Tag: CTD

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Karolyn Braun
Onboard NOAA Ship Ka’imimoana
October 4 – 28, 2006

Mission: TAO Buoy Array Maintenance
Geographical Area: Hawaii
Date: October 12, 2006

Science and Technology Log 

What a fabulous night sky! More stars than expected and the ocean is flat and smooth, a small swell of 2ft. Well I didn’t attend the 1 a.m. CTD, but I did do the 5 a.m. CTD profile. I was half asleep; I completed the preparation, the cast and the recovery with no worries, but forgot some steps, so I am thankful that the Chief Scientist was awake to remind me.  A BIG Fa’afetai Lava (“Thank you” in Samoan) to you Patrick.  After the CTD we ate breakfast; I have never had such an assortment of food for breakfast since college, only here the food is better! Hats off to our two cooks, Carrie and Don.  They are in the kitchen all day to provide the crew with balanced and healthy meals.

We arrived at the TAO buoy around 9 a.m. and sent a team out on the RHIB to connect to the buoy and drag it to the stern (back of the ship).  The sun was out, there was very little cloud cover and the ocean was still very calm.  It was beautiful enough just watching over the side of the ship, but while they were bringing it in we saw whales off in the distance. The buoy was recovered, and all hands were back onboard so the spooling began (see photo). Before anything else could happen, we had a man-overboard drill.  I definitely feel safe on the ship as the crew is prepared for anything in a moment’s notice!

After 8 spools of line were recovered, the new buoy could then be set up and released.  If a line needed repairing, it got spliced together; if not, the 8 spools got reconnected and fed into the ocean. At the end of the last line, a huge anchor was attached, and it sank into the ocean to finish the job (around 5 p.m.).  A CTD was completed and everyone was pretty exhausted and ready for a shower and good meal and sleep—not necessarily in that order.

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Karolyn Braun
Onboard NOAA Ship Ka’imimoana
October 4 – 28, 2006

Mission: TAO Buoy Array Maintenance
Geographical Area: Hawaii
Date: October 10, 2006

Science and Technology Log 
Plan for the day
1:00 Deep CTD 8N/155W
7:30 Early Ops Retrieve and Deploy TAO buoy
23:00 CTD 7N/155W

It has been a rainy, cloudy morning. The swells have been the largest I have seen since the cruise started, so we have been really lucky. It wasn’t due to these waves that I couldn’t sleep, but for fear I wouldn’t wake up in time for the 1 a.m. CTD cast. When preparing the CTD frame and cylinders, I placed a mesh bag with about 25-styrofoam cups in it.  I wrote my students’ names on them and will present them when I make my presentation to my students and colleagues at the American Samoa Community College about my trip.  We were able to go down only to 3000m, as we needed to make up for lost time with the last CTD cast.  But it still made a BIG difference to the Styrofoam cups.  We finished up with the cast around 5 a.m. and took a small nap as the first buoy retrieval and deployment was at 7:30.

The deck crew and scientists work as a team to recover the TAO buoy and place it on deck. After the buoy is secure, the two-mile of line is spooled in which takes a LONG time.  The rain has finally developed into a light drizzle.  This allowed me to go on deck and take a few photos. My mission was to watch and learn from this recovery and deployment so that for the next one I can help where needed.  The new TAO buoy was deployed into the ocean and the two-mile line and anchor followed.  This whole process took up the morning and most of the afternoon.  I ended up helping out with the spooling lines preparation for the deployment.  I am not one to sit around and watch.  Next up, a CTD cast tonight. YIPEE!

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Karolyn Braun
Onboard NOAA Ship Ka’imimoana
October 4 – 28, 2006

Mission: TAO Buoy Array Maintenance
Geographical Area: Hawaii
Date: October 9, 2006

Science and Technology Log 

Plan for the day:
2:00 CTD 11N/155.5W
9:30 CTD 10N/155.5W
17:30 CTD 9N/155.5W

A beautiful morning: partly cloudy, calm waters and a wonderful 83 degrees. The day started out busy: laundry, breakfast, getting ready for the 9:30 a.m. CTD cast.  After watching the CTD yesterday and going over the commands, I felt confident to cast the CTD; however, we conducted several practice runs before we actually cast the CTD. That definitely was reassuring as I was new, and so was the crane operator. The CTD was launched successfully—next stop 1000 meters. I helped set up the computers to fire the 24-containers at various depths, from 1000m to surface, and collect salinity, conductivity and temperature readings from the brain of the CTD. After the CTD reached the surface, we secured the CTD back on deck and proceeded to collect water for chlorophyll sampling.

As we were collecting the water, we had a man overboard drill.  That was very unexpected but exciting to watch the crew of the ship work so well together. My afternoon was spent filling 20 five-gallon containers with seawater for use in a chemistry lab off island. Currently I have some down time before the next CTD in a few hours.  I am going to work out in the gym for a bit and get my Styrofoam cups ready for the 4000m CTD cast.

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Karolyn Braun
Onboard NOAA Ship Ka’imimoana
October 4 – 28, 2006

Mission: TAO Buoy Array Maintenance
Geographical Area: Hawaii
Date: October 8, 2006

Science and Technology Log 

Sunday is no day for rest on a ship. The day started out slow. I attended the science meeting where I learned where everyone was from and what projects I will be working on.  The CTD casts will be conducted at each mooring site between 08-degreesN and 08  degrees S. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) is conducting Chlorophyll and nutrient sampling.  They are using the water obtained in the canisters from the CTD.  The Global Drifter Center at NOAA requests deployment of the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) Surface Drifters on an ancillary basis.  I am lucky enough to be participating in the Adopt-A-Drifter Program in which my students will be able to follow several buoys to plot which current they are in and where they are positioned.  I will have an update on this when I deploy my first one.  Very excited!  In addition, The Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) will be deploying Argo profiling CTD Floats.  These conduct similar experiments to the CTD on board.  However, these floats are individual canisters that send the information they collect to satellites.  The ship has no further obligation to the CTD float.

I worked out for an hour and then we had a RHIB (Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat) orientation for when we go out and fix TAO buoys.  This was followed by a CTD cast orientation to get ready for the first CTD that evening.  It was a 1000m depth cast with various cylinders capturing water at various depths from 1000 to surface.  Once the CTD was safely on deck and everything secure, I was able to collect water samples for chlorophyll testing. The water needed for chlorophyll testing was at depths of 200m, 150m, 100m, 80m, 60m, 40m, 20m, 10m and at the surface.  I used small filters and a vacuum funnel to have the allotted amount of water flow over the filter.  Once this was finished the filter was placed in a separate tube with 10ml of acetone for use at a later date.  Stay tuned to find out more!