came along for the ride.)

Setting the buoys to mark the location of the BotCam. Uli Uli Manu is along for the ride.

Slinging line as the BotCam drops to the sea floor

Once re-baited, and with new video plugs, the BotCam was ready to be dropped at a pre-determined spot. The dropsites have already been entered into a GPS unit so the captain navigates from one site to the next using a handheld GPS. The depth of the new location determined how much line would be attached. When the captain said it was time, the scientists triple-checked everything, including each other’s work, and swung the BotCam off the deck and into the water. The line that attaches the BotCam to the buoy is quickly fed out after the weighted BotCam and then the buoys are tossed out last, which are the other two jobs I was able to do. Then it’s time to go the next location and either retrieve or deploy another BotCam. This went on all day long, without any breaks. Lunch was eaten while traveling from one BotCam location to another.

While I was onboard the Huki Pono, the Sette deployed the AUV for a lengthy mission. I was able to see some of the video footage when I returned to the Sette and the clarity was amazing! The AUV’s path was blocked by a large outcropping for a while and it was really interesting to watch the video while the AUV worked its way free of the rock.

An AUV capture of almaco jack, a type of kahala. Photo courtesy of Dr. Don Kobayashi

The AUV was deployed again yesterday, and it is just as exciting to watch now as it was for the first mission. I know that it has a few failsafe procedures built into it, such as dropping the weights that help keep it down and aborting the mission, but it is still thrilling to watch the last line removed that tethers it to the ship and see it descend on its own power. The bright yellow skin makes it visible for many meters under the surface, but eventually it goes so deep that it cannot be seen any longer. The scientists monitoring the acoustics can “see” where the AUV is in relation to the position of the ship. They have named the AUV “Popoki” which is Hawaiian for cat.

Second Assistant Engineer (2AE) Megan keeping an eye on the control readout

The Chief Scientist, Dr. Don Kobayashi, arranged a tour of the engineering department of the ship. Chief Engineer Harry Crane met us in the forward mess and explained what we would be seeing. After handing out earplugs to protect our hearing from the 115 decibel environment, we were off. We were able to see the 600 amp 600 volt motor for the bow thruster used to maneuver in tight quarters or to make minor adjustments of the ship’s position. Then we were shown the sewage system next to the laundry room. The waste is collected and then cleaned by running electrical current through it before it is discharged. It holds about 6,000 gallons of waste, which is roughly what a tractor-trailer tanker holds. The giant Caterpillar diesel engines spin generators to provide electric power to run the propulsion motors, making the Sette a hybrid of diesel electric power. The water that is used to cool the engines is the same water that is used, as waste energy, to help run the evaporators that create the ‘fresh’ water needed for the ship. We also saw the halon and CO2 fire suppressant system, the main control room, and the shafts the turn the propellers (or screws), and the hydraulic system used to turn the rudder. One of the things that struck me the most about the whole tour was how very clean all of the areas were. Anyone who works around machinery knows it can be a messy environment with leaks and spills, but the Oscar Elton Sette was clean as a whistle.

Chief Engineer Harry Crane, Chief Scientist Don Kobayashi, Jessica Chen, and me touring the engineering department of the ship

Personal Log

This ship is like a large, extended family in many ways. The mess and the kitchen are central to the community with 3 wonderful meals served every day. But just like home, the kitchen is always open for anyone to make a snack. The other evening, one of the stewards, Allen Smith, stayed late to help me find the ingredients I needed to make a cake as a thank you to everyone on board. It was served as desert the next evening and the medical officer, “Doc” Tran, who really enjoys cooking, asked for my recipe and said that anytime they serve it from now on, they will call it the Rita Cake. Like I said before, everyone on this ship is very nice and they go out of their way to make me comfortable.

Did You Know?

GPS stands for Global Positioning System. A GPS device is an electronic unit that determines a location within a few feet, displaying coordinates in latitude and longitude. The handheld GPS receives signals from geosynchronous satellites. It only needs signals from 3 satellites to calculate a location, but a signal from a fourth satellite can fix the altitude of the location and the exact time. The more signals that are received from satellites, the more accurate the reading.

One of my duties has been to find out information about everyone on board for blog entry. The Chief Sci and I talked about it and decided to borrow an ice-breaker that we use at my school from time to time called “Two Truths and a Lie.” It has been interesting, to say the least, to start to gather the statements from different people on board. I cannot wait until I have enough data to publish it, but the best thing has been getting to know people even better.

Additional Section

I finally saw a humpback whale breaching while I was on the Huki Pono! It was about a quarter of a mile away, so I didn’t get any good pictures, but it was still exciting.

I also was able to see some kawakawa (False Albacore) off the bow of the ship. They are quite lovely fish, with a brilliant blue hue and a streamlined appearance. There were about a dozen of them and they would race in one direction and then change course, often breaking through the surface of the water to appear as if they were flying. I was disappointed when they finally wandered off.

One thing I have wondered about is the lack of seagulls around here. I just assumed that anywhere there was salt water, there would be seagulls. Jamie Barlow said they simply are not part of the ecosystem here. There might be an occasional one that shows up on its way somewhere else, but they don’t stick around. That surprises me, especially when you consider the Taape, or Bluelined Snapper. They are an introduced species that was introduced in the mid-1950s because Hawaii did not have a shallow water snapper. The species has flourished in these Hawaiian waters so why doesn’t the seagull show up and start competing in a niche?

November 21, 2011March 26, 2021

Jacquelyn Hams: 12 November 2011

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Jackie Hams
Aboard R/V Roger Revelle
November 6 — December 10, 2011

Mission: Project DYNAMO
Geographical area of cruise: Leg 3, Eastern Indian Ocean
Date: November 12, 2011

Weather Data from the R/V Revelle Meteorological Stations

Time: 1045
Wind Direction: 2580
Wind Speed (m/s): 2.8
Air Temperature (C): 28
Relative Humidity: 67.6%
Dew Point: (C): 21.4
Precipitation (mm): 40.3

PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) (microeinsteins): 2274.5
Long Wave Radiation (w/m2): 429
Short Wave Radiation (w/m2): 659

Surface Water Temperature (C): 29.7
Sound Velocity: 1545.1
Salinity (ppm): 35.2
Fluorometer (micrograms/l): 65.5
Dissolved Oxygen (mg/l): 3.3
Water Depth (m): 4640

Wave Data from WAMOS Xband radar

Wave Height (m) 1.7
Wave Period (s): 12.8
Wavelength (m): 226
Wave Direction: 195⁰

Science and Technology Log

The Revelle is now on station and will remain in this location for approximately 28 days to conduct measurements of surface fluxes, wind profiles, C-band radar, atmospheric soundings, aerosols, sonar- based ocean profiling and profiling of ocean structure including turbulence. Please note that the exact position and course of the ship will not be posted in this blog until Leg 3 has been completed and the ship is back in port in Phuket, Thailand. Although piracy is not anticipated at the station location, it has been a problem in other parts of the Indian Ocean and the policy is not to publicize the coordinates of the ship.

Surface Fluxes

The Surface Fluxes group measures the amount of radiation and heat into and out of the ocean. There are several dome instruments on the Revelle to measure atmospheric radiation, acoustic and propeller sensors to measure winds and a “sea snake” to measure the sea surface temperature. The term flux is defined as a transfer or exchange of heat. The sum of the terms in the equation below indicates how much radiation is in the ocean. If the sum >0, the ocean is warming. If the sum is <0, the ocean is cooling. Below each term is a photograph of the ship-board instrument used to measure it.

Ocean Mixing

Today I deployed the Los Angeles Valley College drifting buoy. Before leaving Los Angeles, the students in my introductory Physical Geology and Oceanography classes signed NOAA stickers that I placed on the buoy before releasing it into the Indian Ocean. A drifting buoy floats in the ocean water and is powered by batteries located in the dome. The drifting buoys last approximately 400 days unless they collide with land or the batteries fail. The buoy collects sea surface temperature and GPS data that are sent to a satellite and then to a land station where the data can be accessed. Drifting buoys are useful in tracking current direction and speed. Approximately 12 drifting buoys will be deployed from the Revelle during Leg 3 of the Project DYNAMO cruise.

Personal Log

Can you have pirates before a pirate drill?

After we arrived on station, a science meeting was held to provide instructions regarding safety and emergency procedures for mandatory drills such as fire safety, abandon ship, and pirate drills. Drills are typically scheduled once a week and we have already assembled for a fire drill. A pirate drill was scheduled for the following week.

I began my orientation working with the Oregon State University Ocean Mixing Group. My role on the research team is to assist with the operation of the “Chameleon”, a specially designed ocean profiling instrument that is continuously lowered and raised to the surface taking measurements while on station. My job is to rotate between operating the winch (used to lower and raise the instrument) and the computer station. The computer station operator is in constant communication with the winch operator and tells the operator when to raise and lower Chameleon. In addition, the computer operator logs the critical start and end times of each run and keeps track of the depth of the instrument.

Jackie operates the winch. My goal is to keep the instrument safe and have a perfect wind.

I was just beginning to learn to operate the winch when an alarm sounded followed by the words “Go to your pirate stations, this is not a drill, repeat, this is not a drill”. I must admit I was a bit stressed. When I came on this trip, I knew there was a remote risk, but I thought it was extremely remote. Everyone assembled in the designated area and it turns out that a fishing boat was approaching the ship and the Revelle does not take chances if the boat appears to be approaching boarding distance to the ship. There have been two instances where we have assembled for safety following the alarm and the words “This is not a drill, repeat, this is not a drill.” In both cases, fishing boats were too close for comfort. As I began operating the winch, I watched a fishing boat off in the distance for a few days and became more comfortable knowing that the ship is taking extreme caution to protect all on board. All this excitement and before we even had a pirate drill!

But all is well somewhere out here on the equator and the Indian Ocean provides many opportunities for photographing amazing sunrises and sunsets.

Sunrise on the Indian Ocean (photo by Jackie Hams)

Sunset on the Indian Ocean (Photo by Jackie Hams)

July 23, 2010April 22, 2021

Wesley Struble, 23 July, 2010

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Wes Struble
Onboard NOAA Ship Ka’imimoana
July 8 – August 10, 2010

Mission: Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) Cruise
Geographical area of cruise: Equatorial Pacific from 110 degrees W Longitude to 95 degrees W Longitude
Date: Friday, 23 July 2010

Weather Data from the Bridge

Current location: 4 degrees South Latitude & 110 degrees West Longitude
Cloud Cover: 5/8
Cloud Type: Stratocumulus
Visibility: 10 nautical miles
Wind Bearing: 100 degrees
Wind Speed: 20 Kt
Wave Height: 2 feet
Swell Height: 5 – 7 feet
Barometric Pressure: 1015.5 mb
Temperature: 24.8 degrees C (76.6 degrees F)

Science and Technology Log

There are a variety of buoys used by NOAA in the Pacific Ocean. One of the more interesting is the ADCP buoy. ADCP stands for Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler. This buoy is anchored to the sea floor like most of the other buoys deployed on this cruise. The major difference is that the ADCP buoy does not float at the surface but rather is tethered with a line short enough to keep it submerged approximately 300 meters below the surface of the sea. In addition, it is only deployed with the TAO buoys at the equator and not at any of the other TAO buoy locations. The buoy’s name defines its function – current profiling – using acoustic signals (similar to sonar) the buoy provides a profile (or vertical map) of the ocean currents from the depth at which the buoy is tethered to the surface. The ADCP is able to measure both the speed of the current and the direction in which it is moving. Even though the TAO buoy at the same latitude is generally visited more often, the ADCP buoy is visited only once per year. During the visit the buoy is retrieved, cleaned, damaged parts replaced or repaired, data downloaded, batteries replaced, and sensors upgraded (if necessary).

struble_log4_img_1 — Buoy with newly attached ADCP unit – A

struble_log4_img_2 — KA skiff at the ADCP buoy

The flotation component of the buoy is a large orange sphere just over four feet in diameter. This float is made of syntactic foam. In general, foam is a mixture of two substances: a gas phase in a solid or liquid phase. Syntactic foam should not be confused with the common foam with which we are all familiar (like the typical Styrofoam coffee cup). Most of these foams are generally composed of expanded polystyrene (a thermoplastic polymer) where the gas phase is air and the solid phase is polystyrene. Syntactic foams on the other hand use other substances for the components.

struble_log4_img_3 — The ADCP acoustic transmitters & receivers

One of the more common syntactic foams uses small glass spheres 10 – 200 micrometers (millionths of a meter) in diameter. These glass spheres are filled with air during the manufacturing process. The spheres are then mixed in with some type of epoxy resin and allowed to cure to produce the foam. The buoyancy of the foam is affected by the size, number, and wall thickness of the glass spheres. Some of the applications that typically utilize syntactic foams are the manufacture of radar transparent materials, acoustic attenuating materials, and more specifically deep sea buoyancy floats. Our float is anchored to the sea floor with a large (several thousand pound) weight that prevents it from drifting. The material used to attach it to the anchor is very stable and exhibits little elongation under tension, thus keeping the buoy consistently at the same depth. The payload (the ADCP itself) is approximately 1 meter long and about 20 centimeters in diameter and is mounted in a circular well that is bored vertically through the center of the float. The ADCP has four sending/receiving units mounted at the top of the main body. One can see these in the photographs. These units send and receive a 75 kHz signal that reflects (echoes) off the sea/air boundary and returns to the buoy.

When we were close to the location of the ADCP buoy one of the scientists activated an acoustic trigger that released the buoy from its sea floor mooring anchor. Since it was almost 1000 feet under water it took a few minutes for the float to reach the surface. When the buoy was spotted the ship made a slow pass to visually inspect the float and to launch the skiff. The skiff towed a long and very strong line from the ship which was then attached to the top of the buoy. At this point the skiff was brought back aboard. The ship then came about so that the buoy was directly a stern. When all was ready the winch began to retrieve the line and slowly bring the buoy on board. When it reached the deck of the fantail it was made secure and the tether line (that attached the buoy to the anchor) was tied off to a chain on the ship’s deck.

struble_log4_img_4 — Working on the ADCP buoy on the fantail of the KA – B

The buoy was then disconnected from its tether line and the line was attached to a large winch and all several thousand meters of it was rolled onto a number of large empty spools and stored on board. While the anchor line was being retrieved the science crew downloaded the stored data from the ADCP and prepared the buoy for redeployment. When the deck hands were ready the process was reversed. First, the tether line was attached to the buoy and it was lowered over the fantail. Then the line was slowly played out. When the ship was in the appropriate position she began to move forward as the crew played out line. When they reached the end of the line a large (several thousand pound) anchor was attached, lowered, and released. This entire process took the better part of a day.

struble_log4_img_5 — Crew member Nemo McKay & Scientist Will Thompson retrieving the ADCP buoy

Personal Log

I have enjoyed getting to see the crew work together. One can tell that they clearly get along well and appear to enjoy working together because of all the friendly banter that passes between them. I have been impressed with how conscious they are about safety. I have been able to begin participating in some of the work deck activity during the buoy operations and it has helped in my understanding of what actually takes place. It has also helped me to get to know a number of the crew members better.

“Did You Know?”

Did you know that the greatest buoy equipment problem that occurs in this area of the ocean is vandalism? Many of the buoys are damaged, stolen/cut loose, or destroyed. This might be done either out of anger and frustration, for financial gain (the buoys have quite a large mass of aluminum framing and electronic equipment), or by accident. Regardless of the reason, much time, data, and financial resources are lost and consumed in maintaining TAO array in the Pacific Ocean.

May 13, 2010April 6, 2021

Kathy Schroeder, May 13, 2010

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Kathy Schroeder
Aboard NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson
May 5 – May 18, 2010

Mission: Fisheries Surveys
Geographical Area: Eastern Bering Sea
Date: May 13, 2010

5/13 My boat ride!

After the ship made it’s way through the ice we made it to our destination, which was about 2 miles off the island of St. Paul. We were supposed to arrive around noon, but it wasalready almost 3. We were there because the scientist (Bill) who was in charge of releasing the Mooring buoy had to get to the airport for a flight at 4. Bill was supposed to get off the ship when it came into port on May 3, but due to ice he was unable to release the buoy on the last trip, so he stayed onboard and was able to release it on this trip.

While on the bridge the CO (Commanding Officer) asked who wanted to go on the rescue boat to take Bill, and I smiled and raised my hand. He asked if I really wanted to go—of course I said yes! Next think I knew I was putting on my foul weather gear (the orange jacket and pants), gloves and boots. The boat can only hold 4 people so Dennis, Amber, Bill and I got ready to leave. As we were waiting I got to see Grey whales off in the distance. I would guess about 4 of them. They lowered the boat, with Dennis and Amber aboard, into the water with a crane. The boat then came around the starboard side to pick up Bill and me. We had to climb down the Jacob’s ladder (about 9 meters from the ship to the boat) to get onboard.

I was the last one in. We were on our way. Or so we thought. Dennis started yelling to the ship that he lost throttle. Could only go forward-not reverse. We came back to the ship and tied up. The waves were really pushing us into the ship. They told Bill and I to get out. An engineer climbed down, and 5 minutes later the problem was solved. It was just a pin that had come loose inside the gearbox.Time to board again! And we were off to St. Paul. The waves were nice and rolling so we didn’t get a lot of splash. We went past a red metal buoy that was really dented. Look like a boat ran it over, but they said it was from the ice. The dock where we were supposed to drop off Bill had been taken out of the water because of all the ice.

We went to a boat ramp and let him off there. Amber and I took our picture on St. Paul. Back in the boat—time to get back to the ship.The ship looked so little and far away, but we made it back in about 15 minutes. It was much rougher going this direction. This time I got to say on the boat as they attached the crane and brought us up. I was nothing but smiles for the rest of the day. This has to go down as the best day so far. Started off with sea ice, found my chapstick I lost about 4 days ago, went in the rescue boat, saw a Grey whale, filet mignon and au gratin potatoes for dinner, and played Apples to Apples for the first time. Wow! What a day!

September 13, 2009April 15, 2021

Christine Hedge, September 13, 2009

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Christine Hedge
Onboard USCGC Healy
August 7 – September 16, 2009

Mission: U.S.-Canada 2009 Arctic Seafloor Continental Shelf Survey
Location: Chukchi Sea, north of the arctic circle
Date: September 13, 2009

Weather Data from the Bridge
Latitude: 72⁰44’N
Longitude: 156⁰ 59’W
Temperature: 35⁰F

A Seasonal Ice buoy with a thermistor chain is deployed from the Healy. This buoy starts in open water and later may freeze into the ice. This instrument collects ocean and air temperature data, barometric pressure data, and location data.

