Posts from ‘May, 2009’

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May 27, 2009 – Seattle
by Dr. R. Michael Reynolds

Tuesday May 26, Expedition day -5.

NOW ON TO SCIENCE
A couple of days ago I shared with you my personal feelings as we approach castoff. Today I will talk about our science. Let me say up front that at this point in the project I am still learning about all the different projects we will undertake. Yesterday we met with several of the scientists who are contributing to the program and I and the rest of the crew learned some of our tasks for supporting the projects. Note, many of the science projects are presented in other pages on this site, so if I mention something that interests you, you can jump over to those pages.

What an incredible route we are taking. From about 74 degrees North latitude (well above the Arctic Circle) to maybe 56 degrees South as we face the Southern Ocean and the “Roaring Forties.” We will traverse every possible climactic region: temperate, Arctic, high Arctic, tropical, the Southern Ocean and many more. We will cross regions of high biological productivity, such as the upwelling regions along the western coastlines, and places where the sea life is almost void, such as the Sargasso Sea.

Climate regions range from thick Arctic haze to the regions of marine stratocumulus along the western coastlines. All of these regions are part of the admixture of nature and each is crucial to the environment as we know it. And, each is being changed by human activity. Today one of the scientists made a good point, “This is a voyage of discovery, not a hypothesis driven voyage.” That is, we are not out to prove or disprove any specific scientific theory or hypothesis. Rather we are out to see a broad scope over a large geographic region. We follow in the shadows of famous oceanographic expeditions such as Nansen’s Fram voyage, the Challenger and Discovery Expeditions, and of course Darwin and the Beagle. We are going out with a rough idea of what we want to do, but completely open to what we see, and hear.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The science program on Ocean Watch has developed through the efforts of many. A couple of people deserve recognition before we go much further. Dr. Kris Ludwig of the Pacific Science Center, the project science director, has had to organize and filter the different requests for participation. Dr. Andrew Jessup of the UW Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) has supported the underway program with funding from his ongoing research and with new funding support, in a tight economy, from APL. The science program is what it is thanks to these two. Of course these are just two persons in a host of contributors.

OBSERVATIONS, SPOT AND UNDERWAY
Science depends on data. The theorist and experimentalist work hand in hand to collect and understand data. It is said that most, if not all, scientific discovery follows the development of a new instrument or technique. We will be collecting two kinds of data: spot samples and underway data. Spot samples include biological sightings and samples (such as jelly fish), water samples, photographs, or optical sightings. The crew will be busy collecting samples and bringing that information back to waiting scientists. Each spot sample must be carefully handled and marked with the exact location and the time it was collected (who, what, when, and how). Yesterday we learned about a few of the spot samples we will be taking:

A FEW SPOT SAMPLES
Sun attenuation: Aerosols are all the impurities in the atmosphere. The dust, haze, smog, ash. The aerosol optical depth is how we measure the attenuation of sunlight by the aerosols. David Covert of the NOAA- Univ. of Washington Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO) showed us the MicroTops, a handheld instrument that measures the brightness of the sun in several color bands. If we can measure the sun down here at the surface of the Earth we can know how much is attenuated by the aerosols in the air. Direct measurements of the sun are rare, especially over the ocean.

Underwater Sound: Dr. Peter Dahl from the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) explained the operation of a special underwater hydrophone and high fidelity digital recorder we will use to survey underwater sounds. As we stop to observe any wildlife and when we are in ports, we will take recordings of the noise background.

Drifting buoys: A large program of drifting buoys has provided global ocean and atmospheric coverage to the scientific community for many years now. These “drifting buoys” come in many flavors, some large and expensive and others very simple. We will participate in the buoy program by launching two buoys in the Arctic. Dr. Ignatius Rigor, Coordinator of the International Arctic Buoy Program, demonstrated one of the drifting buoys we will deploy. Very easy: remove the on/off magnet and toss it in.

Jelly Fish: Dr. Bill Ascher brought all the equipment we will need to collect, document, and save samples of jelly fish we encounter on the trip. We will be netting specimens, photographing them, and clipping small pieces to store for lab analysis. Messy work but someone needs to do it.

OUR UNDERWAY DATA
Underway data are the data that are collected automatically and continuously. You can think of underway data as a continuous stream of spot samples, but it is collected and processed in a much different manner.

SeaKeepers: We have a SeaKeepers underway met/ocean system. Seawater will be pumped through a hole in the ship and through instruments that measure the ocean temperature, acidity (PH), oxygen, and salinity. The SeaKeepers system sucks a continuous stream of seawater through a hole in the side of Ocean Watch. The water flows through an instrument that measures many of the water properties then it flows back out to sea. We will be measuring the temperature, salinity, PH, and oxygen content in the water on a continuous basis. Those are the important parameters for us to know how the acidity and oxygen in the water change as we make this grand circuit between the large urban centers and remote regions. It will be impossible to understand the “health” of the ocean without these data. The SeaKeepers system includes meteorological instruments which are mentioned below. The SeaKeeper data are transmitted to the Inmarsat satellite and are available in real time to the global weather data system, called GTS.

