Tag: New England

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Kirk Beckendorf, July 27, 2004

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Kirk Beckendorf
Onboard NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown
July 4 – 23, 2004

Mission: New England Air Quality Study (NEAQS)
Geographical Area: Northwest Atlantic Ocean
Date: July 27, 2004

Daily Log

Jim Koermer invited me to come up today and “work” a session with him. Jim is a Professor of Meteorology at Plymouth State in Plymouth, New Hampshire. During NEAQS he is responsible for providing the scientist on the BROWN twice daily forecast of the weather conditions. Yesterday evening I drove the 2 hours to Plymouth and went to Jim’s house. After a short visit with Jim and his wife it was about 9:00 PM. It was time for a nap, only a nap because his work session today started at midnight.

One of Jim’s students had worked the previous session. After we arrived he gave Jim a brief summary of what he had been doing. Rachel, another of Jim’s students soon joined us and she went to work immediately gathering some of the data necessary to make the forecast.

Along one wall of the long room, where they build the forecast, is a bank of 34 displays each continually updating satellite images, radars, computer models, webcams and other global and local weather information. On the desk are four computers which are used to gather other weather data and computer models which give real time, delayed time and computer models which predict general weather patterns.

Rachel and Jim are writing a very specific forecast for the area of the Gulf of Maine in the location of the BROWN. Their predictions give details such as wind speed and direction, air temperature, rainfall, cloud cover and where pollution will be starting from and then will move to. Even though they send the BROWN these predictions twice a day the forecast are for the next 48 hours, at six hour intervals. Until 6:00AM the two of them analyze the information from all of the different sources and then they hand draw some of the predictions on maps and type the rest. The drawn maps are scanned and merged with the typed predictions and the entire file is loaded to a website for the BROWN to access when it connects to the web by satellite at 7:00. You can see one of the hand drawn predictions in one of the pictures I sent in earlier from the BROWN.

The scientists on the BROWN will then use the predictions to determine what will be the best place for them to sample pollution. The BROWN does not travel very fast so plans have to be made ahead of time to catch certain pollution events.

You can also use a lot of the tools that Jim uses. His website is at http://vortex.plymouth.edu/

Question of the Day

What is a vortex?

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Kirk Beckendorf, July 26, 2004

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Kirk Beckendorf
Onboard NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown
July 4 – 23, 2004

Mission: New England Air Quality Study (NEAQS)
Geographical Area: Northwest Atlantic Ocean
Date: July 26, 2004

Daily Log

This morning there was a big press conference at the BROWN. A lot of very important people were here. I got to meet the head of NOAA, Admiral Lautenbacher. I found out his wife is a middle school science teacher. Senator Judd Gregg from New Hampshire was also here. Since the BROWN is sailing out today everyone who will be out on the second leg of the research cruise had to be on board at 1:00. I took some pictures of Kevin as he boarded. This time as the BROWN pulled away from the docks, went under the drawbridge and headed out of port I was standing on shore taking pictures and waving to those on the ship. Three weeks ago I was the one standing on the ship deck waving to those still on shore. I’ll sure miss being out there. I just hope they don’t have fog all of the time.

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Kirk Beckendorf, July 25, 2004

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Kirk Beckendorf
Onboard NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown
July 4 – 23, 2004

Mission: New England Air Quality Study (NEAQS)
Geographical Area: Northwest Atlantic Ocean
Date: July 25, 2004

Daily Log

There was a big open house on the BROWN, so I went back to the ship for that. This evening for dinner Kevin and I meet with a group of teachers who were interested to know what it is like to be a Teacher at Sea. I will be visiting some of the land based parts of NEAQS this week so I met and visited with some of the people that I will be seeing. I scheduled a time with Jim Koermer a meteorologist at Plymouth State University. He is the scientist in charge of developing weather predictions received twice daily by the BROWN. I will go to Plymouth, New Hampshire on Monday evening. From midnight until 6:00 AM I will be watch how he makes his predictions.

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Kirk Beckendorf, July 4, 2004

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Kirk Beckendorf
Onboard NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown
July 4 – 23, 2004

Mission: New England Air Quality Study (NEAQS)
Geographical Area: Northwest Atlantic Ocean
Date: July 4, 2004

Science and Technology Log

Imagine a chunk of polluted air over a city or an individual power plant. How could you find that same air in 2, 3 or 4 days?

This morning in Portsmouth, I ate breakfast with Wayne Angevine who works at NOAA’s Aeronomy Lab in Boulder, Colorado. It will be his job during this air quality study to predict where that polluted air will be in the next few days. He and the other meteorologist working with him, will not only be predicting how far and in which direction the air has gone, but also how high it is.

These predictions can then be used to direct the airplanes and the ship being used in the NEAQS study to that “chunk” of air so it can be sampled and measured to determine how the pollutants have changed from day to day.

Although 31 scientists and I will be on NOAA’s RONALD H. BROWN, the ship is just one part of NEAQS. Wayne and dozens of other modelers and scientist will be coordinating the project from Pease International Trade Center in New Hampshire. Approximately one dozen aircraft from Europe to the Midwestern US will be collecting data. A number of land based sites will also be collecting weather and air quality data. All of this information will help the project managers determine their next move on a daily basis and what happens to New England’s pollution once it has been released it into the atmosphere.

Personal Log

This afternoon at my hotel I loaded my duffel bag of clothes, my laptop and cameras into a cab and set off for the BROWN. When I arrived, the gate in the chain link fence surrounding the port area was locked and I didn’t know the combination. I unloaded all my bags on the ground, paid the cab and waited. Eventually, someone leaving the ship came through the gate and I was able to get in. A Lieutenant on board took me to my stateroom and gave me another quick tour of the ship. The rest of the afternoon I spent visiting with some of the scientists. I will give a more detail explanation of what they do once we get under way but Bill Kuster showed me his two instruments which measure specific kinds of molecules in the atmosphere. One measures in real time and the other takes samples every 30 minutes. The samples are later analyzed. I then visited with Anne Thompson who studies ozone and will be launching ozonesondes once a day.

Question of the Day

What is an ozonesonde?