Science and Technology Log

Buoys and Moorings And Gliders, Oh My!!!
Exploring the oceans has a lot in common with exploring space. NASA can send manned or unmanned missions into space. Sending manned vehicles into space is more complicated than launching a probe or a telescope. The same is true for exploring the Arctic Ocean. We can collect data on an icebreaker, manned with Coast Guard and science personnel or use instruments that can send back data remotely. On this mission, many instruments have been deployed to send back data about the conditions in the Arctic. These instruments continue to do their work after the crew and scientists from the Healy have moved on. Ice buoys, which float or freeze into ice floes, are one example. The HARP instruments (High-frequency Acoustic Recording Package), which sit on the sea floor, are another.

A United States Navy team, under the supervision of Navy Commander William Sommer, has launched a very interesting instrument from the Healy called the Seaglider. We have been tracking its movements since it was launched on August 8^th. The Seaglider collects information about the salinity, temperature, and optical clarity of the ocean. The Navy is interested in how sound travels through the oceans and this glider is an important tool for doing just that.

CDR Bill Sommer, AG1 Richard Lehmkuhl, and MST3 Marshal Chaidez deploy a Seaglider from the Healy in the Chukchi Sea. Data from the Seaglider will improve the performance, and aid in the evaluation, of the effectiveness of the ocean models in the Arctic. Photo courtesy of PA3 Patrick Kelley, USCG.

What makes the Seaglider unique is that instead of just drifting, it can be driven. In fact, this instrument is directed via satellite from a computer lab in Mississippi! The glider moves up and down in the water column and like an air glider it uses this up and down motion to move forward. It has a GPS and a radio so that it can communicate its location. The Seaglider deployed from the Healy in August was picked up today.

Final check of the Seaglider before it was launched. — Final check of the Seaglider before it was
launched.

The green dots indicate the path of the Navy Seaglider as it collected data in the Chukchi Sea.

Coast Guard and Navy personnel work together to retrieve the Seaglider on September 13.

May 3, 2005March 18, 2021

Rachel Dane, May 3, 2005

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Rachel Dane
Onboard NOAA Ship Ka’imimoana
April 29 – May 10, 2005

Mission: Oceanographic Survey
Geographical Area: Puerto Ayora, Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos
Date: May 3, 2005

Plan of the Day
0300: 0.5S CTD
1200: Equatorial mooring repair followed by a deep CTD and an ARGO
1845: 0.5N CTD
2345: 1N CTD

Weather Data
Latitude: 0 degrees N
Longitude: 94 degrees W
Visibility: 12 nautical miles
Wind Direction: 150 degrees
Wind Speed: 12 knots
Sea wave height: < 1 foot
Swell wave height: 2-3 feet
Sea water temperature: 26.5 degrees C
Barometric pressure: 1013.0
Cloud cover: 2/8 cumulus, cirrus

Science and Technology Log

Today is my first full day on the KA’IMIMOANA (KA). After sleepily answering my 3:30 AM wake-up call and quickly grabbing a hot cup of caffeine, I met Shawn and Jay on deck to begin the first CTD cast of this second leg of the KA’s journey along the equator. CTD is an acronym for “Conductivity, Temperature, Depth”; it is essentially an analysis of the salinity and chlorophyll levels of a site specific water sample. The casts are performed at each 1 degree change in latitude along the entire TAO array. The CTD “package” consists of 15 cylinders, each about 1.25m high, attached to a sensing apparatus. Based on commands from the deck, this sensing apparatus will open and close the cylinders and provide real-time data of water conductivity, temperature, density and salinity. For the purposes of this morning’s sample, the package was lowered to a final depth of 1000m for sample collection. Final depths vary with each cast. Once the cask is deployed, data analysis of the water sample is displayed graphically on a nearby computer—this morning I was able to view a graphical representation of the thermocline for the first time!

Before lunch, I shadow Doc during her weekly safety inspection. What a great opportunity for me to see the inner workings of this impressive vessel! After lunch, the announcement that we have arrived at the site of our first buoy repair comes echoing over the loudspeakers, and it’s buoy time!

The equator! For me, it’s no longer simply a line around the globe. Not only does the equator represent the dividing line between the northern and southern hemispheres of the earth, but this is also the region where Pacific ocean currents are being extensively studied by NOAA in order for us to better understand the relationship between the oceans and climate. Essentially, the TAO buoy array acts as a 6000 mile antennae that scientists use to monitor ocean trends.

Donning hard hat and life jacket, I ran to the third deck clutching my zip locked camera and climbed into one of the orange work rafts attached to the KA’s port side. We (Dave, Brian, Chris, Matt and I) were gently lowered into the water by attentive crew members, and off we motored to our waiting buoy, about 75m away. Unfortunately, this buoy had been damaged by a fishing vessel so Dave and Brian had some repairs to make. Fish prefer to swim in the vicinity of buoys because schools feed on the growth that accumulates on the underside, and it is quite common for large fishing vessels to tie up to TAO buoys; oftentimes damage occurs in the process. After the repairs were complete, I was enthusiastically invited to jump onto the mooring buoy, and it was the absolute highlight of my day! Since fish like to hang out by the buoys sea birds do too; this was immediately obvious to me once I had hopped onto the platform and was clinging to the rungs of the tower.

The entire apparatus was covered from top to bottom with dried guano, and within minutes of climbing and perching on the tower, so was I! Kind of gross; however, this did not prevent me from reveling in the experience of being on the equator and bobbing like a cork, completely and utterly surrounded by water. It felt as though I had stepped into a completely foreign liquid universe. Other than our work boat, the only object in the panoramic view was the KA’IMIMOANA headed towards the horizon. I believe that I could have very happily floated on that buoy for the rest of the day, reveling in the vastness.

Once back in the orange raft, our expert coxswain Chris kicked it into turbo gear and off we sped on a high speed chase, in hot pursuit of our ocean home. Although the KA remained in sight for the entire operation today and although I longed for more time bobbing in the serene, blue stillness of the equatorial Pacific, there was a feeling of extreme comfort in riding to port side of the mighty Ocean Seeker. Looking up, we saw 10 of our crew members peering anxiously over the rails on all decks, ready to work together to bring us home safely.

Personal Log

On a daily basis, I continue to be amazed by this ship. So many aspects of life aboard the KA’IMIMOANA are extremely refreshing: that it is a floating home that operates so efficiently through the patience, teamwork and cooperation of all hands, that a hallway passing almost always evolves into a friendly conversation, and that crew members are consistently willing to share their knowledge and experience with me and excitedly teach new information.

Despite my best intentions and despite a 4.5 mile run on the treadmill, I was not able to squeeze in a rest this afternoon. Now it’s 10:30pm and I’m feeling exhausted, but too overwhelmed to sleep. This evening I studied the Southern Cross and surrounding constellations with Don. Although I live at the Grand Canyon and regularly study extremely impressive night skies, the stars here rival what I’ve become accustomed to at home. Thanks to Jimbo’s call I watched over 100 squid swarming on our starboard side, and kudos to Tony–his expert fishing skills have ensured that we will all enjoy fresh calamari tomorrow night! Matt was the first person to introduce me to an actual example of bioluminescence tonight, visible in the ship’s wake; thank you, Matt, it was so incredibly cool! I definitely plan on taking him up on his offer for me to borrow the “Blue Planet” series to learn more about deep ocean luminescence. So, brimming with curiosity and excitement, I look forward to the gentle rocking of the ship once I tumble into my bunk later this evening.

December 19, 2004March 18, 2021

Mary Cook, December 19, 2004

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Mary Cook
Onboard NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown
December 5, 2004 – January 7, 2005

Mission: Climate Prediction for the Americas
Geographical Area: Chilean Coast
Date: December 19, 2004

Location: Latitude 25°07.83’S, Longitude 81°54.62’W
Time: 0830

Weather Data from the Bridge
Air Temperature (Celsius) 19.04
Water Temperature (Celsius) 19.42
Relative Humidity (percent) 56.95
Air Pressure (millibars) 1018.17
Wind Direction (degrees) 155.6
Wind Speed (knots) 15.91
Wind Speed (meters/sec) 7.99
Sunrise 0734
Sunset 2116 (9:16 pm)

Questions of the Day

Why is the sunset so late in the day?

Positive Quote for the Day

“The world of achievement has always belonged to the optimist.” J. Harold Wilkins

Science and Technology Log

We tossed the last of fifteen drifting buoys this morning! It’s not the end, but the beginning of a wonderful new program. I’d say the Adopt-a-Drifter program got underway with a big splash! Teachers and their students around the world can adopt a drifting buoy just like my students at Southside Middle School in Batesville, Arkansas. They can map its path as it goes with the flow of the ocean currents. These drifting buoys also provide sea surface temperature and air pressure. This information can be utilized to gain a better understanding of the global oceans. I watched as Jeff and Bob deployed another Argo float. These floats are lowered over the back of the ship and when the quick-release mechanism comes in contact with the water, the powder in a small device dissolves and this releases a spring that unhinges the float from the straps. The straps are pulled back onboard as the ship leaves the Argo float in its wake.

I sat down and had a conversation with Chief Scientist Dr. Robert Weller of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution about the importance of oceanic/atmospheric studies. He made some very good points that highlighted the fact that when just 1ºC of heat energy is released from the ocean water into the atmosphere it affects the air flows for thousands of miles. This then can be like a domino effect and continue around the globe influencing weather patterns for people everywhere.

At 2:00 we interviewed Richard Whitehead, Chief Steward. Richard is over the food preparation in the galley. Richard shared that he has been working on ships for over 40 years and has had several trainings for the position he now holds. He said that the menus were developed based on nutritional guidelines and availability of produce. Richard shared with us that they keep the produce fresh for weeks by keeping it very cool and placing it in special bags that slows the deterioration. He also said that there are many safety issues that concern food preparation on a moving ship. All the pots and pans are deep, there are railings on the stovetop, and special care must be taken with knives. The countertops must be covered with anti-slip cloths to keep everything from sliding around. He also said that they consider the weather when deciding what to prepare because you wouldn’t want to bake a cake while the ship was moving through rough waters.

We changed “6:00 Science on the Fantail” to “6:00 Science in the Van on the Bow” because we wanted to interview Jason Tomlinson of Texas A & M about his work with aerosols. First of all, Jason explained that an aerosol is not a spray can. It is a small particle in the air. Jason showed us the Tandem Differential Mobility Analyzer (TDMA). It looks like a mad scientist’s invention with wires, tubes, canisters, and radioactive components! It is one of the best devices in the world for analyzing small particles in the air. It draws in air from outside then dries the air. It then separates the particles according to size. Jason said that these particles are too small to see with the naked eye but they have a great influence on cloud formation and cloud life length. The TDMA can determine what the particles are made of by adding moisture or by adding heat. The TDMA costs about $70,000! He also showed us the Aerodynamic Particle Sizer (APS) which analyzes larger particles. They mostly get sea salt and dust out here in the ocean. Jason said that there’s a mystery about the sea salt and its influence on clouds. The APS costs about $35,000. He also said that occasionally they take in the ship’s exhaust and that destroys their data for that particular time. He concluded by saying that it all gets back to climate change and using these data to make better models for predictions.

After our interview with Jason, we ran outside to glimpse San Felix and San Ambrosio Islands! Our first land sighting in over two weeks! These small islands, located about 300 nautical miles from Chile, are volcanic in origin. They are basically huge, desolate rocks protruding up from the ocean floor. As far as I could tell nothing is growing on them. Seafaring birds do nest on the cliffs. Since 1975 the Chilean Navy has had an installation on San Felix Island where they operate a short airstrip, a weather station and a tide station.

Personal Log

I’m just beginning to realize that this trip is nearly over. We only have four days left. I knew it wouldn’t go on forever but as the old saying goes “time flies when you’re having fun”. What a superb voyage this has been for me-a voyage that is continuing my personal quest to search out the majesty of Earth. In doing so it is my heart’s desire to absorb the inexplicable magnificence of our Earth. I want to be permeated with awe for the splendor as I soak it in with my eyes and ears and nose and skin. I am amazed. How can I take it all in? Where was I when the Earth was formed and hung in the nothingness of space? From where did this splendor come? Clouds and rain and snow and hail are amazing! Mountains and valleys and canyons and caves are amazing! Oceans and rivers and glaciers and springs are amazing! Rocks and minerals and soil and sand are amazing! People and animals and languages and ideas are amazing! And they all work together in a symphony of overwhelming magnitude. I believe that we’re all an inextricable part of this grand masterpiece. Traveling is not the essential element in a voyage. Life is a voyage no matter where you are. Our voyage is how we perceive our surroundings, how we face our challenges, and how we come to Truth. Actually, none of us ask for this voyage called life. We’ve been thrust into it by forces greater than ourselves. So here we are. We do have some choices, though. Will we make the most of this journey or will we let it sweep us along without ever wondering, and questioning and being amazed?

Until tomorrow,

Mary

December 17, 2004March 18, 2021

Mary Cook, December 17, 2004

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Mary Cook
Onboard NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown
December 5, 2004 – January 7, 2005

Mission: Climate Prediction for the Americas
Geographical Area: Chilean Coast
Date: December 17, 2004

Location: Latitude 19°40.26’S, Longitude 89°46.38’W

Weather Data from the Bridge
Air Temperature (Celsius) 19.59
Water Temperature (Celsius) 20.13
Relative Humidity (percent) 73.07
Air Pressure (millibars) 1017.14
Wind Direction (degrees) 101.42
Wind Speed (knots) 15.44
Wind Speed (meters/sec) 7.67

Question of the Day

What are the ship’s three types of motion?

Positive Quote of the Day

“Never say “No” to opportunity.” Melvin G. Marcus

Science and Technology Log

Today, we made the big turn toward the San Felix islands and we’re heading southeastward at 12 knots. We did our last CTD cast of the cruise! Several of us decorated more Styrofoam cups to send down for compression by the pressure of the ocean water at 1000 meters depth. This afternoon and for the remainder of the cruise we will be tossing drifting buoys and Argo floats over board from the fantail. The Argo float has a bladder that inflates and deflates to allow it to go down to 2000 meters, drift in the current for about 10 days, and then record temperature and salinity as it comes back to the surface. It then transmits the data to a satellite where it is then sent to a ground station. The Argo float goes up and down over and over until the battery runs out. These floats are never recovered. It is hoped that there will be 3,000 of them in the oceans by 2006.

As we toss the drifters we are doing a promotional video segment to describe what a drifter measures and encourage teachers and their students to adopt a drifting buoy. This is a great way to get real science in the classroom. The Adopt a Drifter Program is sponsored by NOAA’s Office of Climate Observation and can be accessed online at http://osmc.noaa.gov/OSMC/adopt_a_drifter.html.

This afternoon Diane and I toured the ship and recorded it with the video camera. We went to the galley, mess hall, our stateroom and toilet room, the ship’s bow and the bridge. The bridge is where the ship is driven. While on the bridge, we spoke with NOAA Corps officer Silas Ayers and he explained how they record and report the weather observations to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) offices located back in the United States. Tomorrow, he will give us a complete tour of the bridge.

In “6:00 Science on the Fantail”, we interviewed Chris Fairall, a physicist/mathematician who works for the NOAA Environmental Technology Lab (ETL) based in Colorado. Chris explained some of their instrumentation for measuring clouds and precipitation. He said that some of their instruments can individually measure the smallest of mist droplets! They have worked closely with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution over the past few years to compile data for the stratus cloud deck over this part of the Pacific Ocean. Chris said that the main reason this particular location was selected for the study was lack of data because it had never been thoroughly studied.

This evening, Diane and I continued the writing of the children’s book documenting this Stratus 2004 cruise.

Personal Log

Today has been another good day at sea. I’ve gotten emails from students, family and friends. I’ve had good food to eat and good conversation and laughter with new friends. I spent some quiet, alone time to ponder and count my blessings. The sun momentarily broke through the stratus clouds like a smile from up above! We tossed some Argo floats and drifters overboard. We’re steaming ahead to new and exciting places! What more could I ask for?

An observation: the Argo float is tossed in the water without removing the biodegradable cardboard box, so it looked to me like a casket as it floated away in the wake of the ship. I guess it really is a burial at sea because the Argo floats are never recovered.

Paul and I are about to deploy another Argo float shortly. This will be my first Argo float where I actually get to do the hands-on tossing! I’ve just been observing up until now. We’ll lower it by a rope over the back of the fantail then release it into the water.

Another observation: As the ship steams along it is rolling and pitching. All that motion causes stuff to shift and creak and rattle. Even if I’m in a room all alone, I still feel like someone else is there, too. It’s an odd sensation to hear a noise, turn expecting to see someone and nobody is there!

I look forward to tomorrow. We have a couple of interviews and will continue working on the book plus tossing a few more drifting buoys and floats along the way.

Until tomorrow,

Mary

December 14, 2004March 18, 2021

Mary Cook, December 14, 2004

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Mary Cook
Onboard NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown
December 5, 2004 – January 7, 2005

Mission: Climate Prediction for the Americas
Geographical Area: Chilean Coast
Date: December 14, 2004

Location: Latitude 19°45.13’S, Longitude 85°30.82’W

Weather Data from the Bridge
Wind Direction (degrees) 164.30
Relative Humidity (percent) 75.74
Temperature (Celsius) 18.60
Air Pressure (Millibars) 1016.02
Wind Speed (knots) 15.33
Wind Speed (meters/sec) 8.40

Question of the Day

Why do you think the floaters are made of glass?

Positive Quote for the Day

“Patience is passion tamed.” Lyman Abbott

Science and Technology Log

At about 5:30 this morning the WHOI guys are up early and ready to go! This is the day that the new and improved Stratus 5 surface mooring is deployed! It’s what everyone has been working toward. My understanding is that first, the mooring line and upper 50 meters of instruments will be put in the water and attached to the buoy. Second, the buoy will be deployed with a quick release hook off the port side. Then the ship will move ahead to bring the buoy behind it. Next, the ship will slow down and move ahead as needed to keep the buoy aft while the crew attaches the remaining instruments. The last things to be put on the mooring line are the glass ball floaters, the acoustic release, and then the 9000 pound anchor. We’ll wait around for a couple of hours for the anchor to sink and settle, then, they’ll take a Seabeam (echo-sounding) survey of the ocean floor where the anchor is located. After the survey, we’ll move downwind of the buoy and tomorrow inter-comparison testing will begin.

