Tag: survey launch

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Tamil Maldonado, July 24, 2005

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Tamil Maldonado
Onboard NOAA Ship Fairweather
July 18 – 28, 2005

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

Science and Technology Log

I started today on a night shift. I got up at 2:00 a.m. and worked with scientists that were doing a 24:00 – 12:00 (noon) shift. We used the bongo and tucker nets, plus the CTD to collect samples of water.  The CTD has 11 fiver-liter spaces that are opened electronically in different sea columns.  This gives a good idea of what is going on in terms of salinity, temperature, pressure, and food for fish throughout the ocean (vertically).  The other nets just take surveys as a hole or by only two regions of columns.

At 5:00 a.m. I stayed on the bridge and on watch till 7:00 a.m. and tried to make the boat steady. After breakfast I went to sleep.  After lunch I went to the engineering department and learned about engines, and how the boat actually works.  Some of the engines work with oil, some with seawater, and other ones with fresh water.  It was incredible for me to see all the machinery behind a boat’s work.  The engineer explained about the maintenance and equipment.  We also went to the refrigeration room to see how the system works with compression and condensation, how AC gets to our rooms, and how the boats use all the engines for energy, movement, and stability.

The sea weather today was awful—big waves coming in during afternoon and at night.  Many people got seasick today.

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Tamil Maldonado, July 23, 2005

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Tamil Maldonado
Onboard NOAA Ship Fairweather
July 18 – 28, 2005

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

Science and Technology Log

Today I interviewed the Electrical Technician about satellites on the ship, server computers, connections among rooms, computer labs, processes of e-mails, phone communications, and digital vs. analog communication.  He showed and explained all equipment they have in the computer rooms,  how systems talk to each other, how the e-mail codes and compresses data, and how they are stored in lines and by priorities.  He also showed me how they keep information in different places in the boat in case there is a fire in regions where they have the servers.  Moreover, he explained the different satellites and which ones are being used all the time for navigation.  It was really interesting to see all the systems working together.

I studied more about sonars and how they actually work undersea.  I read about the sonar setup, vessel operation, data analysis, and how noise is reduced on these sonars by the speed of the ship. For example, in a SeaBat 8160 sonar the best vessel speed while doing the survey is at 10 knots. There are exciting papers of Noise Analysis explaining the type of sonars they use.

At the end of the day I did some laundry and saved pictures on disks.

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Tamil Maldonado, July 22, 2005

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Tamil Maldonado
Onboard NOAA Ship Fairweather
July 18 – 28, 2005

Mission: Hydrographic Survey
Geographical Area: North Pacific
Date: July 22, 2005

Science and Technology Log

FOCI… Today I have been working hand in hand with scientists, throwing nets, collecting depth, pressure, temperature, and chlorophyll data.  We have also been washing nets, getting survey of larvae, writing it down in sheets database, labeling, freezing larvae and chlorophyll samples.  We analyze some graphs we were getting from the experiments.

Here are some questions I have… how is global warming affecting ecosystems? How do fish overcome these changes?  Do they go up or down in the ocean columns?  Are they changing their nursery places?  How is their behavior in comparison to other years? Which parameters affect them most: salinity or temperature?  Some of these questions are being answered by the scientists, and others are still unanswered for which we are trying to find the answers. It seems that Alaskan fish can adapt easily to salinity changes.  Remember that glaciers are melting more continuously than before and fresh water (since it is less dense than seawater) stays in the surface, which means there is a change in salinity and temperature in the ocean.  Therefore there could be changes in fish behavior and in their ecosystem.  It seems the larvae and fish will be affected by temperatures.  They could be moving from ocean columns to get to the right temperature.  But they also need food like plankton that maybe stays at a different column of seawater.  That will be a survival problem.

Scientists are focusing their work on commercial fish such as Pollock and Pacific Halibut. It is the first time they have done this survey during summer.  They want to have a template for next year to compare data with.  Later we could do some statistical models, and mathematical models to compare in terms of years or data columns.