Ladybug Camera System: A unique hemispheric camera was installed by APL. The ladybug camera system uses six separate lenses which point in five directions around the horizon and down. All directions and their images are spliced together in real time by very sophisticated software. Dan Clark, an engineer with APL, demonstrated the operation of the Ladybug camera system. The Ladybug system will provide a set of photographs from all directions at a ten-second rate. When interesting things occur we can operate the system as a hemispheric movie camera. The camera will document occurrences of jelly fish in support of the specimen collecting we will be doing. In another study the photos will be used to survey wave breaking and foam.

Meteorology and Air-Sea Interaction: It is important to understand how energy and water mix between the air and the ocean. We will be collecting records of winds, air temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, sunlight, infrared radiation, and location (GPS). We also will record our tilt, compass direction, and the temperature of the sea surface. Thanks to support from the University of Washington’s APL, a first-class meteorological system has been installed on the top of the mast, about 76 feet above the water.

Okay, I assume you are completely bored, or overwhelmed at this point. As we progress I will try to talk about these and other of the instruments we will be using.
Only those who risk going too far
Will know how far they can go.
- T.S. Eliot

Remember: all views, ideas, and comments here are ad hoc, off the cuff, poorly researched, and subject to revision at any moment.

*This crew log submitted by Iridium OpenPort and Stratos

*To add a comment to this story click on the comment link below the post title. Please direct your messages for the crew to crew@aroundtheamericas.org instead of submitting them here. Thanks for following the Around the Americas Expedition.

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May 25, 2009 – Seattle
by Dr. R. Michael Reynolds

Sunday May 24, Expedition day -7. Ramblings from the Scientist –
This will be the first blog from Dr. R. Michael Reynolds, the scientist that will sail on the Ocean Watch from Seattle to Barrow, and possibly beyond, and on other long legs from Miami to Buenos Aires and from Lima to San Diego.

MENTAL PREPARATION
At 7:55 am I am waiting for the Hi spot Cafe to open for breakfast. There is time for me to begin this first entry as one of the scientists on this most remarkable voyage around the Americas. I am excited at the opportunity to share my experience and observations with all the readers and supporters of this project. I will try to give you the right blend of personal rumination and scientific observation without boring technicalities or maudlin emotions.

There is a period of time before a long expedition when one begins to pay attention to the minutiae of life’s progress and how they go on hold the moment lines are cast and the ship sails. For me this is a familiar feeling. I have been going on science expeditions since I flew cosmic ray balloons at Fort Churchill Canada over forty five years ago. It was on that trip that this Texas farm boy was presented to the idea of “oceanography.” My mentor at that time, John Ables, a cosmic ray physicist, said ,”You know, your degree in electrical engineering coupled with oceanography would be a terrific combination.” A person’s life is dotted with these sorts of stepping stones and after that moment I had a goal and a passion. Observational geophysics is what I do and I have worked around the world from the Persian Gulf to the tallest building in New York City to the Arctic ice cap. And now, by shear providence I have fallen in with the Around the Americas team. What a thrill.

But back to my breakfast and to my growing appreciation of the little things I will miss on this trip. Family and friends, our Golden Doodle puppy Lucy, seeing my granddaughter, Chloe, off to school. Sailors walk away from one life and plunge into another and all those dear habits are exchanged for another set. Of course it does not sadden me to leave the bad things, what Zorba called “the full catastrophe.” Paying bills, email spam, conference calls, automobile repair, TV, and all Hamlet’s slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. As the dock lines are cast next Sunday you will hear my sigh as I release and center, Zen like, to the life at sea, the life of the moment. As a jazz musician said “We all have problems, but as soon as you get out on that stage they all go away.”

THE PAYOFF, FRIENDS, CHALLENGE, AND NATURE
You will hear more about the magic that lures people to the sea. These feelings have been described again and again in countless books and articles. It is a personal feeling and the attraction is different and unique for every person. There is the confrontation of machine and nature, there is the quiet somnolence of a quiet sea, the excitement of wildlife, new lands, and strange creatures. But there are special joys for the scientist. First we get yanked from the academic world of papers and seminars and plunked into the challenge of coaxing delicate instruments to take highly accurate measurements in an incredibly hostile situation. Second is the personal interaction. An ocean expedition thrusts strangers into an isolated environment where they learn to work together. Your circle of friends grows and grows around the world so when you reach the first port you are as close as if you grew up together. I think it is this aspect of ocean cruising that I enjoy the most. Friendships, challenge, and nature. How many times in my life have I found myself saying “I can’t believe they are paying me to do this.”

Over the past month I have met the crew with which I shall be sailing, and I cannot imagine a better or more competent group.

FUTURE CORRESPONDENCE
Over the course of this cruise I hope I can write, as the scientist and as a very fortunate human, of both the technical work we will do and of my personal feelings and experiences. I’ll try to give a good blend and I hope to avoid boring you too much with technical detail. That will be on other pages for those who want it. Here I will subscribe to the principle of simplicity. As Epstein wrote in his book “Thinking Physics,” “There’s an easy way to explain anything. It’s just hard to find it.”

Remember: all views, ideas, and comments here are ad hoc, off the cuff, poorly researched, and subject to revision at any moment.

-  Michael Reynolds michael@rmrco.com

*This crew log submitted by Iridium OpenPort and Stratos

*To add a comment to this story click on the comment link below the post title. Please direct your messages for the crew to crew@aroundtheamericas.org instead of submitting them here. Thanks for following the Around the Americas Expedition.