Now, it’s 5:30 in the afternoon, and all the hard work is completed. Everything went off without a hitch. Well, almost. There were a couple of tense moments throughout the day, but all in all it went very well. The planning and orchestration of the whole process is quite amazing with several people communicating with radios and hand signals, all getting it done just right.

At “6:00 Science on the Fantail”, we interviewed Keir Colbo who works for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He shared with us his duties for the day. According to Keir, his job is to stay out of the way and record everything in a logbook. I mean everything. Keir wrote down the deployment time, serial number and order of every instrument that went into the water. He counted every glass ball floater (total 90). He recorded the Global Positioning System (GPS) reading of the anchor as it was dumped into the ocean. GPS uses a receiver to locate an object by detecting a series of satellites. Keir also explained the glass ball floaters. They are 5/8 inch thick glass domes with a diameter of 17 inches. The glass balls are put into bright yellow plastic hulls that protect from breakage and enable them to be chained together. Keir’s job is very important even though at times it may seem monotonous. When the scientists return next, his records will be the first thing they pull for references to make sense of the science.

Personal Log

It’s 5:30 Tuesday morning and I am sitting at my desk thinking about the day that’s before us. The ship is constantly moving with the ocean motions. There’s no way to get away from it – it’s always a presence with me. I can’t help thinking that we’re atop something alive and breathing. Every time there’s a swell it feels like the ocean is taking a deep breath and then slowly exhaling. It reminds me of the rhythmic breathing of someone who is asleep. I must admit, I can more easily understand why some ancient cultures worshipped the ocean or devised amulets for protection from the spirits of the ocean. Well, I don’t worship the ocean but everyday I gain a deeper respect and appreciation for it – for its vastness, and power and how much all of life on Earth is so intricately dependent upon its wellbeing. Even living things that are a long way from the ocean like in Arkansas, or south central Siberia, depend on the ocean.

I enjoyed today. We watched all the guys working in unison to get the work done which has danger lurking around every corner. These guys are safety-minded, too. They do things right and they watch out for each other. It’s also cool to see the Chileans and Americas working together. It’s like it should be. My least favorite part of the day was waiting for all the cable to reel out. I took a nap. My most favorite part of the day was when the 9000 pound anchor was dumped overboard! What a BIG splash! It sounded like someone doing a cannonball at the city swimming pool. Everybody was smiling.

Happy Birthday, Deano.

Until tomorrow…..

Mary

December 13, 2004March 18, 2021

Mary Cook, December 13, 2004

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Mary Cook
Onboard NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown
December 5, 2004 – January 7, 2005

Mission: Climate Prediction for the Americas
Geographical Area: Chilean Coast
Date: December 13, 2004

Location: Latitude 19°45.88’S, Longitude 85°30.36’W

Weather Data from the Bridge
Wind Direction (degrees) 147
Relative Humidity (percent) 72.19
Air Temperature (celsius) 19.34
Water Temperature (celsius) 19.36
Air Pressure (millibars) 1015.75
Wind Speed (knots) 15.71
Wind Speed meters/sec 8.08

Question of the Day

Why aren’t light waves or radio waves used for ocean exploration?

What is a nautical mile?

Positive Quote for the Day

“The Earth is given as common stock for man to labor and live on.” Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Madison, 1785

Science and Technology Log

Today the Woods Hole scientists are making preparations for the new Stratus 5 mooring deployment. Early this morning Paul and Jason were placing the CTD units in ice water to spike the temperature sensors and set the clocks on each unit. Using cranes, winches and ropes, the boatswain and his crew in conjunction with the WHOI scientists moved the old Stratus 4 away from the launch site and put the new Stratus 5 in position for tomorrow. All the instruments are being readied and the ship is making a horseshoe-shaped transit as the Seabeam records echo soundings from the ocean floor. Echo sounding is when sound waves are sent to the bottom and then bounced back to a receiver. This can then be used to show the depth of the ocean at that location. The Seabeam can make an 8 kilometer-wide reading as the ship moves along. The computer display of the ocean floor looks like several parallel ridges. Bob Weller says the ship is also running parallel to those ridges which will aid in the placement of the anchor. If we were going perpendicular to the ridges the anchor deployment would be more difficult and hampered by the ship going against the trade winds.

We had our weekly fire and abandon ship drills and they announced that we are over 800 nautical miles from Chile. The San Felix islands are about 300 nautical miles from here. All of the WHOI guys have turned in early because tomorrow is an even bigger day than yesterday!

Personal Log

OK. I know I wimped out last night. Sorry. So today I’ll try to do better. Besides being really tired last night, it was windy and the ship’s motion tossed me back and forth in the bed. All night long I had the instinctive feeling that I needed to hang on tight to the railing. Even when I was asleep, there was a persistent apprehension in the back of my mind that I was about to be thrown from my bed!

Yesterday, everyone worked outside so much that today we’re all sunburned and have red noses. It doesn’t seem to matter how much sunscreen I use, the sunrays still penetrate and zap me.

I’ve been working on my lesson plans and, boy, do I have some of the greatest resources! Chris and Dan, the meteorologists sat down with me and we brainstormed some radiosonde lesson plan ideas. Diane has given me some great input and is helping it all come together. I want these lesson plans to be useful, practical and interesting all the while meeting or exceeding our state and national education standards.

It’s a beautiful sunshiny day (which is rare here) and the white capped waves skipped across the indigo-colored waters as far as the eye could see. Very picturesque. I wanted to go out to the ship’s bow but the wind was whipping around too strongly. I enjoyed watching the guys move the two buoys into position. It’s fascinating to watch big machinery work. My stomach got a little tense when the buoy was suspended by ropes in midair and the ship’s motion caused it to swing. There’s just not much room for error on the fantail because there’s equipment stored everywhere. But the guys did a great job and made it look easy. “All in a day’s work” is what they say. I’m still impressed.

“Chester”, one of the young men in the Chilean navy, just showed us his CD photos of Antarctica, when he was there for research and training. His research was with whales. He said that he took biopsies of whales. That sounds dangerous to me, but the photos were so cool! (pun intended)

I got more emails today from school and family. It always makes me smile to open the messages and read what’s happening back home. It’s an encouragement to know that out of sight doesn’t mean out of mind. I have to say, I’m missing my students. I’ve never realized how much energy they give me. I think about them often. I’ll be glad to see them again in January.

Well, this has been another great day for this Teacher at Sea!

Until tomorrow…

Mary

December 12, 2004March 18, 2021

Mary Cook, December 12, 2004

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Mary Cook
Onboard NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown
December 5, 2004 – January 7, 2005

Mission: Climate Prediction for the Americas
Geographical Area: Chilean Coast
Date: December 12, 2004

Location: Latitude 19°46.24’S, Longitude 85°30.89’W
Time: 7:00 am

Weather Data from the Bridge
Wind Direction (degrees) 145.06
Relative Humidity (percent) 80.68
Air Temperature (Celsius) 19.22
Water Temperature (Celsius) 19.32
Air Pressure (Millibars) 1014.64
Wind (knots) 13.76
Wind Speed (meters/sec) 6.53

Question of the Day

Why are the water and the air temperatures nearly the same?

Positive Quote for the Day

Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world. Albert Einstein, Evolution of Physics

Science and Technology Log

Today’s the big day! The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientists will begin bringing the old Stratus 4 buoy onboard the RONALD H. BROWN. They’ve enlisted the help of just about everyone on the ship. At 6:00 this morning, the sky was dark blue and overcast. As daylight began to creep in, we all gathered in the main lab to prepare for the day’s work. First of all, the scientists triggered the acoustic release at the bottom of the ocean which is about 4400 meters deep. This released the buoy and array of instruments underneath it from the anchor. The 9000 pound anchor was left on the ocean floor. Then we waited.

And waited. And waited some more. It was about 45 minutes in all. We were waiting for the floats to come to the surface. The floats are big glass balls covered in yellow plastic hulls. They’re about the size of a medicine ball. And they are heavy, too. Wouldn’t you think a float would be lightweight? After the floats popped up out of the water, David, Phil, Jason and I went out on the RHIB to hook onto them and tow them to the ship. Once again the RHIB ride was awesome!

Pulling the floats onto the ship began the whole process of reeling in the old Stratus 4 mooring. This took all day. First they reeled in all the cable connecting the surface buoy to the anchor. At the beginning the buoy was a little speck near the horizon but as the cable got shorter, the buoy got closer and bigger until it was just behind the ship. That alone took several hours. When the instruments began coming in, we had to log and photograph each one. Then another RHIB ride was in order!

This was the RHIB ride of my life! Jeff, Diane, Jason, Phil and I went barreling across the swells and hit a wave that bounced Jason into midair for a second or two! I was hanging on with all my might and waves came over the edge right into my face. When we arrived at the buoy the guys hooked onto it and we towed it back to the ship. Then the crew on the ship hauled it aboard with a crane. While they were hauling it in we stayed out in the RHIB and pitched and rolled. That’s when I started to feel a little bit green. Fortunately, we were soon retrieved but on the starboard side of the ship…home, sweet home. We then watched the final removal of subsurface instrumentation. Wow! The Stratus 4 buoy was covered in amazing barnacles! Big ones and little ones. Long-necked barnacles are bizarre looking creatures. They attach themselves to anything in the water, just like suction cups. It’s like they’re stuck on with Super Glue. Once everything and everyone was safely onboard we had a barnacle scraping party. All available hands scraped those little rascals off and threw them back into the ocean. It was a mess but with everyone pitching in things got nicely cleaned. Tomorrow, we get everything ready for the deployment of the new and improved Stratus 5 buoy!

Personal Log

I am so tired.

Until tomorrow,

Mary

December 11, 2004March 18, 2021

Mary Cook, December 11, 2004

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Mary Cook
Onboard NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown
December 5, 2004 – January 7, 2005

Mission: Climate Prediction for the Americas
Geographical Area: Chilean Coast
Date: December 11, 2004

Location: Latitude 19°44.43’ S, Longitude 85°32.17’ W
Time: 9:30 pm

Weather Data from the Bridge
Wind Direction (degree) 134.18
Relative Humidity (percent) 74.66
Temperature (Celsius) 19.46
Air Pressure (Millibars) 1014.06
Wind Speed (knots) 15.04
Wind Speed (meters/sec) 8.14

Question of the Day

When we send the Styrofoam cups down to 3000 meters in the ocean, what will happen to them and why?

Positive Thought of the Day

“I think laughter may be a form of courage. As humans we sometimes stand tall and look into the sun and laugh, and I think we are never more brave than when we do that.” Linda Ellerbee

Science and Technology Log

This morning we arrived at the Stratus 4 buoy site! The buoy looked so small bobbing out there all alone on the ocean. David Owen took Jeff Lord, Phil Pokorski and I for a boat ride in the RHIB (rigid hull inflatable boat). The RHIB is an orange raft-looking motor boat. The RHIB is raised and lowered into the water on a lever lifting device called a small boat launch. We went out to make a quick inspection and to see if the temperature sensors were working. Jeff said it all looked pretty good and there weren’t as many barnacles as he’d expected. He took pictures then we returned to the ship. Today, all the scientists are quietly working on inter-comparison testing with the ship’s sensors and the buoy.

At “6:00 Science in the Main Lab”, we interviewed Jason Smith, an engineering technician for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Jason explained the instrumentation that will be attached to the bottom of the Stratus 5 moored buoy. The first instrument is a temperature sensor, which is an electronic device. It has a resistance that changes with temperature and that resistance can be measured with an electronic circuit. These instruments can also measure conductivity which is an indicator of salinity. In addition, there are various styles of current meters used. Some are mechanical and some use acoustics. All these instruments will be suspended at different depths with most of them concentrated from the surface down to 300 meters. One problem that they encounter is marine animals adhering to the instruments and fouling up their functions. Different types and colors of anti-fouling paints are being tested to see which one inhibits the marine life from sticking to the machinery. Jason emphasized that it was very important to develop an anti-fouling paint that is both environmentally safe and keeps the marine life from setting up housekeeping on the instruments.

This evening, Diane and I sat down to begin writing the children’s book about the cruise. Don’t let anyone ever tell you this is easy. But we’re progressing nicely and I can see an interesting book emerging.

Personal Log

Well, the last thing my mentor, Diane, said to me last night was “Tomorrow will be a more relaxing day”. So I thought, “I’ll sleep in and take my sweet time getting out and about in the morning.” You know, do some of those personal hygiene things we often take for granted like blowing our hair dry and trimming our toenails.

And so there I am peacefully sleeping like a baby being rocked when Diane comes in and says, “Mary, Bob said the RHIB is leaving in about 30 minutes!” At first, I thought I was dreaming, but then I realized, “This is for real!” Anyway, I jumped up and threw on some clothes and ran out to the small boat launch deck. Sure enough, they were getting ready to leave. I made it in just the nick of time! Yeah! Diane and Bob had my life vest, hard hat and radio ready. I grabbed them and climbed in.

The RHIB ride was awesome! It’s funny how the ocean swells look a whole lot bigger when you’re in a little boat than from the ship’s deck. As the boat zipped up and down across the surface, I was hanging on for dear life and ocean spray was splashing me in the face and running down my back to make a puddle right where I was seated. The buoy would disappear then reappear time and again.

Even in all this excitement and adrenaline rush, my mind was thinking about those early explorers like the Polynesians who launched out in small thatched boats. For a moment, I felt a cosmic connection across time and cultures. And then it hit me, “What were they thinking? This is nuts!” I mean they had to be daring and bold of personage to cast their lives onto the rolling, endless waters in search of the unknown. Then, I gazed back on the RONALD H. BROWN, my temporary home, floating like a little toy ship in a great big tub. I like that ship. It’s like my whole universe for the next 2.5 weeks. Then what happens? My universe will disappear and everyone will go to their own real world lives. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around that thought.

After we did a visual inspection of the buoy, we posed for pictures and zoomed back to the mother ship. As David pulled alongside the ship, Phil and Jeff grabbed the ropes and hooked us up to the small boat launch, then, the operator lifted the RHIB aboard. We banged against the boat launch so hard it knocked my hat off! It went tumbling around in the bottom of the RHIB. I felt like one of those persons who loses their hat in the wind and keeps chasing after it.

We were all wet but with great big smiles on our faces. Riding the RHIB was as good as the Zippin’ Pippin’ rollercoaster in Libertyland! I’m ready to go again!

Until tomorrow,

Mary

December 9, 2004March 18, 2021

Mary Cook, December 9, 2004

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Mary Cook
Onboard NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown
December 5, 2004 – January 7, 2005

Mission: Climate Prediction for the Americas
Geographical Area: Chilean Coast
Date: December 9, 2004

Location: Latitude 19°39.99’ S, Longitude 80°16.85’ W
Time: 8:30 am

Weather Data from the Bridge
Wind Direction (degrees) 138.27
Relative Humidity (percent) 84.01
Temperature (Celsius) 18.65
Air Pressure (Millibars) 1014.24
Wind Speed (knots) 12.00
Wind Speed (meters/sec) 5.10

Thought for the Day

“No man who has once heartily and wholly laughed can not be altogether irreclaimably bad.”
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish writer

Science Log

This morning we are passing over a significant underwater ridge called the Nazca Ridge. The ridge is a series of mountains rising from the ocean floor. Yesterday, the ocean bottom was 5,000 meters down. This morning it was just 960 meters deep. We dropped CTD’s over this shallow area and we had to be very careful not to let them hit the bottom. When I was operating the radio for the CTD commands to the winch, I accidentally said “Bring it up at 600 meters per minute” (It was supposed to be 60 meters per minute). Thankfully, that speed is an impossible one for the winch to do! Because it would have shot out of the water like an Olympic sprinter!

Congratulations to Mary Castleman, an eighth grader at Southside Middle School in Batesville, Arkansas! She correctly answered the “Question of the Day”. Mary said, “A muster station is a place where people get together before going to a lifeboat loading station.” Thanks, Mary, for your extra effort!

At “6:00 Science on the Fantail” tonight, we interviewed Paul Bouchard, the senior engineering assistant for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Paul is a hard worker with a good sense of humor. His job is to prepare, maintain, and repair all the various units of instrumentation on the Stratus 5 mooring so the scientists can analyze the data retrieved. Paul explained all the instruments mounted atop the buoy. There are instruments that measure temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, air pressure, short and long wave radiation, wind speed and direction, Also, there are several units that extend underneath the buoy for a few hundred meters that record temperature, conductivity, depth, and water current. These instruments take readings every minute and send the data via satellite every hour. The Stratus 5 mooring is the most sophisticated array of instrumentation for the collection air-sea interaction data in the world! Another amazing fact is that there’s five miles of rope and chains connecting the buoy to the anchor at the bottom of the ocean floor. Paul said that all the instruments are battery powered. Three thousand “D” cell batteries are used to keep it going for over a year! The buoy has a “bleeper” on it to alert ships so they won’t run into it. The Stratus 5 will be deployed in three days! It’ll be a big moment. For the last year, lots of hard work, problem-solving, dreams and money have gone into the Stratus 5 and soon it will finally be a reality.

Personal Log

This afternoon, I had to find the laundry room because well, I didn’t have any clean clothes left to wear for tomorrow. So I ventured into the bowels of the ship in search of the laundry room. It’s five decks from my stateroom. That’s a lot of stairs to climb up and down. Actually I need the exercise. Anyway, while my clothes were washing, I ran back upstairs to help Frank Bradley do the 2:00 radiosonde launch. With that completed, I then ran back down the stairs to put the clothes in the dryer. Then, I walked back up to the main lab and answered a few emails. After about 20 minutes, (you know the drill) I went back down to fold my clothes then carried them up five flights to my room. So I sat down on my bed to rest for just a minute and woke up an hour later!

After interviewing Paul, Diane and I decided we wanted our picture taken on the most sophisticated mooring instrument in the world. So we climbed around on it and had an impromptu photo session.

I’d like to say that I’m enjoying all the emails from students, friends, and family. You make me smile. I’m happy that you’re interested enough to send me a message. And too, it makes me feel connected even though I’m way out here in Pacific. So keep ‘em coming!