Navigation… This afternoon I as actually sailing the boat…  I had the power on my hands.  I needed to be really focused and follow instructions at all times.  We also calculated times for some positions, stations where we were going to do survey.  I also calculated True Speed, which depends on relative speed, wind speed, angles and locations of the boat.

I had the chance to see whales, little fish and a jelly fish of the size of my 4 fingers.

I also did some hydrographic studies of the region,  got some data, pictures and depths of the ocean.

We had problems with the coaxial cable again and I got some other information about sonars that I started to read.  I even worked out today!

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Tamil Maldonado, July 21, 2005

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Tamil Maldonado
Onboard NOAA Ship Fairweather
July 18 – 28, 2005

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

Science and Technology Log

Navigation… Today we studied latitude and longitude and their relation to each other.  We used geometry concepts like degrees, parallel lines, circles, transversal lines, alternate internal angles, and alternate external angles.  We used charts, grids, compasses, and different instruments from the bridge.  We shared information about how people were measuring latitude and longitude in olden days and how it is measured nowadays.  We discussed mathematical relations of degrees, minutes, seconds and nanomiles.  One question for you… how are the Sun and angles utilized in calculating latitude and longitude?

Hydrography Lab… I got the chance to look at some hydrographic data, and to get to know information about the different sonars they are using to retrieve all the data.  The Difference among sonars is the beams per particular time that sonars are shooting.  FAIRWEATHER ship has a sonar that does 160 beams in 220 microseconds.  They also use little boats to go to shallower grounds and have sonars of 111 beams and 101 beams per 220 microseconds.  They get a huge amount of data coming into their computer devices, and then they use software called Cares Hips and Sips, which recollects all the data plotting it in two dimensional and three dimensional grids.  It also used colors to identify how deep it is in that particular region. Blue is used for deeper regions, while red is used for shallower regions. There are a few issues that needed to be corrected.  There is some noise in the data due to salinity, movement of vessel, and tides.  An important key is that they need corrections on real time.  To correct this data, they use another instrument like POSMV.  After all data is collected they could go back and get pictures per zone, and per beam too.  Therefore they could analyze all data and get correct information.  They also use satellites called GPS – Global Positioning System.  In the future I will be talking to Richard (the ET- Electrical Technician) about all satellites they are using on board.

FOCI… They had some problems today too with the computer system,  so in order to know about the depth of the net in the seawater they have to calculate “by hand” using charts.  For an approximately 45 degree angle measured between the cord holding the net and perpendicular to the floor of the ship, you need how much wire is out, how wide the circle is that holds the wire, how many revolutions, and if there is a linear relationship between this information and the desired net depth.  For example if you want the net 40 meters deep vertically then you need 57 m wire out.  Remember that the boat keeps moving at certain time and that will give you an angle (in this case you need the angle to be approximately 45 degrees).  Scientists use available charts for this information, but we can actually calculate it manually.

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JoAnne Kronberg, July 21, 2005

NOAA Teacher at Sea
JoAnne Kronberg
Onboard NOAA Ship Rainier
July 12 – 22, 2005

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

Weather Data
Winds:  SW 15 knots
Waves: 5 feet

Science and Technology Log

We left Cushing Bay on Wednesday, July 20, and travelled between Semidi and Chinikof Islands. We arrived in Chiniak Bay on Thursday morning and anchored.  We sent a launch to pick up a team of Fleet Inspectors.

The entire day was spent with the Fleet Inspectors examining everything on the ship.  We had three drills– a Fire Emergency, an Abandon Ship and a Man Overboard exercise.  The inspectors observed all of these very carefully, because safety is so extremely important on a ship.  Everyone needs to know where to go and what their responsibilities are. I think that out ship performed very well.  All of us have been told repeatedly where we should go for each of these drills and what we should bring with us.  It is even posted on every berth on the ship. That way there are not questions and problems if a real emergency should occur.

After the inspection, we continued to travel toward Kodiak Island.  We arrived at the U.S.Coast Guard Fuel Pier, Berth 7 at about 5:00 PM.

Tomorrow, Friday, the ship will refuel and stay in port until Monday, July 25.

This is JoAnne Kronberg, Teacher-at-Sea, signing off. God bless to all of you.