Until tomorrow,

Mary

November 21, 2003March 18, 2021

Debra Brice, November 21, 2003

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Debra Brice
Onboard R/V Roger Revelle
November 11-25, 2003

Mission: Ocean Observation
Geographical Area: Chilean Coast
Date: November 21, 2003

Data from the Bridge
1. 211600Z Nov 03
2. Position: LAT: 20-00.0’S, LONG: 083-44.8’W
3. Course: 090-T
4. Speed: 12.6 Kts
5. Distance: 102.7 NM
6. Steaming Time: 8H 06M
7. Station Time: 15H 54M
8. Fuel: 2583 GAL
9. Sky: OvrCst
10. Wind: 140-T, 14 Kts
11. Sea: 140-T, 2-3 Ft
12. Swell: 130-T, 3-4 Ft
13. Barometer: 1015.9 mb
14. Temperature: Air: 20.0 C, Sea 19.4 C
15. Equipment Status: NORMAL
16. Comments: Deployment of surface drifter array #4 in progress.

Science and Technology Log

Today we are underway to the next location which is the area of deployment for the PMEL Tsunami buoy. I want to talk a little bit about what a Cruise Plan is and why you need one. I have attached a picture of our latest cruise plan from Dr. Weller. He had a very nice one ready to go well before we even boarded the ship and everyone in the science party (yes, including me) was given a copy. Consider this the “game plan.” It can and does change due to weather or other unforeseen factors and it is very important that the Chief Scientist makes sure that it gets revised as it is necessary to make sure we will have enough time for all of the different deployments and data collections that are planned or to modify as needed. These cruises are very expensive; from the cost of the ship itself, to the equipment and science party, to the value of the data collected. For the Stratus Project, (http://uop.whoi.edu/stratus) this is the big event of the year, everything leads to this moment when the buoy and instruments are recovered and the new buoy is deployed. Any mistakes made now could potentially result in the loss of data for a whole year. This brings to mind the importance of really good planning for an expedition of this magnitude. The Chief scientist has to know how much time he/she need to accomplish their project, build in a few days extra in case of weather or delays, know how much equipment to bring for the project including spare parts (just in case Murphy’s Law kicks in…which it does more often than not!). Redundancy of equipment is essential from the project itself to the ship which has to be able to repair while on the move with extra parts it has with it or to make a part as needed (yes, they can do that!). There are no stores out here, if you forget it or run out, you’re out of luck! That means a year’s work and a big grant could be in danger!

Prior planning is not just a good idea, it is essential and a good Chief scientist has foreseen almost any extenuating circumstance. There is also the importance of remaining calm and being able to come up with creative solutions to problems in the middle of an important project. Everyone is watching the Chief scientist and takes their cues on behavior from him/her. If something happens, they watch to see how he reacts.

The technicians and research associates in a science party need to work well together as they may be at sea for long periods of time (could be a month to several months) . When you are at sea, 8 hour days doesn’t mean much. You work whenever there is work to do, deployments or data collection can and do happen around the clock. The time out here is expensive and data collection is sensitive to many different parameters. You work seven days a week, but everyone is doing the same and it builds a sense of comradeship to be sharing the work. Scrabble and Cribbage tournaments in off time are a big event. Even though they work really hard out here, they all realize the value of what they do and they are here because this is what they wanted to do in life: science. It is pretty exciting too, you never know what you might see and no matter how long you have been going to sea or how many cruises you do a year, it is still exciting to see whales or dolphins, and beautiful sunset still makes you pause.

Sometimes, as in this cruise, there may be more than one project and multiple scientists. However, there has to be a Chief scientist to determine priorities and the scheduling concerns so that everyone gets their data, specimens or deploys their equipment. To be a chief scientist you need to be detail oriented and having workaholic tendencies (at least during a cruise) doesn’t hurt!

This does not mean they don’t have fun after all the hard work is done. Dr. Weller plans a few days at the beginning and end of a cruise after all the work is done (his group have been working everyday for a month!) to see some of the sights and enjoy the culture of the ports they visit. Sometimes these days get used for unforeseen circumstances, like extra time for loading, unloading and shipping. Actually that’s why they are put in there. But if everything gets done in a timely manner, there is a little bit of down time. He even organizes the tours and had guide books for each of the ports we visited (it’s that detail oriented thing I mentioned!). He understands the value of appreciating the quality of work your group produces.

Many times the group will consist of one or more grad students under the Chief scientist and this is how they learn to be a chief scientist. It is not a class they take as part of their Ph.D. program, it comes from observation and personal experience. So mentoring is another important component of the job description. Seeing the bigger picture is also part of the equation; Dr. Weller really wanted a Teacher at Sea as part of this cruise to help share this experience with younger students and hopefully give a small peek at real scientific research to both k-12 teachers and students. Many scientists today see the value of this and NOAA has been doing this for 13 years. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has some outstanding education outreach programs such as “Dive and Discover” (check out that WHOI web site!) Scripps Oceanographic Institution has additional resources at the SIO web site. Please check out the attached picture of the latest cruise plan, as well as a picture of one of the cups that the science party sent down to 4000m on the CTD. I think the sentiment on the cup is a good reflection of the esteem in which they hold Dr. Weller and I wholeheartedly agree!

Hasta manana

November 20, 2003March 18, 2021

Debra Brice, November 20, 2003

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Debra Brice
Onboard R/V Roger Revelle
November 11-25, 2003

Mission: Ocean Observation
Geographical Area: Chilean Coast
Date: November 20, 2003

Data from the Bridge
1. 201600Z Nov 03
2. Position: LAT: 19-46.2’S, LONG: 085-32.5’W
3. Course: On Station
4. Speed: 0 Kts
5. Distance: 0 NM
6. Steaming Time: 0H 00M
7. Station Time: 24H 00M
8. Fuel: 1477 GAL
9. Sky: OvrCst
10. Wind: 140-T, 12 Kts
11. Sea: 140-T, 2-3 Ft
12. Swell: 160-T, 3-5 Ft
13. Barometer: 1018.1 mb
14. Temperature: Air: 21.3 C, Sea 19.7 C
15. Equipment Status: NORMAL
16. Comments: On station in vicinity of WHOI buoy.

Science and Technology Log

We are still in the vicinity of the WHOI buoy and will stay here for 24 hours to check and compare the sensors on the Stratus 4, Stratus 3 and the ship. We will then leave for the area of deployment of the Tsunami buoy. We will do 2 CTD casts before leaving.

During our cruise we have been deploying radiosonde weather balloons and the ETL group has been collecting cloud data. I am going to give a brief description of the ETL Cloud Radar and Radiometer Package that they brought with them and are using to collect their data. Clouds play vitally important roles in climate and and water resources by virtue of their ability to transform radiant energy and water phase in the atmosphere. NOAA?ETL uses microwave and infrared radiometers for ground based cloud observations. ETL designed and is using the Millimeter-wave Cloud Radar (MMCR). These radars are intended to operate in remote locations and for field experiments. The radar is joined in a sea container by a dual- channel microwave radiometer (MWR) and a narrow-band infrared radiometer IRR). Simultaneous data from these instruments provide the input for retrieving microphysical features of the overlying tropospheric clouds.

Instrument Package Characteristics:

Cloud Radar: Ultra high sensitivity, doppler
Primary uses: vertical profiles of clouds. drizzle, snow and very light rain

Microwave Radiometer:
Primary uses: Monitoring vertical water vapor path and liquid water path.

IR Radiometer:
Primary uses: Sensing presense of cloud overhead, estimating base temp. of optically thick clouds.

Collectively, the instruments are called the MMCR Package. Each observes the senith and does not scan, hence, the system is a vertical profiler. This is the second time that ETL has come out with the Stratus Project and it is hoped that through additional funding it will become a permanent partner in this long term study. ETL is doing these measurements and calibrations not only to verify some of the meteorological data collected from the sensors on the WHOI buoy, but also to do profiles on the cloud structures of the stratus clouds in this area to campare the data to the mathematical models. They are also using the data to compare and calibrate the mean and the flux calculations used in the Stratus project. ETL came out during the second year of the Stratus project to do a similar survey.

Personal Log

The WHOI science group are doing their calibrations and measurements all day and the ETL group continues to collect data. PMEL/NOAA is waiting to deply their buoy at the next site. The weather is beautiful, warm, sunny, some clouds (stratus!) I am doing a lot of reading and talking with different science groups and crew members to prepare for interviews. Tonight we will be interviewing the ETL group about their cloud studies. E-mail will be sporadic from now on as we will be on heading that will not allow us satellite communication. We will turn for 30 minutes once a day to send out and receive e-mail. Tomorrow and the day after will be travel days to the Tsunami deployment site.We still have a couple of boobies following us….obviously hopeful that we will toss out another floating cafeteria for them. Learning a great deal about how these large oceanographic research vessels run. They are all owned by different facilities but they are assigned by one entity that schedules all of the science cruises for best efficiency of the vessels. The scheduling entity is UNOLS. So a Scripps scientist could be schedules to go out on a Woods Hole vessel one year and a NOAA vessel the next based on the science needs for size, equipment and location. This means that for example the REVELLE came into its home port of San Diego in September and picked up a science group; did their leg, dropped them off in Manta, Equador, where we met them and loaded equipment for our project and left. We will arrive in Arica, disembark, ship the equipment back to its various labs and the new science party will board and leave for their project. This will continue until sometime in April until REVELLE briefly returns to San Diego, where it will pick up another science party and go out again. It may only come into San Diego two or three times a year. These ships are almost constantly out working and the crews fly in and out of various ports to meet the ships and change crews.

Hasta Luego

November 18, 2003March 18, 2021

Debra Brice, November 18, 2003

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Debra Brice
Onboard R/V Roger Revelle
November 11-25, 2003

Mission: Ocean Observation
Geographical Area: Chilean Coast
Date: November 18, 2003

Data from the Bridge
1. 181700Z Nov 03
2. Position: LAT: 19-43.5’S, LONG: 085-15.0’W
3. Course: 000-T
4. Speed: 12.5 Kts
5. Distance: 38.8 NM
6. Steaming Time: 3H 06M
7. Station Time: 20H 54M
8. Fuel: 1565 GAL
9. Sky: Ptly Cldy
10. Wind: 130-T, 11 Kts
11. Sea: 130-T, 2-3 Ft
12. Swell: 150-T, 3-5 Ft
13. Barometer: 1018.5 mb
14. Temperature: Air: 21.3 C, Sea 19.2 C
15. Equipment Status: NORMAL
16. Comments: Survey in progress.

Science and Technology Log

Today the REVELLE spent the day surveying an area for deployment of the STRATUS 4 buoy. We traveled 50 miles from the STRATUS 3 site with the hopes of getting out of the GPS mapped area of the fishing boats to prevent the fouling of the instruments with fishing line. Fishing boats target buoys as they become areas of fish aggregation in the open ocean. The ship took a zigzag pattern most of the day surveying the bottom topography ( see photo of survey and course). Dr Weller explained that he needed to find a relatively long, flat area on the bottom as we will be underway during the deployment of the instrumentation and we need to travel is a straight line to lay out the instruments. Due to the wind direction we will not be exactly following the straight line of the flat bottom area, but coming in at a slight angle. Jeff Lord and Jason Smith of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Upper Ocean Processes group spent the day preparing the cables, laying out the instrumentation and spraying various parts with de-fouling paint. It was a very detailed all day procedure. Moving the buoy and other heavy instrumentation requires good skills in rigging and crane operations. The Upper Ocean Processes Group of which Dr. Weller is the head, are highly trained and make this complicated and potentially dangerous work look so easy. This is part of the job as an oceanographer that you don’t learn in the classroom, but are taught by watching and doing with another professional. The STRATUS 4 buoy will have a slightly different instrumentation than the STRATUS 3. The Seacat current meters with the rotating fan blades that were fouled with the fishing line will be moved deeper on the mooring and acoustical current meters will be moved to a more shallow spot. Unfortunately the Seacats are more accurate than the acoustical current meters, but they can’t collect data if they are fouled. The acoustical meters have no moving parts to foul. Dr. Weller will also be comparing and calibrating some of the radiation sensors with Dr. Chris Fairall of the ELT group using they cloud radar data. Deployment will begin after breakfast (approx. 7:45 am) tomorrow morning.

Personal Log

I didn’t help very much with the science activities today other than to stand watch and take hourly temperature readings. Dr. Kermond and I spent the day filming several interviews. We toured the extremely impressive engine room on the R/V REVELLE with the Chief Engineer Paul Mauricio. Please check out our tour on the web. We also resumed our “Fantail Interviews” with Jason Tomlinson, Meteorologist from Texas A&M who is doing aerosol research out here with us. I will spend an entire log in the next couple of days on Jason’s aerosol research. Tonight on the Fantail we will be interviewing Dr. Chris Fairall of NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratories and NOAA/PMEL Tsunami buoy deployment group, Mike Strick and Scott Stalin. be sure to tune in:)I need to work on my survey of good sunscreens and/or stronger aloe vera lotions! The boobies from the STRATUS 3 buoy are following us wanting to know when their new “cafeteria” will be installed. Much to do tomorrow, it will be another long day doing the deployment and I am very interested as to how they are going to get that 9000 lb anchor in the water!

hasta la vista

November 17, 2003March 18, 2021

Debra Brice, November 17, 2003

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Debra Brice
Onboard R/V Roger Revelle
November 11-25, 2003

Mission: Ocean Observation
Geographical Area: Chilean Coast
Date: November 17, 2003

Data from the Bridge

1. 171700Z Nov 03
2. Position: LAT: 20-10.8’S, LONG: 085-05.1’W
3. Course: Hove to
4. Speed: 0 Kts
5. Distance: 0 NM
6. Steaming Time: 0H 00M
7. Station Time: 24H 00M
8. Fuel: 1845 GAL
9. Sky: Cldy
10. Wind: 110-T, 18 Kts
11. Sea: 110-T, 2-3 Ft
12. Swell: 140-T, 3-5 Ft
13. Barometer: 1020.0 mb
14. Temperature: Air: 21.5 C, Sea 18.0 C
15. Equipment Status: NORMAL
16. Comments: WHOI buoy recovery in progress.

Science and Technology Log

The R/V REVELLE was positioned roughly 100 meters upwind from the anchor position. The acoustic release was fired and it took approximately 40 minutes for the glass balls to come to the surface. Once the glass balls were sighted the small a line was attached and they were pulled to the stern of the ship. The line was threaded through the A frame, the winch hauled the glass balls over the stern of the boat. Once all the glassfuls were onboard the process of uncoupling them to the mooring began, they were then loaded in groups of 4 into the shipping container to be sent back to WHOI.

Once the fantail was cleared, hauling began. The polypropylene line was then spooled off using a winding cart and 7 empty wooden spools. (see photos) The line on the winch was off loaded into a wired basket which was then wound onto the wooden spools and then stored. This process was repeated for several hours until all of the 2800 meters of line was recovered and the first instrument was brought aboard about 2pm. Then we began to bring each instrument aboard and label it by depth and place it on the deck in the order it was recovered for labeling and photographing. It is very important to document the exact condition of the instruments as they are recovered as it will help in the data analysis later. For example if there are some strange readings in the data or the data suddenly stopped at some point during the year looking at the photograph could tell you that this instrument was covered in barnacles or tangled with fishing line that clogged or blocked the sensors. (see photos)

With 38 different sensors on the mooring it was a very long day just recovering all of them. Once most of the sensors were all onboard and labeled they began the recovery of the buoy and the last 12 sensors. The small boat was deployed and a line attached to the buoy. The ship’s knuckle crane was used in this part of the operation and the buoy was lifted and secured onto the port side of the ship (see photos). Once the buoy was secured the retrieval of the last instruments began. Again, labeling and photographically documenting the condition of the instruments was essential. In the photos you can see the increase in bio-fouling as the instruments get closer to the surface. The current meters nearest the surface were heavily clogged with fishing lines and although their temperature sensors were still functioning, the portion that measures the current direction and speed was completely jammed with the fishing line.

Although acoustic current meters are also used on the mooring, there has been some issues with the quality of their data and the mechanical current meters are still the most accurate, but they have the problems of being more susceptible to bio-fouling and interference with fishing gear. This emphasizes the need for redundant instruments for data collection and comparison. Each year the sensors are evaluated and some changes in instrumentation and slight changes in buoy location might be made. For example this year the buoy will be moved a little farther away from last years mooring to hopefully decrease the likelihood of being tangled by fishing lines. After all of the instruments were secured onboard and labeled and photographed, the cleaning began (see photographs). Everyone participated in this phase with scrapers and , finally the power washer. All of the instruments needed to be cleaned and many stored in the main lab for data analysis tomorrow. All day tomorrow Nan, Lara, Jeff, Jason and Dr. Weller will be downloading and loading at the data from the sensors as well as preparing the new equipment for deployment on Wednesday.

Personal Log

An incredibly long day which began with my watch at 4am and ended sometime after 9pm. It was great and I was fascinated by the differences in the instruments as they were recovered from different depths. It was brought home to me yet again the importance of keeping meticulous and very detailed records of each stage of a operation and the condition of the environment and effect on the equipment. Any of these variables have to be considered when analyzing the data and can only be collected immediately upon retrieval or deployment. It is also essential to have a very detailed plan of operation and to work together well as a team. I think we were also out there testing several brands of sunscreen….mine failed and and I have the racoon-eyes to prove it…ahh well, it was a wonderful day and loved it. Tomorrow and preparing for the deployment will be equally interesting. Oh, and one of the benefits of bringing in the buoy was that all the fish who were living under the buoy were now around the ship and the crew and some of the science staff caught some very nice tuna…hmmm dinner is looking promising tomorrow too:)

Cheers

November 16, 2003March 18, 2021

Debra Brice, November 16, 2003

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Debra Brice
Onboard R/V Roger Revelle
November 11-25, 2003

Mission: Ocean Observation
Geographical Area: Chilean Coast
Date: November 16, 2003

Data from the Bridge
1. 161700Z Nov 03
2. Position: LAT: 20-10.6’S, LONG: 085-08.0’W
3. Course: Hove to
4. Speed: 0 Kts
5. Distance: 20.8 NM
6. Steaming Time: 1H 48M
7. Station Time: 22H 12M
8. Fuel: 2215 GAL
9. Sky: Ptly Cldy
10. Wind: 120-T, 14 Kts
11. Sea: 120-T, 2-3 Ft
12. Swell: 150-T, 3-5 Ft
13. Barometer: 1019.7 mb
14. Temperature: Air: 20.3 C, Sea 19.5 C
15. Equipment Status: NORMAL
16. Comments: On station in vicinity of WHOI buoy.

Science and Technology Log

We are at the STRATUS buoy from last year and are preparing to trigger the acoustical releases so that the glass ball floats will bring up the instruments, almost 50 of them! it will take about 40 minutes from triggering the release until they surface and they the retrieval will begin in earnest. We will spend the day bring them all aboard, recording the depth, serial number and condition of each of them before Dr. Weller’s group will begin downloading the data. Then we will clean them and begin to pack them for the return to WHOI. A little background on the project first: The purpose of the cruise was to recover and then deploy a well-instrumented surface mooring under the stratocumulus clouds found off Chile and Peru in the vicinity of 20’S and 85’W. The mooring has been deployed for for 3 years as a component of the Enhanced Monitoring element of the Eastern Pacific Investigation of Climate ( EPIC) programs. Cruises for recovery and redeployment have occurred each October or November. The science objectives of the Stratus Project are to observe the surface meteorology and air-sea exchanges of heat, freshwater, and momentum, to observe the temporal evolution of the vertical structure of the upper 500m of the ocean. This year the Stratus project was joined by the ETL/NOAA group out of Boulder, Colorado. The Environmental Technology Laboratory people are meteorologists who are looking at the formation of the stratocumulus clouds that are formed off the coast of Chile and Peru. They brought and are using cloud radar and radiosondes to look at these phenomena. The Stratus moorings carry two redundant sets of meteorological sensors and the mooring line also carries a set of oceanographic instruments. Although Acoustic rain gauges were deployed on the last 3 moorings, this year there will not be one on the buoy and there will be several more current meters and temperature gauges. The Chlorophyll sensors will not be on the new one either.

Types of measurements taken by Stratus moorings:

Surface measurements
Subsurface measurements
Wind speed
Water temperature
Wind direction
Conductivity
Air temperature
Current speed
Sea Surface temp
Salinitybarometric pressure
Current direction
Relative humidity
Incoming short-wave radiation
Incoming long wave radiation
Precipitation

Most of the equipment , including the new buoy, was loaded on the R/V REVELLE in San Diego with some of the equipment being shipped to Guayaqil, Ecuador and loaded onboard in Manta, Ecuador. The science party flew into Manta to meet the ship and we will fly out of Arica to return to the U.S. On November 15, we stopped to lower and test the acoustic releases to be used in the mooring. They were lowered to 500, and 1500m depths. Jason Smith (WHOI) communicated with the releases at each depth. After the release test two CTD casts were made to 4000m. When we arrived at the buoy mooring ship and buoy data comparisons began. This is a check to see whether the sensors on the mooring are still calibrated. At 7:20 the release of the glass balls was triggered and they should surface about 45 minutes later. The small boat will go out to put a line on the mooring and bring it back to the ship. The line will be secured on deck the the recovery will begin. As the instruments are brought onboard they will be laid out in the order they are hung on the mooring up the starboard side of the ship and photographed and labeled by depth and type of instrument. This is to document the condition of each instrument before cleaning begins. Most of the instruments are covered by barnacles and a host of other organisms, this is termed Bio-fouling. The bio-fouling is dominated by goose-neck barnacles. These are quite thick on the buoy hull and down to 30m; some goosenecks were even found down to 135m last year. These can be quite a problem for the data collection, for example: last year the floating SST on the buoy hull was stuck in the down position by the barnacles. This is why it is important to document the condition of the instruments with photographs so that when you are looking at your data and it suddenly changes or stops you might get some clue as to why the flow on the current meters changes significantly in one of the sensors ( bio-fouling for example). We will finish recovery of the instruments today and tomorrow will recover the buoy late today.

Personal Log

Went out on the zodiac in the morning to look over the buoy. Sunny, beautiful, water was 20’C and 30 to 35′ visibility. There were 3′ swells and it was a wonderful view of the REVELLE, see the attached photos. Many fish around the buoy and there will be many around the back of the boat today when we bring up the mooring. We are 800 miles off the coast of Chile and the ship is in water of about 4400m depth. Nothing but blue ocean all around and it is breathtaking, reminds you why oceanographers go to sea. You are surrounded by a mysterious blue liquid and it becomes a lifelong fascination to learn what lies beneath. We began our “Fantail Interviews” last night with the chief engineer, Paul Mauricio, Nan Galbraith, WHOI Information systems associate and Paquita Zuidema a scientist with NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory. We talked about their research, jobs and experiences working at sea. Our first videos should be online today. We will be touring the ship and video taping interviews with other science party and crew members all week as well as filming the work onboard. There is something special about being part of science as the observations are made. Jason was checking his aerosol readings last night and sharing his graphs. He was seeing some things he expected and some he didn’t. Many things he was seeing had as much to do with visual observations of the changing cloud shapes and precipitation as the sensor readings. This kind of on-site observation is irreplaceable in science and definitely what makes science exciting. Chris Fairwell of ETL was talking about the stratocumulus formations and how the behavior of the clouds was not necessarily what was expected, but then observations in this area had never really been done before and this was really exciting. For me as a teacher it is interesting because these are things that my students can share by logging onto the internet and seeing on various NOAA , WHOI and SIO web sites as well as many other good science web sites and no text book can hope to compare with this. We can also e-mail these scientists to ask questions about what they are seeing and a possible explanation. Well they just call the acoustical release and may watch is almost over which just means the real work begins:)

Cheers

November 15, 2003March 18, 2021

Debra Brice, November 15, 2003

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Debra Brice
Onboard R/V Roger Revelle
November 11-25, 2003

Mission: Ocean Observation
Geographical Area: Chilean Coast
Date: November 15, 2003

Data from the Bridge
1. 151700Z Nov 03
2. Position: LAT: 19-50.1’S, LONG: 085-03.3’W
3. Course: 189-T
4. Speed: 12.3 Kts
5. Distance: 295.6 NM
6. Steaming Time: 24H 00M
7. Station Time: 00H 00M
8. Fuel: 4233 GAL
9. Sky: OvrCst
10. Wind: 110-T, 09 Kts
11. Sea: 110-T, 2-3 Ft
12. Swell: 200-T, 3-5 Ft
13. Barometer: 1018.9 mb
14. Temperature: Air: 23.5 C, Sea 19.0 C
15. Equipment Status: NORMAL
16. Comments: None.

Science and Technology Log

We arrived at the Stratus Buoy at 1:30pm. We had some problems putting out the zodiac and will have to go and do a survey of the buoy up close tomorrow. Dr. Weller’s group will be calibrating the instruments on the buoy all day tomorrow and the following day they will be taking it out of the water in preparation to store it and ship it home. The new Stratus Buoy will be deployed in a couple of days. We continued to release radiosondes at 6 hour intervals. We are finished drooping surface drifters for awhile as well as ARGO floats. Dr. Weller did 2 CTD casts tonight to 4000m and we attached our styrofoam cups to the CTDs. I have attached some photos of our cups and my wig head after their trip into the abyss. We filmed a video of the cast that should be up in a couple of days.

A CTD stands for Conductivity, Temperature and Density. Sea water conducts electricity as a function of the amount of dissolved salts, in other words it will be a better conductor of an electrical current if it has a higher amount of salts dissolved in it. The density is calculated based on the salinity and the temperature. The salinity is calculated using the conductivity and temperature. Warm water is less dense than cold water and water with a higher salinity is more dense than water with a lower salinity. Evaporation removes water but leaves behind the salts and creates more dense water at the surface. The densest (heaviest) water sinks and the less dense water rises and you get stratification or layering of different water masses. The wind does cause mixing of the surface layer but this varies with wind speed and can vary in depth between 1 meter to 1500 meters in some areas. The CTD that we just took shows a very shallow mixed layer and we will be analyzing it a bit more closely later today. I have included a picture of the temperature/salinity/density plot from the CTD cast. The green line represents density, which is increasing from the surface down. The red line is salinity which is decreasing from the surface down but you can see some variations which show different water masses and some mixing. The brown is conductivity and the blue is temperature. We sent down the styrofoam cups and the wig heads as a demonstration of the effects of pressure. All of the air piled on top of us from the surface of the earth up into the stratosphere equals one atmosphere, but water is much more dense so if you go down 33 feet you are under 2 atmospheres of pressure and another atmosphere for every 33 feet. So how many atmospheres were our cups under? E-mail me (Debra.Brice@noaa.gov)and let me know your answer?

Personal Log

Long day punctuated by being on watch. Food is wonderful, the cooks are really creative and we have enjoyed all the meals. After dinner a lot of people will go into the lounge and watch DVDs or play board games. Most of us read or check e-mail. There is always something to do or sea and sometimes it is just nice to go outside and watch the sunset or the cloud shapes. At the CTD cast we had a spotlight on the water where the CTD went in and it attracted quite a group of large squid up to the surface. They were over 3 feet long and quite fast. The buoy has a group of 4 boobies that live on or near it feeding on the fish that gather around it. They will be most unhappy when we take it out but they will have a nice new one soon. Well, my watch is almost over and I am fading fast and this will be a busy day coming up…rumor has it that those styrofoam “cup of soup” cups shrink really well, hmmmm we need to do some more experiments on pressure……can we carve some pieces of packing styrofoam…..getting a bit carried away here:)

Cheers

November 14, 2003March 18, 2021

Debra Brice, November 14, 2003

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Debra Brice
Onboard R/V Roger Revelle
November 11-25, 2003

Mission: Ocean Observation
Geographical Area: Chilean Coast
Date: November 14, 2003

Data from the Bridge

1. 141700Z Nov 03
2. Position: LAT: 14-54.6’S, LONG: 084-55.0’W
3. Course: 180-T
4. Speed: 12.2 Kts
5. Distance: 293.6 NM
6. Steaming Time: 24H 00M
7. Station Time: 00H 00M
8. Fuel: 4245 GAL
9. Sky: OvrCst
10. Wind: 120-T, 17 Kts
11. Sea: 120-T, 2-3 Ft
12. Swell: 140-T, 3-5 Ft
13. Barometer: 1016.2 mb
14. Temperature: Air: 21.5 C, Sea 19.0 C
15. Equipment Status: NORMAL
16. Comments: None.

Science and Technology Log

We are still underway, about 800 miles off the coast of Peru. We will arrive at the Woods Hole Stratus Buoy tomorrow at about noon. We will be taking out a small boat ( zodiac or the RHIB) to look it over before we try to bring it in. It is heavily instrumented and will be covered in many animals. They will have to be cleaned off and I will enjoy preserving and identifying some of them. I found a copy of my old invertebrate zoology book onboard so this should be worth several hours of entertainment for me. Dr. Weller’s group will be removing the instruments in preparation for taking the buoy out of the water and loading it onboard. Then we will spend another day deploying the new Stratus Buoy. The old one will be shipped back to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for Arica, Chile.

Most of the day we were deploying sea surface drifters and several radiosondes for the ETL group. Tomorrow Jason Tomlinson, from Texas A&M will be taking some aerosol samples for his research. I will be interviewing the Chief Engineer, Paul Maurice and touring the engine room of the REVELLE. Radiosondes are used to collect data on atmospheric temperature, humidity, pressure and uses onboard GPS for wind direction and windspeed from the surface up to the lowest part of the Stratusphere. I have put up some pictures of the radiosondes. My e-mails and internet access are being made possible by the ROADnet system that is installed here on the R/V REVELLE. We have “live” cameras off the fantail of the boat and in the main lab as well as telphone and internet capabilities due to ROADnet. The Visualization Center at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, located at the Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics ( IGPP),houses the state of the art system that allows scientists to take enormous data sets, such as earthquake activity east of San Diego, the morphology of the global seafloor, or the topography of Mars and illustrate them on a large screen in 3 dimensions. One new project taking advantage of the Visualization’s data management capabilities is termed ROADnet ( Real time Observatories, Applications, and Data Management Network). ROADnet sensors, located throughout the world and on Scripp’s largest ship, the Roger Revelle, deliver real-time data to the center for nearly instantaneous review by scientists on campus. I will be using ROADnet to do a broadcast to a geography class next week at San Marcos HIgh School in San Marcos, California. The class of teacher Larry Osen will be able to see me and the scientists on the Revelle as we deploy a CTD as it is happening and ask questions of the scientists. This system is presently being installed on Scripps other large ship the R/V MELVILLE. This is an exciting example of how technological innovations help advance scientific understanding of the oceans.

Personal Log

I’m a little disoriented on my times as I am doing the 12am to 4am watch. I get up a little later that I normally would, about 10:30am. Tomorrow we will come up on the buoy so I need to be up earlier enough to participate. We will be filming and doing interviews during the recovery. Besides if I get up earlier enough they might let me go out in the zodiac! I will ride on any boat that floats, so this is too good an opportunity to miss. Since the buoy has been out at sea for a year it will be covered in animals and surrounded by fish. Anything that floats in the open ocean becomes a little miniature ecosystem, So there will be some fishing and lots to see. We will also being doing our first CTD cast tomorrow and I will have some pictures and descriptions of what a CTD is and why we are deploying it ( actually some of us are deploying it just to shrink our decorated styrofoam cups!) I will be explaining that tomorrow too. What oceanographers do for entertainment on long voyages. So tune in tomorrow for some fun at sea!

Cheers

November 13, 2003March 18, 2021

Debra Brice, November 13, 2003

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Debra Brice
Onboard R/V Roger Revelle
November 11-25, 2003

Mission: Ocean Observation
Geographical Area: Chilean Coast
Date: November 13, 2003

Data from the Bridge
1. 131700Z Nov 03
2. Position: LAT: 10-01.0S, LONG: 084-55.0W
3. Course: 180-T
4. Speed: 12.5 Kts
5. Distance: 299.5 NM
6. Steaming Time: 24H 00M
7. Station Time: 00H 00M
8. Fuel: 4238 GAL
9. Sky: OvrCst
10. Wind: 130-T, 21 Kts
11. Sea: 130-T, 2-3 Ft
12. Swell: 140-T, 3-5 Ft
13. Barometer: 1013.8 mb
14. Temperature: Air: 22.4 C, Sea 19.0 C
15. Equipment Status: NORMAL
16. Comments: Drifter array deployment in progress.

Science and Technology

We are still underway towards the Stratus buoy. We spent the day deploying Surface drifters and 2 radiosondes. Surface drifters are small instruments attached to a “drogue” or sock that is about 40 feet long. The are thrown off the back of the ship while it is still moving. They will float on the surface and the drogue will float about about 15 meters below the suface taking sea surface temperatures and sending the data back to a satellite that is operated by the French ARGOS System. The data is downloaded at Wallops Island in Virginia and processed at various laboratories. We deployed 10 surface drifters today and will send off another group tomorrow. We are deploying them for the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami, Florida. This is a NOAA research facility. A noted drifter researcher is being done by Dr. Pieter Niiler at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Ca.

The purpose of the drifters is to measure sea surface temperature and check the accuracy ( calibrate) satellite data on sea surface temperature. Infra-red satellite data is sometimes blocked by stratus clouds and volcano eruptions. This brings to the light the question of why we need to go to sea in ships to study oceanography when we can supposedly get all the information we need from satellites. I will be interviewing Dr. Weller on one of my webcasts and he will address this question. Since I needed some additional enlightenment on why ships and shipboard research are still so essential to the study of climatology, atmospheric science and, of course, oceanography and Dr. Weller was busy today, I went to Scripps Institution of Oceanography ( via e-mail….those satellites are quite useful) and asked Dr. Robert Knox to help me out. Dr. Knox is the Associate Director of Ship Operations and Marine Technical Support and has helped me many times in the past with education outreach. The following is his wonderful explanation of why ships are still an essential tool for scientists in our exploration of the oceans and atmosphere.

Dr. Robert Weller’s research is an excellent example of why this type of data collection is so important and cannot be replaced by satellite data. It absolutely depends on using ships to handle his systems and is vital to gain a quantitative understanding of what the satellite sensors are seeing. In the absence of programs like Dr. Weller’s we could be seriously misled as to what the satellite data are telling us about the properties we actually care about, like sea surface temperature, heat flux between air and sea, etc. No satellite ever has measured or ever will measure sea surface temperature (SST). Yet we often see “satellite maps” of “sea surface temperature.” How? The satellite measures some component of electromagnetic radiation coming upward from the sea surface. That in turn can be related to the temperature of the sea surface, but only by way of a number of assumptions and calibrations having to do with basic physics of the radiation, the interactions of that radiation with whatever is in the atmosphere between the sea and the satellite, and on and on. In order to construct the formulas or recipes used to convert the radiation numbers to temperature numbers, real temperature measurements at the sea surface will always be needed to some extent, and with some distribution around the globe and over time. This is particularly true for long-term climate purposes, where slow changes in, for example, the atmospheric properties could lead to slow, subtle and unrecognized shifts in the correct recipes/formulas, and thus to unrecognized shifts in the deduced temperature results that were not real. Temperature is just one parameter. There are others, most of them harder to do via satellites.

The list goes on. Ships are needed for any number of laboratory-style experiments and measurements that simply cannot be done by remote sensors, but require samples of water, organisms or seafloor to be acquired and dealt with at sea. Questions in biology, chemistry and geology figure prominently here. New remote sensors, whether destined for satellites or unmanned vehicles in the ocean, in most cases require lengthy periods of development, testing and comparison against existing (shipboard) techniques before they can really be trusted to deliver the data desired – and even then (as in the case of SST above) there may well be an open-ended need for some level of ship-based, high-quality measurements to serve as a calibration standard in space and time. There are a host of chemical and biological parameters for which no remote sensor exists or is even imagined, yet shipboard/manned techniques do exist and can be used to answer important research questions. Take for example the identification and quantification of species or species assemblages in water samples (plankton, etc) and how these change over time, perhaps as a result of climate variations. If we waited until a remote sensor existed we might wait ad infinitum, yet we can do this identification and quantification now, using people and samples. The accumulation of those observations over time (more than 50 years thus far in the case of the CalCOFI program) sheds considerable light on the actual ecological changes taking place in the ocean and will continue to do so; we should most certainly not stop doing these measurements just because we cannot do them remotely. Or consider the business of measuring trace metals, notably iron, in seawater. This has gone from a curiosity to an important set of research programs in just the last couple of decades. It depends on exquisitely sensitive shipborne lab-style analyses of seawater samples for minute concentrations of these metals. Yet the tiny amount of iron in seawater may be a key limiting nutrient for phytoplankton under some circumstances. So iron trace concentrations get connected to important policy and economic questions such as whether deliberate iron fertilization could be a viable technique to enhance phytoplankton growth, thereby drawing down atmospheric CO2 via photosynthesis, and thus ameliorating greenhouse warming. Both the scientific and policy answers are far from clear at this juncture, but you can readily see the basic importance of the shipboard effort underlying the whole issue.

Finally, the advent of various remote sensors, on satellites and on unmanned vehicles, creates a whole new possibility for joint ship/other device campaigns that can do a much better job of focussed observation than has been possible in the ship-alone mode characteristic of nearly all history to date. The ship can serve as home base/deployment platform/data integration and analysis center/command post for adaptive, real-time control of a fleet of these devices, for ingesting streams of satellite data from overhead, and for deploying its own specialty ship-deployed instruments. Sort of a vision of the ship as the AWACS centerpiece of a flotilla or network of tools aimed at some common experimental objectives. Oceanography historically has been bedeviled by the inability to measure with coverage in both space and time matched to the problems of interest. A single ship can never be “here” and “there” simultaneously, nor can it cover the distance between “here” and “there” fast enough for some purposes. But operating as the mother ship/control center, many of these gaps can be closed. It’s going to be fascinating to see how some of these potentials are used in the coming decades.

Personal Log

As a teacher at sea one of the things I have learned in the short time I have been on the ship is that many times observing the conditions under which the data are collected can be as essential as the actual data itself in enabling a scientist to analyse it and put the data in the proper perspective. For example: when we retrieved the Equadorial Buoy and brought up all the instruments that were hanging on the mooring it was absolutely amazing to see the vast numbers of animals that had made these instruments their home ( see my pictures). Could these animals have effected the instruments and their data collections by blocking water flow or changing environment around the instruments? Yes. Is it important to note this and take this into consideration when analysing the data? Very possibly. The ship I am travelling on is named for a very famous and well respected oceanographer, Dr Roger Revelle, who understood how important it is for scientists to actively participate in the collection of their data by going to sea in order to get a more accurate perspective on what the data they collect is telling them about the oceans. As a teacher I hope I can share this with my students, I know that in my classroom, no amount of lecture or reading can replace the experience of doing a laboratory and collecting and analysing your own data. My watch is almost over and I have 2 more surface temperature readings to take before I sleep……the old fashioned way, drop the bucket with the thermometer over the side, fill it with water and read the thermometer. We are just checking those computerised sensors to make sure everything is working:)

Hasta manana

November 12, 2003March 18, 2021

Debra Brice, November 12, 2003

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Debra Brice
Onboard R/V Roger Revelle
November 11-25, 2003

Mission: Ocean Observation
Geographical Area: Chilean Coast
Date: November 12, 2003

Data from the Bridge
1. 111700Z Nov 03
2. Position: LAT: 01-55.6S, LONG: 083-46.1W
3. Course: 251-T
4. Speed: 13.9 Kts
5. Distance: 193.6 NM
6. Steaming Time: 13H 54M
7. Station Time: 00H 00M
8. Fuel: 2951 GAL
9. Sky: OvrCst
10. Wind: 200-T, 11 Kts
11. Sea: 200-T, 2-3 Ft
12. Swell: 200-T, 3-5 Ft
13. Barometer: 1011.2 mb
14. Temperature: Air: 24.2 C, Sea 23.3 C
15. Equipment Status: NORMAL
16. Comments: Enroute to Stratus buoy site.

Science and Technology Log

Today is a travel day and we are on route to the site of the Stratus Buoy maintained by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The Chief Scientist for this cruise is Dr. Robert Weller, a Physical Oceanographer from Woods Hole and this is the 4th year of the Stratus Project. The science objectives of the Stratus Project are to observe the surface meteorology and air-sea exchanges of heat, fresh water, and momentum ( friction between the air and sea surface: currents), to observe the temporal evolution of the vertical structure of the upper 500 meters of the ocean, and to document and quantify the local coupling of the atmosphere in this region. Air-sea coupling under the stratus clouds is not well understood and numerical models show broad scale sensitivity over the Pacific to how the clouds and the air-sea interaction in this region are parameterized. The first three deployments of the Stratus moorings are part of EPIC.

EPIC is the Climate Variability study (CLIVAR) with the goal of investigating links between sea surface variability in the eastern tropical Pacific and the climate over the American continents. Important to that goal is an understanding of the role of clouds in the eastern Pacific in modulating the atmosphere-ocean coupling. Previous to this study we really didn’t understand how the stratus clouds were formed off this coast and off the coast of California which has a similar climate and currents. The effect of the ocean temperature and suspended particles (aerosols) on the climate are very important and in these regions are not well understood. Prior to this numerical computer models were used to predict climate changes in these regions but no real studies or observations had been made. These studies will help in the predicition of long term effects of global warming. The Stratus moorings carry two redundant sets of meteorological sensors and the mooring also carries a set of oceanographic instruments. Including Acoustic rain gauges. Acoustic rain gauges are located 50 meters below the buoy on the mooring line. The accoustical rain gauge uses the frequency of the sound of the rain drops hitting the sea surface , the sound varies with amount of rainfall rate. This is more accurate than traditional rain gauges as it averages rainfall over a given area and is not effected by wind. The WHOI Stratus buoys are the most highly instrumented bouys in use today with 31 instruments. Today we deployed two ARGO floats, for more information on ARGO floats please go to the website at: www.argo.ucsd.edu. ARGO floats are a global array of three thousand free drifting profiling floats measuring temp and salinity of the upper 2000m of the ocean. Our watch went well and we deployed our float without breaking it and falling overboard (always a plus:)

Personal Log

Went to sleep last night after my watch at 4am and awoke at 10am. Met with Dr. Kermond and Viviana, the chilean teacher, to go over the science activities for the day. We took some still pictures and worked on the computers. Tomorrow we will begin some interviews with the scientists and crew. Weather was warm and humid, calm sea, some clouds and overall very pleasant. The REVELLE is a beautiful ship that has a very smooth ride, very little rolling motion. It was built in 1996 by the Navy for Scripps Institution of Oceanography. It was named after the former director of Scripps, Dr. Roger Randall Revelle. Revelle believed that the only way to truly study oceanography was to go to sea and he made it a goal while director to increase the number of ships owned by Scripps as well as make sure most if not all oceanographers at Scripps went to sea for some of their research. The REVELLE is 273′ long and 52′ 5″ wide at it’s widest point. Cruising speed of 12 knots, range is 13,000 nautical miles at 10 knots, crew of 22, with a scientific party of 37. It operates approximately 340 days a year worldwide, but mainly in the Pacific. For more information look at the Scripps home page at: www.scripps.ucsd.edu Being on the ship is like being a part of oceanographic history.

Hasta Luego

September 19, 2003March 18, 2021

Nancy Lewis, September 19, 2003

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Nancy Lewis
Onboard NOAA Ship Ka’imimoana
September 15 – 27, 2003

Mission: Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO)/TRITON
Geographical Area: Western Pacific
Date: September 19, 2003

Plan of the Day:

0700: Recover /Deploy Equatorial ADCP
Recover CO2 Buoy (if there) OR
Deploy CO2 Buoy ( if Buoy is missing)

Weather Observation Log: 0100

Latitude: 0 degrees, 0.7′ N
Longitude: 140 degrees., 2.3′ W
Visibility: 12 nautical miles (nm)
Wind direction: 120 degrees
Wind speed: 21 knots
Sea wave height: 3-5 feet
Swell wave height: 5-7 feet
Sea water temperature: 26.0 degrees C
Sea level pressure: 1011.2 mb
Dry bulb pressure: 26.0 degrees C
Wet bulb pressure: 23.8 degrees C
Cloud cover: 3/8 Cumulus, altocumulus

Science and Technology Log

The equator! For me as for most people, it has always just been “that line around the globe,” but now that I am out here on this project, I realize that the equator defines more than just the northern and southern hemispheres of the earth. It is here that the ocean currents are being intensively studied in order for us to understand the relationship between the oceans and climate. The 1982-83 El Nino was not predicted by scientists, and it had far-reaching, damaging effects on such diverse places as South America and Australia. It was then that NOAA funded the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere project that is the TAO/Triton array. Approximately 50 of the buoys are maintained by the U.S. and the other 20 are maintained by Japan. It took 10 years to complete and in essence, it is a 6,000 mile antennae for scientists to monitor conditions in the equatorial Pacific.

Normally, the trade winds blow from east to west, but in an El Nino event, the situation is reversed.

The phenomenon has long been observed by South American fisherman, and usually occurs around the time of Christmas, hence its name which means “Christ child.” The great ocean currents are moved by the wind, but around the equator, there are counter, below-sea currents. Instruments in the TAO/Triton array are involved in collecting important data on these below surface currents.

Each TAO buoy is moored to the bottom of the ocean using steel cable surrounded in plastic and railroad wheels are the anchor. At various depths on the Nilspin, temperature sensors called thermistors are strapped to the cable. The cable conducts a signal to the surface of the buoy. These cables can become damaged (by sharks biting them!) or otherwise degraded, and then the signal will be corrupted. Thus, there is the need for the periodic maintenance which is the main mission of the KA’IMIMOANA.

In addition, some of the buoys are equipped with CO2 sensors, which measure the amount of dissolved CO2 in the water, and which can then be used in studies of global warming. The buoy which we retrieved today stopped working shortly after it was deployed, and it was not known if it had broken free or what had happened. As it turned out, the buoy was there, and has been replaced with a fully functioning buoy. Right now, I am looking at innards of that CO2 sensor, which is in the computer lab and is being analyzed by the Chief Scientist.

Personal Log

Early this morning, we recovered the ADCP, which is a subsurface buoy. Shortly thereafter, we deployed a new ADCP. ADCP stands for Acoustic Dopplar Current Profiler, and this instrument is used to record data on the below surface currents. I will spend time later discussing this buoy, which looks like a giant orange ball.

I spent much of the day catching up on my daily logs, downloading photos and making several video clips to send to the website. It appears that the hurricane did a number on the East Coast, and we probably will not have email communication until at least tomorrow. I have been very happy to get some good questions from the students at Na’alehu School on the Big Island, and I am looking forward to hearing from many more of you next week.

I also spent time today chatting with the Chief Boatswain, Kamaka, a very hard working Hawaiian young man who spreads a lot of aloha wherever he goes. I have invited Kamaka to come to my school when we get back to Hawaii since he is planning to visit the Big Island. His girlfriend is Marquesan and lives on Nuku Hiva.

The sunset this evening at the equator was stunningly beautiful, and there was a rainbow under some misty clouds in the east. I am hoping my photo was able to capture it for you all. We shall remain here at the equator overnight, and I am looking forward to the gentle rocking of the ship once I tumble into my berth later this evening.

Question of the Day: What is the Coriolis effect and how does it relate to winds and ocean currents?

Aloha from the KA’IMIMOANA!

Nancy Lewis

September 17, 2003March 18, 2021

Nancy Lewis, September 17, 2003

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Nancy Lewis
Onboard NOAA Ship Ka’imimoana
September 15 – 27, 2003

Mission: Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO)/TRITON
Geographical Area: Western Pacific
Date: September 17, 2003

Plan of the Day:

0900: Recover/Deploy 5 S 140 W Buoy
CTD after anchor drop
AOML Drifter after buoy flyby

Weather Observation Log: 0100

Latitude: 5 degrees, 2′ S
Longitude: 139 degrees, 54.7′ W
Visibility: 12 nautical miles (nm)
Wind direction: 090 Degrees
Wind speed: 21 knots (kts)
Sea wave height: 4-6 feet
Swell wave height: 7-9 feet
Sea water temperature: 26.8 degrees C
Sea level pressure: 1012.7 mb.
Dry bulb temperature: 27.1 degrees C
Wet bulb temperature: 23.8 degrees C
Cloud cover: 2/8 Cumulus

Science and Technology Log

The primary mission of the KA’IMIMOANA is to service and maintain the TAO/Triton array of weather buoys strung out along the equatorial Pacific Ocean. TAO stands for Tropical Atmosphere Ocean and Triton is the name of the Japanese component of the array. These buoys are jointly maintained by Japan and the U.S. in an effort to better understand how the oceans affect climate and weather, especially in the regions close to the Equator.

Today I was able to observe first hand the entire operation of retrieving and deploying what used to be called the Atlas buoy. They are now designated as TAO buoys. These buoys are placed at strategic points north, south and on the Equator. The first leg of this mission began in Honolulu on August 21, 2003. Honolulu is the home base port for the KA’IMIMOANA, which I hope you all know means “ocean seeker” in Hawaiian.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — TAO buoys are jointly maintained by Japan and the U.S. in an effort to better understand how the oceans affect climate and weather, especially in the regions close to the Equator.

Tetsuro Isono from JAMSTEC (Japan Marine Science and Technology Center) was on board as part of the Teacher at Sea program for the first leg from Honolulu to Nuku Hiva. You can access his broadcasts on the NOAA Teacher at Sea website. Although he was speaking Japanese, an English translation can be printed out for you to follow. In his broadcasts, Tetsuro interviews many of the scientists on board and introduces much of the equipment and buoys that are used in this project. It would be very helpful for you to view these broadcasts in order to get a working background for the buoys and their operations, but I will also be giving explanations during the project.

The first thing in retrieving the buoy is that is that it is sighted from the bridge of the ship. These are moored buoys, so they remain in position where they are placed. Once the buoy is sighted, the RHIB (Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat) is lowered from the ship, and a crew is sent out to visually inspect and to remove some of the instruments that would be damaged during the retrieval process. The anemometer, rain gauge, and Patrick Ahearn, the Chief Scientist and one other “volunteer”. The buoys are usually very slimy and slippery having been out in the ocean for a period of several months, so climbing on the buoy can be a dangerous affair, especially if there are significant waves and swells.

One of my students has asked the question: “What information is gathered by the buoys?” The buoys gather data constantly on the following: wind speed and direction, air temperature, relative humidity, rainfall, downwelling shortwave radiation, downwelling longwave radiation, barometric pressure, sea surface and subsurface temperature, salinity, water pressure, and ocean currents. You can find more details about the instruments for measuring these variables at this website: http:www.pmel.noaa.gov/tao/proj_over/sensors.shtml. The data is transmitted via NOAA polar satellites and is actually picked up by computers located on Wallops Island. This information is used by scientists all over the world who are studying the Pacific Ocean and its relationship to weather and climate, particularly the El Nino and its opposite La Nina. I will be talking more about these as the cruise progresses.

After the buoy was retrieved, a replacement buoy was deployed. I will be posting pictures on the website of the marine life growing on the bottom of the buoy, and it must be cleaned, painted and otherwise serviced before it is used again. The process of retrieving and deploying a new buoy takes approximately 8 hours, as many meters of cable must be spooled on board, and it is amazing to watch this crew work together to bring it all off. It is a well orchestrated event that I will do more to explain as we go along.

Lewis retrieved buoy — The retrieved buoy must be cleaned, painted and otherwise serviced before it can be used again.

Personal Log

Today was a full day indeed for me, and thankfully I was over my initial seasickness. The opening act of the morning was my first ride in the RHIB to go out to the buoy. You can see from the weather observations that it was by no means calm seas, so the ride out to the buoy was pretty exciting.

I was then put to work helping to spool the Nilspin cable which attaches the mooring to the buoy. The spooling operation takes a long time, and even the XO (Executive Officer) joins in to help. I observed the entire retrieval and deployment operation, and it basically took the whole day.

After dinner, I began training with Randy Ramey, the Survey Technician in charge of the CTD’s. I was actually involved in every aspect of the operation under Randy’s expert guidance and Tom Nolan, the scientist from NASA was also on hand. I will save an explanation of the CTD for another day, but this instrument is really fascinating to me.

TAS Nancy Lewis helps spool the Nilspin cable which attaches the mooring to the buoy.

Nancy trains to control the CTD (Conductivity, Temperature, Depth) probe deployment.

It has been a long and exciting day, but very satisfying. I am still learning my way around the ship and getting used to the shipboard schedule I would like to invite anyone who is looking at the website to e-mail your questions to me, which I can include the answer to on my daily logs. Before I close, let me pose a question for you: What is the Doppler effect?

My thanks go out to my colleagues and students at Na’alehu Elementary and Intermediate School for helping to make this project a success, and I wish you all a fond Aloha!

Nancy Lewis

August 22, 2002March 18, 2021

Diane Stanitski: Day 12, August 22, 2002

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Diane Stanitski

Aboard NOAA Ship Ka’imimoana

August 16-30, 2002

Day 12: August 22, 2002

Weather log:
We currently have nearly overcast skies again with rain falling from cumulus and stratocumulus clouds. Our observations at 0800 this morning are:
Latitude: 10°38’N
Longitude: 141°26’W
Visibility: 12 nautical miles (nm)
Wind direction: 200° (direction from which the wind is blowing)
Wind speed: 13 kts
Sea wave height: 4-6′
Swell wave height: 6-8′
Sea water temperature: 27.6°C
Sea level pressure: 1010.0 mb
Cloud cover: 7/8, rain from cumulus and stratocumulus clouds

I awoke last night to swells approaching 8′ and the ship rockin’ and a rollin’! We were in the tail end of a low pressure system with lots of convection (new word from yesterday’s log) causing turbulence in the air and seas. A bottle had fallen over in the bathroom and it continued to roll back and forth hitting the walls for about 10 minutes before I was awake enough to realize the source of the sound; I then climbed down the ladder from the top bunk to rescue the bottle.

Right now, we are attempting to avoid Tropical Storm Fausto, which is currently located to our east and heading 275° (just north of west) at 11 kts. Its central pressure is 994 mb and its maximum sustained winds are 55-65 kts with 12′ seas. The Hurricane Prediction Center’s 72-hour forecast shows 75 kt winds with the possibility of gusts to 90 kts on the 25th with continued movement NW. We should slide just south of the storm and might feel some effects, but they’ll likely be minimal. Aaah, wonderful tropical weather in August! Check out www.weather.gov and view their tropical weather or hurricane page to determine the actual path of the tropical storm.

Science and technology log:
We conducted another live test broadcast this morning with the main Office of Global Programs office and Caption Colorado, the company that will provide captioning for the broadcast. It was 18 minutes long and the transfer was a success. The decision has been made that we’ll do a 20 minute live broadcast tomorrow (Friday) to be received at 4:00 PM EST in the U.S. If you miss Friday’s live broadcast, be sure to contact Jennifer at jennifer.hammond@noaa.gov before next Monday to tune into our upcoming broadcasts next week. I’m also anxious to hear from more of you about your interests in oceanography and climatology and the questions that you have for me that I’ll share with our global audience next week. I will do my best to find the answers!

The first official CTD data collection took place last night at 7:30 PM (1930) and a 3:30 AM reading this morning also proved to be successful. I awoke at 2 AM to see if Jason and Paul needed help, but it wasn’t yet time to conduct the test so I happily went back to bed. I did assist with today’s CTD at 12:20 this afternoon. I was so amazed at the entire process. First, the ship must stop and hover for approximately 1 to 1-1/2 hours over the same spot while the CTD sampling takes place. There are 12 depths at which water samples are collected in large cylinders between the ocean’s surface and 1000 m down (See yesterday’s photos for a picture of the CTD cylinders.). Just think of the pressure being exerted on the cylinders at over 3000 ft below the surface! Kirby, one of our two NASA scientists, gave me a styrofoam cup that was intentionally sent down with the cylinders and it’s now a small crushed, but perfect cup. I can’t wait to show my students! The person who controls the CTD from the computer end must work in close cooperation with the winch operator who is in charge of carefully lowering the heavy CTD device into the water and releasing it at different rates of speed to various depths. Any air bubbles that are present must be pushed out of the cylinders so the CTD is first lowered to 10 m, raised to just below the surface, and then lowered again to the greater depths. If the ship’s schedule is not rushed (unlike today), the CTD is lowered to approximately 200 meters off the ocean floor, which could be down to almost 5000 meters, our current depth below this ship! We only had time to lower the sensors to 1000 m today, and then the winch operator raised the CTD to 12 different depths where the carousels (cylinders) were “fired” to allow the bottles to flush and for samples to be collected. Lastly, two samples were taken at the surface. Once the CTD was lifted out of the water, Nadia, my roommate, collected water samples (see photo log) from each of the 13 cylinders to study salinity levels, which tells us something about the conductivity of the water. One reason that this is useful is because the degree of salinity in the water is related to flow of warm and cold ocean currents to and from higher latitudes, and may have been responsible for sudden shifts in climate in the past based on the slowing of our global currents! I have found that it’s incredibly important to ask why each study on the ship is significant to place it in context and to understand the big picture.

John and I met in the early afternoon to create the storyboard for tomorrow’s broadcast. We will highlight the Captain or Skipper of the ship; our Chief Scientist; Medical Officer; Lobo, the Chief Engineer; and Doretha, the Cook. We’ll also have an opportunity for you to win a NOAA T-shirt if you respond with the correct answer to our KA quiz question.

The Chief Scientist and I played 2 out of 3 Yahtzee games tonight just after dinner. It looks like I’m heading to the next round, lucky me! That’s about all that Yahtzee is, luck, but an awful lot of fun. I was invited to ride the RHIB tonight to make our way to a buoy that needed repair. The evening ride was beautiful! There was a full moon with a gorgeous halo around it (good question for tomorrow’s log) and approximately 4′ swells that made it just a bit rocky. There were six of us in the boat. Two scientists hopped onto the floating buoys and started making repairs because there was major damage to the anemometer and the precipitation gauge. One of them started feeling seasick because you’re swaying (just a bit) back and forth and you’re about 8′ above the ocean surface. He hopped off and they asked if I’d like to jump on to help with the buoy repair! Wow! (Mom, please skip this part…I couldn’t help myself.) It was safe, yet thrilling. I helped get the new rain gauge in order and placed small spikes on the top to keep birds from sitting on the edge of the sensor making their own contributions to the contents of the inner gauge. I also helped test it by pouring water through as Dave downloaded data from all the sensors to a computer and checked to make sure they were up and running. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was! I was floating on a buoy in the middle of the Pacific Ocean helping to fix meteorological instrumentation! The ship was all lit up in the distance about ½ a mile from the buoy. We found the exact location of the buoy because of the ship’s radar that spotted it right away and led us to the floating donut. I’ll include some (very dark) photos of this adventure tomorrow.

Well, I’m going to review my notes for tomorrow’s broadcast before heading to bed. It has been another grand day on the great Pacific.

The question of the day for all of you is: What are crepuscular rays? Yes, please consult your meteorology text sitting on your shelf, the Web, or my photo log, to find out. Then, email me to let me know how smart you are!

The FOO’s quote of the day: “Adversity is the first path to truth.”
– Lord Byron

Hope to hear from you soon,
Diane

August 21, 2002March 18, 2021

Diane Stanitski: Day 11, August 21, 2002

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Diane Stanitski

Aboard NOAA Ship Ka’imimoana

August 16-30, 2002

Day 11: August 21, 2002

Weather log:
I awoke and went out on the buoy deck this morning to find rain falling from overcast skies! Here are our observations at 0800 this morning:
Latitude: 13°28’N
Longitude: 143°28’W
Visibility: 12 nautical miles (nm)
Wind direction: 100° (direction from which the wind is blowing)
Wind speed: 15 kts
Sea wave height: 4-5′
Swell wave height: 5-7′
Sea water temperature: 27.4°C
Sea level pressure: 1012.2 mb
Dry bulb temperature: 25.0°C
Wet bulb temperature: 24.0°C
Cloud cover: 8/8, rain from altostratus clouds

If you’ve been mapping out our course on a “chart” of the Pacific Ocean (as I’m sure you all are!), you may have noticed that we’ve made a sudden shift to the south! Why? To divert away from a tropical depression forming to our east! The Commanding Officer, CDR Mark Ablondi, made the decision late last night, after French class, to reverse the order of our trip. Instead of visiting the buoys from north to south along 125°W and then cruising west toward the 140°W line, we’ll first head south along the 140°W meridian and then toward 125°W. Flexibility is key to the success of the trip, especially when considering the safety of the crew. A tropical wave is heading our way with a tropical depression behind it. To our north there are a series of subtropical high pressure cells which will cause the tropical depression to slide due west, very close to our original path, thus the reason for the change. We’re hoping to avoid all signs of the storm. However, we currently have overcast skies and rain falling from beautiful altostratus clouds. The only thing constant about the weather is change – gotta love it!

Science log:
Our most exciting part of the morning so far has been a live test broadcast with Jennifer Hammond at NOAA’s Silver Spring office and others who will enable a future broadcast to come live to you. We had to attempt it three times because we kept getting disconnected. Larry, our very important computer technician on board, is looking into the cause of the problem. We’ll try another live broadcast test tomorrow morning before our first general broadcast, hopefully later this week (stay tuned on the web site for further information).

The constructed buoy that was going to replace the one to be removed at 8°N, 125°W, will now be used for the 2°N, 140°W replacement. Because ocean currents are much stronger near the equator, the buoys require more flotation. This means that two extra fiberglass inserts are placed inside the buoy (sort of like adding the donut hole to the donut). This will enable the buoy to float more effectively.

We tested the CTD profiler early this afternoon. CTD stands for conductivity, temperature, and depth. This instrument continuously records data as it is lowered through the water column to nearly the bottom of the ocean. It also collects water samples at preselected depths. Water is then brought to the surface from these depths and analyzed for salt and nutrient content. I have been asked to take some of the CTD measurements since we’ll be doing them a few times every day and I’m told it takes 1-2 hours. I’m very interested to see what it entails. I think that Jason will train four of us tomorrow.

Well, I reread my logs and decided that I need to provide some context as to why we’re all on the Ka’imimoana in the first place. El Niño! You’ve all heard the term, I’m sure, but what does it mean, and should it concern us?

Here is the story…
El Niño, Spanish for “the boy” or “the Christ Child”, is a phenomenon that refers to a warm ocean current that typically occurs around December (Christmas-time) off the west coast of Peru and lasts for many months. This appears to be related to a warming of the entire tropical Pacific Ocean.

Let’s go back even further… Under normal ocean and atmosphere conditions (during non-El Niño years), the trade winds in the Pacific blow from east to west across the tropical Pacific Ocean, dragging the ocean water beneath with them (due to friction). Because the water is being moved toward the western Pacific, it piles up such that the actual surface of the water near Indonesia can be up to approximately ½ meter (~1.5′) higher than off the west coast of South America – amazing! The sea surface temperature near Indonesia is also about 8°C (how many °F?) warmer than near South America because it has been warmed by the sun as it crossed the Pacific near the equator. Near South America, cold subsurface water then emerges at the ocean surface to take the place of the water that moved westward. This process is known as “upwelling” and brings cold, nutrient-rich water to the surface, which is attractive to many fish species, including the anchovy.

Warm ocean water is important for many reasons, primarily because it has a direct relationship with the atmosphere above it. Above warm water, evaporation increases, winds at the surface flow together, and clouds form. Thunderstorms form much more easily under these conditions causing rain. Heat is transferred from the ocean to the atmosphere in this process, known as “convection”. This shows why there is such a direct and important link between the ocean’s temperature and the winds in the atmosphere. Convection usually occurs over the warmest water and winds blow toward the warm rising air from all directions. Energy is transferred and this is one of the important flows across earth. I always tell my students that the earth constantly tries to maintain a balance and this is why there is movement. Earth is dissatisfied with excess heat near the equator and cold air hovering around the poles. In a move toward equilibrium, the wind flows and the ocean currents move…energy is being transferred! Okay, I could go on for days about this because I love it so much. Let’s move on to El Niño. During El Niño events, which typically occurred every 3-7 years in the past, but may be happening more often now, large-scale winds that normally blow from east to west across the Pacific Ocean diminish, and occasionally even reverse direction. Now, the warm water that is typically found in the western Pacific moves toward the eastern Pacific and, voila!, little upwelling occurs along the coast of South America resulting in fewer nutrients for the phytoplankton and other marine life that survive on the nutrients brought from below. With warmer water in the eastern Pacific, the process of convection shifts eastward with the warm water so the rising air and ensuing storms are found closer to the central Pacific.

Why is this important? El Niño results in changes to temperature and rainfall on a GLOBAL basis. For instance, because convection shifts eastward, parts of northeastern Australia often experience a major drought while the coast of Chile can receive severe floods. The 1997 El Niño event, one of the strongest ever experienced and recorded, resulted in heavy rains over the southern U.S., record rains in California, and a mild winter in the mid-western states of the U.S. At times, the monsoon that affects Southeast Asia arrives much later than normal. We are on the Ka’imimoana to help predict upcoming El Niño events . This is done with the help of 70 buoys that are located on the tropical ocean surface between 8°N and 8°S latitude. Sensors on these buoys measure atmospheric conditions like wind speed, wind direction, air temperature, relative humidity, radiation, and ocean temperature data from the surface to 500 meters below, to help determine if an El Niño event is occurring, or not. We do know that an El Niño is currently forming in the Pacific. Now, we need to ensure that all possible data are available by checking to make sure the sensors are functioning properly and that data are being sent via satellite to researchers who are using models to predict the severity of this event.

With early prediction of an El Niño, countries can adjust the types of crops that they grow, and plan in areas such as water resources, fisheries, and reserves of grain and fuel. Countries that have experienced the effects of El Niño in the past can also effectively plan in advance for drought, floods, and extreme weather, a consequence of the phenomenon, El Niño.

If you are a teacher, I’m writing a lesson plan related to the current El Niño conditions in the Pacific that you can use in your classroom. I will provide optional assignments so that you can use it from the middle school to college level. Please check my lesson plans in the next week to find this activity. Paul Freitag, Chief Scientist on board, is assisting with the exercise by providing current ocean temperature data and informed ideas.

Personal log:
I have remarked a few times today how helpful everyone is on the ship regarding questions that the new people have (that includes me!) or things that we need. This is a tremendous group of people. The Doc helped lower my bunk bed on the first day, after I spent 15 minutes trying every possible hole, button, lever, etc., until she discovered it was actually screwed into the wall. Doug McKay is helping me practice my knot tying which I started learning with my husband in Honolulu; I hope to be of some use on the RHIB or on the decks in the future when things need to be tied down.

John Kermond has answered every imaginable question, many times more than once. He has been very patient. The Chief Scientist endures my many inquiries about the TAO buoys and manages to come up with appropriate manuscripts and manuals whenever I need extra information. The Captain took the time to provide an overview of Pacific Ocean weather this morning before our test broadcast. It’s amazing how many questions I have each day. I even had to learn how to open the doors to go out on the deck. There is a lever that you lift to a certain point which allows you to exit; you then need to lower the lever again once you leave. This keeps the doors from flying open on their own and also keeps them water tight. I ended up sleeping with my stateroom door open the entire first night on the ship because I didn’t realize that it clicks shut only after much force. I woke up and the door was wide open. Taking a shower is always interesting. I’ve learned to stand with my feet wide apart to brace myself and I often use the walls for stability. Fortunately, I don’t even need to think about many of these details anymore. It’s remarkable how we all adjust to our surroundings.

Spiderman is the movie of choice tonight. I’m writing to you from my corner computer and peering out at a group of about 8 people sitting in the main lounge watching the movie. I haven’t watched any movies so far, but I am signed up for the game tournaments to start sometime later this week. In the first round I’m competing against the Commanding Officer (CO) in Scrabble (Yikes!), against the Chief Scientist in Yahtzee (Yikes again!), and am partners with our Cadet on board when we play Sequence. This is an evening program initiated by the Doc to keep morale high on the ship. Sounds good to me!

Well, I’m off to fold laundry before going to bed. Another outstanding day on the ship…I could really get used to this!

Hope all is well with you. Keep in touch!
Diane

August 20, 2002March 18, 2021

Diane Stanitski: Day 10, August 20, 2002

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Diane Stanitski

Aboard NOAA Ship Ka’imimoana

August 16-30, 2002

Day 10: August 20, 2002

Our location and the weather observations at 1500 today were:
Latitude: 15°37.4’N
Longitude: 145°25.0’W
Visibility: 12 nautical miles (nm)
Wind direction: 030 (direction from which the wind is blowing)
Wind speed: 18 kts
Sea wave height: 4-5′
Swell wave height: 5-7′
Sea water temperature: 26.0°C
Sea level pressure: 1011.9 mb
Dry bulb temperature: 25.8°C
Wet bulb temperature: 24.2°C
Cloud cover: 7/8, Cumulus

Today’s quote:

“A man is ethical only when life is sacred to him…and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help.”
– Albert Schweitzer

WELCOME to a new time zone! We are now 9 hours off Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), the current time in Greenwich, England along the 0° meridian. We just crossed into this new time zone overnight as we cruised southeast toward 8°N latitude, 125°W longitude. At 8°N, 125°W we’ll find the first buoy that needs to be replaced, which is typical after floating in the water for one year (see the web site http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tao for a map and description of the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) buoy array). During our travels southward along the 125°W longitude line, a few of the moorings (buoys) will simply need to be repaired instead of replaced. The sensors that will be replaced may have been vandalized by fishermen, damaged due to severe weather, or the sensors may need to be recalibrated. In any case, we’ll either replace sensors or fix them at each buoy.

I just walked (well, swayed) out on the buoy deck and discovered that the ship’s first replacement buoy is being constructed. This buoy will replace the one currently floating at our first stop. It’s amazing how the whole project comes together with many scientists working in harmony. See today’s photo log for pictures of the newest buoy at various stages of completion.

Dr. Paul Freitag, our Chief Scientist, provided some more information about the instruments on the buoys. First, the buoys are anchored to the ocean floor, which is still hard for me to believe. All of the buoys have sensors to measure temperature/relative humidity and an anemometer to measure wind speed along with wind direction. Some of the buoys have sensors measuring precipitation and solar radiation, but not all are equipped to with this expensive instrumentation. The buoy itself (the orange and white donut part) is composed of a foam core surrounded by fiberglass. Below this there is a rigid stainless steel bridle connected to a wire rope which is used for the first 500 meters of the mooring. On these 500 meters of wire rope there are nine subsurface temperature sensors (thermistors) followed by two pressure sensors accompanying two more thermistors. The pressure readings correspond well with measurements of ocean depth. Water temperatures are measured below the surface at 1 meter (m), 20 m, 40 m, 60 m, 80 m, 100 m, 120 m, 140 m, 180 m, 300 m, and 500 m. Below 500 m, eight-strand plaited nylon line is used down to the anchor, with some sites requiring nearly 3 miles of line (see the diagram at http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/images/atlas.gif). The amazing thing is that the subsurface temperature sensors transmit and receive data from the buoy with an inductive coupling technique, which means that they’re not wired directly to the main line, yet data are transmitted along the cable. The sensors simply clamp onto the wire rope that serves as one of the inductive elements. This makes it much easier to assemble and deploy the extremely long cable. One aspect of meteorology that I find fascinating is the instrumentation, so I spend much of my time looking at the wiring and instrument manufacturers and asking the scientists many questions about what and why and how…they haven’t seemed to mind so far.

Here is some more information about the people and activities on the ship. There are 31 people on board (seven of us are women) with bunk space available for only two more. There are 5 officers, 1 cadet, 10 scientists, and the remaining crew members who focus on making the ship and science work efficiently. We all greatly appreciate their help. Everyone eats breakfast from 7:00-8:00 AM (0700-0800), lunch from 11:00-12:00 (1100-1200), and dinner from 4:30-5:30 PM (1630-1730). There is a small store selling candy and snacks, soda, shirts and hats on the ship that is open each night from 1930-2000 hours. We can email from any computer on board (I’ve counted at least 14 computers) and all of our email messages are sent and received in a bundle two times a day around 0900 and 1600. There is a laundry room with three washers/dryers on the second deck forward on the starboard side of the ship. There are two lounges with library materials including books, magazines and board games. Movies are shown every night on two channels in the lounges at both 1730 and repeated at 2000. So, you can see that it’s easy to keep busy on the ship. Two extra treats on this cruise include guitar/music playing sessions for all those who brought their musical instruments on board, and French lessons every other night. Je m’appelle Diane. J

After seeing more flying fish today, I decided to do some research to find out exactly what these fish are all about. I learned that they’re often referred to as “bluebirds of the sea” and that they spread their pectoral fins, glide for a few seconds, and then splash back into the sea. When they swim, their long fins are folded against their body. Flight speeds of up to 35 miles per hour have been monitored and flights as long as 13 seconds covering up to 450 feet have been timed. Photography has proven that they are gliders and not true flyers (all information obtained in “Fishes of the Pacific Coast” by Gar Goodson, Stanford University Press, 1988). I’ll keep my eye on these beauties and attempt to take a photo so you can share this delight!

The first person to answer my question of the day posed in my August 17th log was Tom Taddeo (my incredibly smart uncle from Mechanicsburg, PA – thanks for responding!) who gave the correct answer regarding the definition of pitch, roll, and yaw of a ship. Yes, pitch is when the ship tips in a fore-and-aft direction (from front to back), roll means the ship tips from side to side due to the sea or swell, and yaw means that the ship swings involuntarily from side to side when advancing forward. I’d love to hear from more of you so I can acknowledge more people in my logs.

The afternoon was spent testing the computer and camera equipment that will enable us to connect with all of you via upcoming live webcasts. Fortunately, everything seems to be working very well! We even managed to get a wireless microphone to work. We’ll be testing again tomorrow and hope to have a general broadcast ready to go by the end of the week. Please contact Jennifer Hammond at jennifer.hammond@noaa.gov if you’d like to receive the live broadcast. We’ll be interviewing scientists and talking about life at sea!

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner again tonight and I’m nearly ready for bed. It was great to hear from Dana Tomlinson (our last Teacher at Sea!), Nancy from ASU, and as always, my husband, family members, and friends. I invite more of you to email with questions that you might have about the Ka’imimoana or what it’s like to live on a ship.

Until tomorrow when I discuss CTD’s (what are they, you ask?!? – more tomorrow!)…bon soir.

Question of the day: What is the difference between sea wave height and swell wave height?

More tomorrow…
Diane

P.S. I just walked outside and rain was falling on the buoy deck under bright pink clouds – beautiful!

August 18, 2002March 18, 2021

Diane Stanitski: Day 8, August 18, 2002

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Diane Stanitski

Aboard NOAA Ship Ka’imimoana

August 16-30, 2002

Day 8: Sunday, August 18, 2002

The weather observations at 1700 today were:
Temperature: 26.0°C
Sea Water Temperature: 26.7°C
Visibility: 12 nautical miles
Wind direction: 055 (on a 0-360° scale) – NE
Wind speed: 20 kts
Sea wave height: 5-7′
Swell wave height: 6-8′
Sea level pressure: 1013.2 mb
Cloud cover: 3/8, cumulus

Today’s quote: “Best be yourself, imperial, plain and true!” – Robert Browning

The crew was abuzz today due to the fact that we were about to deploy a test buoy after surveying a 3×3 mile stretch of the ocean to find an area with a flat surface for the buoy’s anchor to rest upon. The entire exercise took all morning and a part of the afternoon. I interviewed John Bumgardner, our mechanical engineer on the boat, about the buoy array and videotaped a short segment to be used in one of our upcoming webcasts.

A buoy deployment is serious business on the ship. One of two cranes is used to lift the extremely heavy buoy off the starboard side of the ship onto the water. Thousands of meters of durable nilspin and nylon are then spooled out into the ocean behind the buoy with a large anchor (a railroad wheel) weighing approximately 2 tons dropped as a final way to secure the buoy in its location and anchor it to the ocean floor (see photos in the photo log). The buoy drifts off into the sea for a few km as the ship slowly drifts in the opposite direction so that the rope doesn’t become tangled. An acoustic release device is then discharged into the water, which will allow the buoy to become detached from the anchor after it’s at the bottom of the ocean. This will be handy when the buoy is retrieved from the water at the end of September during the return of the KA to Honolulu.

The deployment was successful except for one rope that was caught over the sonic wind sensor. A group of us decided to ride the RHIB to the buoy in order to pull the rope off of the sensor. It was a rough ride through the 6-8′ swells, but boy was it fun! We all hung on and received a nice salty shower during our return to the ship.

While all of this was going on, Larry, our Electronics Technician, hooked me up to my email account so that I could keep in touch with all of you. He also downloaded software so that I could provide photos of my experience for you to view. Larry keeps the ship rolling with his expertise in so many areas. We’re definitely lucky to have him on board.

After turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes for dinner, John videotaped me on the back deck in front of a beautiful sunset. I then came inside for a short French lesson. Takeshi, our foreign observer, is from France and is teaching us some basic French before our arrival in Nuku Hiva, the French Marquesas. It’s all coming back to me after 3 years of French in High School – definitely worthwhile classes to take in school.

I’m off to bed after a long day in the fresh air. Looking forward to tomorrow’s adventures.

Today’s question: What percent of the ocean’s water is saline?

All the best,
Diane

March 9, 2002March 18, 2021

Dana Tomlinson: Day 9, March 9, 2002

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Dana Tomlinson

Aboard NOAA Ship Ka’imimoana

March 1 – 27, 2002

Date: Saturday, March 9, 2002

Lat: 5°N
Long: 110°W
Seas: E/NE 2-5 ft.
Visibility: unrestricted
Weather: partly, occasionally mostly cloudy
Sea Surface Temperature: 78-82°F
Air Temp: 87-76°F

Today, we did our first recovery/deployment of a buoy. What a fascinating 6 hour process. I was very impressed by the way the entire crew worked together as a team to make this complicated, and potentially dangerous, process happen.

At first light, two scientists (Brian and Nuria) motored out to the buoy (which was about 10 miles from where it should have been) from the Ka’imimoana in a small craft. They tied the buoy to a rope which was winched up back on deck. The buoy was then pulled to the ship and carefully hoisted aboard (in 6-8 ft swells with about 15 knot winds). It was placed over a hole in the deck so that Raye could scrape the barnacles off from below. (more barnacle talk tomorrow) It was missing its anemometer – lost at sea! Then the scientists started to winch in the wire which holds, at regular intervals, the thermometer pods, or Thermisters, which have been on this buoy for the past year collecting temperature data. After those are cut off, all of the 500 m (one spool) of wire is spooled. (We found a mass of fishing line that was snagged on the wire. This probably helps to account for why the buoy was 10 miles off. The fishing boat that was attached to the line probably pulled it.) Then comes 5-6 spools of white nylon rope to pull up. Then, there’s another 50 m of nylon rope, at the end of which is an acoustic coupler – a device that automatically releases the anchor line from the anchor by remote. Done with recovery!

To deploy the new buoy, it’s not exactly a reverse process because the buoy goes in first, followed by the line and then anchor last. The buoy (with anemometer!) gets hoisted over the side by crane and released with the wire on board attached to it. The wire starts getting released and the Thermisters are attached to the line at their intervals, then the rest of the wire is released and then the many spools of nylon rope. Then the acoustic coupler is attached and finally the anchors are carefully placed into the water. The ship then motors back to the buoy, which has floated over a mile away, to make sure it has ended up in the correct location and is floating properly upright. The scientists have purposefully deployed the anchor at a certain location knowing that the anchor will pull the buoy back some, but not all of the way. The barnacle talk will wait for tomorrow since the buoy explanation took so long! Stay tuned!!

Question of the Day:

At the end of the url for this website and on every buoy we recover and deploy, it says “TAO.” What does TAO stand for?

Answer of the Day:

Mr. Whitham’s class in San Diego was the first to respond with the correct answer. To change Celsius into Fahrenheit, one must take the Celsius number, multiply it by 9/5 and then add 32. C x 9/5 + 32 = F So, 27.6C is about 81F. (A hint that an Australian friend of mine told me is, if the Celsius number is in the 20’s or higher, just multiply the Celsius number by 3 and you’re close enough. In this case, pretty darn close!!).

Til tomorrow,
🙂 Dana

March 5, 2002March 18, 2021

Dana Tomlinson: Day 5, March 5, 2002

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Dana Tomlinson

Aboard NOAA Ship Ka’imimoana

March 1 – 27, 2002

Date: Tuesday, March 5, 2002

Latitude: 15 N
Longitude: 111 W
Seas: N/NW 2-5 ft.
Visibility: Unrestricted
Weather: Partly Cloudy
Sea Surface Temp: 72-76F
Winds: NE 5-10
Air Temp: 78-65F

Hello again from the sunny Pacific! Today was another wonderful day in paradise. We were actually visited by some boobies doing some aerial maneuvers around the ship. We also saw numerous flying fish who I don’t think were visiting, but trying to get out of our way! It was my first sighting of flying fish. I always figured that they’d soar out of the water and fall back in, but, as often happens, boy was I wrong. These fish (very slender and smaller than I thought -looked like maybe 8-10 inches long) burst out of the water and then literally fly. They use their pectoral fins as wings and some easily flew for 50 yards. Amazing.

Since we are still in transit to the first buoy (arriving Wed 3/7), I spent today on camera in tests to get our technology all set for the live web feeds we will be doing for schools around the country (and in a few other countries, too). If you are a teacher who would like to set up a live webfeed for your classroom, please email me, and I’ll connect you with the people who will make it happen.

The scientists continue to prep for work they’ll be undertaking any day now. Since I don’t have anything very scientific to discuss today, I think I’ll take this opportunity to give you information on something I’ve been getting LOTS of questions about … the food!

JoseFelipe from San Diego was one of the first to ask! The mess (it’s actually very neat, but that’s what they call the cafeteria) is open to feed us three times a day: from 0700-0800, 1100-1200 and from 1630-1730. They are strict about the times. Clementine and Sandra are the cooks and they do a terrific job feeding the 30 of us on board a great deal of variety. For breakfast every day, they’ve had a choice of hot or cold cereals, waffles, pancakes, and some sort of egg dish. For lunch, there is always a salad bar, and usually sandwiches and a soup, and then a couple of main dishes. For dinner, you usually have at least 3 dishes to choose from. Dessert at lunch is usually ice cream or fruit, and for dinner it’s usually something VERY fattening. Tonight, it was the richest chocolate cake I’ve ever eaten. During any other hours of the day, the mess is open for the snacks they have available: bread, peanut butter, all of the drinks, salad, crackers, etc. So far, my favorites have been the Chinese soup, the chicken curry and the Caesar salad (at three different meals and all made from scratch). We are a lucky crew. Thanks, ladies!!

Question of the Day:

When looking at a forecast, what does SST stand for?

Hint: you can find it in my daily log.

Answer of the Day:

Vanessa P. from San Diego was the first to ask me what the #2 and #3 most frequently asked questions of me were before I left on my voyage. Here are those questions and answers:

#2 Are there any other women on board with you?
Answer: Yes, there are a total of 8 women on board and 22 men.

#3 How did you get chosen for this?
Answer: I’m not really sure. My best guess is that the folks who decide these things at NOAA liked the fact that I wrote well when I filled out my application, they liked that I have done a lot of things in outdoor education, and perhaps they liked the fact that I used to be a flight attendant so they knew that I can travel and take care of myself. I really don’t know, but I’m sure glad they did!

Til tomorrow,
🙂 Dana

March 3, 2002March 18, 2021

Dana Tomlinson: Day 3, March 3, 2002

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Dana Tomlinson

Aboard NOAA Ship Ka’imimoana

March 1 – 27, 2002

Date: Sunday, March 3, 2002

Latitude: 25.5 N
Longitude: 114.8 W
Temperature: 70 F

Science Log

Research has not yet started.

Travel Log

When we went to bed last night, the moon was a harvest color just hanging on the horizon and there were 30 knot winds crossing the bow of the ship. The seas had picked up considerably and this morning we had fairly high surf with waves breaking, forming white caps wherever we looked. It wasn’t scary, but it was rough. By the afternoon, however, we had the predicted 2 to 4 foot seas, partly cloudy weather with temperatures in the mid-70’s – just lovely.

The crew continues to prepare for the many experiments and tests they will perform. Today, Ben and Brian used one of the cranes on board to move a Doppler radar device into position for future deployment. My roommate is an employee with MBARI (the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute). She is going to be studying the barnacles that collect on the bottoms of the buoys that are brought on board. She’s been busy preparing her collection bottles, sewing netting to hold the samples and teaching me the difference between the types of barnacles to be found!

I’m looking forward to helping her with some of her work. More tomorrow on the other activities I’ll be involved with. I’d love to hear from you. Please email with questions and I’ll be happy to get back to you and to use the answers to some of them in this daily log.

Til then, here’s to FAIR seas and following winds!
Dana

October 10, 2001March 18, 2021

Jane Temoshok, October 10, 2001

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Jane Temoshok
Onboard NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown
October 2 – 24, 2001

Mission: Eastern Pacific Investigation of Climate Processes
Geographical Area: Eastern Pacific
Date: October 10, 2001

Latitude: 1 ºS
Longitude: 95 ºW
Air Temp: 22.5 ºC
Sea Temp: 19 ºC
Sea Wave: 0 – 1 ft.
Swell Wave: 3 – 4 ft.
Visibility: 8 miles
Cloud cover: 6/8

Science Log

Everyone was working in full swing today. Weather balloons being released, water samples being collected, data from every possible source was being analyzed. The big event of the day though, was coming upon the first buoy. A buoy is relatively small, about the size of a small monkey bar set – just big enough for one or two people to climb onto. It has a long rope with an anchor attached at the bottom so it is supposed to stay put. But many times the currents and winds are too strong and it drifts a bit, making it hard to find in the big ocean. Fortunately, it has a sensor on it that helps the ship locate it. This buoy was placed out here last year. It is full of sensors that store information like temperature and salinity (how much salt is in the water) and winds. Using that information, scientists can chart even the smallest changes over long periods of time. Unfortunately this buoy was damaged a while ago and stopped transmitting. Perhaps a ship ran into it or maybe a shark took a bite out it. Today 2 scientists went out in a small boat (see photos) and climbed aboard the buoy and repaired it. Lucky for them, the seas were very calm, but even so, it is very dangerous work. They found the buoy quite damaged probably from a collision with a ship. The buoy was fixed and is now transmitting again.

The sea was very calm, but even so, repairing a buoy is dangerous work.

Two scientists traveled to the buoy in a small boat and climbed aboard to repair it. They found the buoy quite damaged, probably from a collision with a ship.

The scientists fixed the buoy and now it is transmitting again.

Travel Log

Repairing the buoy took about 2 hours. During that time some of the crew enjoyed fishing off the back of the boat. As Jennifer mentioned in her logs, the bottom of the buoy and the rope that leads down to the anchor act as a special habitat for sea life. Barnacles and mussels attach themselves to the rope and then small fish come to feed on them, The food chain grows quite large so that in a year’s time many big fish, including sharks, can often be seen by a buoy. Today one of the crew caught a 25 pound mahi which was deliciously grilled up for dinner.

Today we also had our first emergency drills. Each person on board is responsible for knowing what to do, where to go, and what to bring for each of the three types of emergencies. The first is your basic fire drill. But since you can’t get off the ship easily, you have to know where to go to be safe. The second one is the “abandon ship” drill. This one is tough because each person must get to her room, put on a life vest, and carry a large orange duffle bag with your “gumby” suit in it down to a lifeboat. A gumby suit is a big bulky rubbery suit that will keep you warm and dry if you have to go into the water. You put it on right over your clothes and it’s really tough to do. I was told that it will be even be harder to do in the middle of a dark and cold night! The last drill is the “man overboard” alarm. What do you do if you were to see someone fall off the ship? Three things: keep your eye on him, throw something in the water that will float like a life ring, and yell for help. Safety is a big concern when you are on a ship.

Question of the Day: How does the ship get fresh water for its passengers?

Keep in touch,
Jane

September 11, 2001March 18, 2021

Jennifer Richards, September 11, 2001

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Jennifer Richards
Onboard NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown
September 5 – October 6, 2001

Mission: Eastern Pacific Investigation of Climate Processes
Geographical Area: Eastern Pacific
Date: September 11, 2001

Latitude: 12º 06.3 N
Longitude: 95º 49.7 W
Temperature: 26.5 º C
Seas: Sea wave height: 2-3 feet
Swell wave height: 4-5 feet
Visibility: 10 miles
Cloud cover: 6/8
Water Temp: 29.7 ºC

Special note: The storm we hit yesterday is now classified and named “Hurricane Ivo”

Research Objective for the day: Install sensors on the buoy at 10N, 95W. Download data from the buoy into the ship’s system for analysis.

Science Log

Today is the first day that official operations take place. We reached the first buoy at 10N, 95W around 4pm, and the zodiac sent several people out to it for maintenance. Divers installed sensors on the under-water portion. They also downloaded the data from the buoy for analysis.

There are lots of buoys in the ocean. Mr. John Stanley (who I will introduce you to later in the week) is in charge of the buoy work on this cruise. He’s installing some, repairing some, and doing general maintenance.

One neat thing about the buoys is that the anchors that keep them in place develop their own ecosystem. All sorts of stuff grows on the anchor line, and stuff that eats the stuff on the line hangs out in the area. And the stuff that eats the stuff that grows on the line is also there. You get the picture. This means that whenever we reach buoys, people on the ship start reaching for their fishing gear. Although we didn’t see any today, I’ve been told that there are often white-tip sharks in the area, and things can get pretty exciting (especially with a diver in the area). Today Pat, one of the crew, caught a pretty good-sized yellow-tail tuna. It was cool, until it started bleeding all over the deck. That’s when I decided I should go look at something else.

Travel Log

This has been a quiet day. Most people on the ship are in some kind of shock after hearing of the terrorist activities on the east coast. I know I speak for everyone on board when I say that all of our thoughts are with the thousands and millions of people who have been affected by the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I tried for hours to reach my family in the Washington, D.C. area, but I was never able to get a connection. Inmarsat-M phone calls must first connect with a satellite operator (challenge #1), and then connect with land (challenge #2). To those of you reading this who have family or friends on the ship, please remember that in an event like this, e-mail is a reliable way to communicate. Our computer guy, Larry, connects with the satellite twice a day – 10:00 am and 6:00 pm. We are now in Mountain Standard Time, one hour later than when we started, 6 hours off of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Today marks the one-week anniversary of when I arrived on the ship. In some ways, it feels like it went quickly, but at the same time, I feel like I’ve been here forever. One of my students, Melissa, asked if it was hard to be away from home. To be honest, I try not to think about it. I miss my husband, Rob, and we email regularly, but I try not to remind myself that I won’t be home for another month. Certainly on a tragic day like this, all I can think about is how far away from home I am.

Question of the day: Why is cloud cover measured in 8ths (example 1/8, 7/8, etc)?

Photo Descriptions: Today’s pictures include the following: the zodiac at the buoy, fishing off the stern of the boat, Pat’s fish, a close-up of a buoy on the ship (will be installed later on the trip), and Captain Dreves keeping a close eye on the buoy operations.

The zodiac (small boat) at the buoy for repairs.

Scientists fishing off the stern of the ship.

One of the scientists, Bruce, with a fish caught off the stern.

Until tomorrow,
Jennifer