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June 13, 2009 – From the On-Board Scientist
by Dr. R. Michael Reynolds
In the past three days we stopped at Alert Bay and heard from the natives of their of their environmental problems (well written in Herb’s report. What an experience!) and then we began a dead run to Juneau. We were intent on getting to Juneau on schedule. As Mark says, sailboats usually have destinations, but Ocean Watch has a schedule and that is different. There are 31 ports to visit and in each we will meet people and groups. Schedule is important for port visits, but it is crucial to be in Cambridge Bay and cross the Northwest Passage when the ice opens. None of us is looking forward to a year layover in Cambridge Bay. The winds were light so we motored with sail assist most of the way. No stops. Our six person crew took three man watches, four hours on and four hours off from six in the morning to six at night, and then three hour shifts through the night. Standing watch means cat napping and a change to your metabolism as life becomes segmented into three or four hour blocks. The midnight to three AM watch is the most despised.
As a result, our scientific spot samples were limited to what we cold do while underway. However, as we neared Juneau we came into a pod of Orca whales and for this we we stopped to observe. We took this opportunity to make an underwater acoustics recording.
THE EVOLVING MESSAGE
During the past days I have been giving some thought to our message. That is what and how do we impart our trip to the public, especially our evolving environmental message.
Our goal on this voyage of discovery is to bring a message on the health and plight of the oceans to people everywhere. With the Internet this is more possible today than it has ever been in history. Our scope is broad and we have a deep sense in the responsibility with which we are entrusted. Everyone in our tiny band sees this is a grand opportunity to “give back,” but there is no plan for how we will deliver the message. We have just started our voyage and we have no idea what awaits us. Surprises lie around each point. We are sure of one thing however, our thinking and our ideas will be far different in thirteen months than they are today.
In just few days it is apparent to me that our target is the youth of the world, our future. For me, coming from an adult world of engineering and science, of papers and proposals, of positioning for respect and admiration, I must learn to excite and enthuse the young minds. I was talking with Andy this morning about micro-epiphanies, tiny events in our lives that changed us forever. These usually occur when we are young, when we hear just a statement or a mentor makes a suggestion just at the right moment and we are changed forever. We pray that a few of the things we do and say here will strike home in a young mind. Pacific Science Center has taken on the daunting task of making all the things we do available to youth. Let’s hope this catches on and teachers and parents around the world will benefit from our trip and from the efforts of the Pacific Science Center.
A MESSAGE OF HOPE
In our travels we will meet with environmental groups, with local industry, with educators and scientists. Of course we will meet with sailors who turn out in force. We will hear to some grim things: PCB contamination, plastic garbage patches the size of Texas, growing acidity which effects corals, bone development, and exoskeletons. It is so easy to be horribly grim. So grim in fact that we run the risk of alienating young minds. The situation is dire, but we have to believe it is not hopeless. If so the young mind asks, “why try?” No, it is not hopless, and yes, we must try. That balance is important.
In our travels on this adventure we are most excited to find hope. Like Socrates who wandered around with a lamp looking for an honest politician, we seek the good stuff. We all know how bad a mess humans have made of things. But mixed in with all that bad are encouraging signs that it is possible for us to slow, stop, or accommodate to the changes that are happening. I read a good book by Bill McKibben called “Hope, Human and Wild.” (Or something like that, I am on a boat so have to guess at these things.) Dr. McKibben is a leading spokesman for the environmental movement and this gem is worth reading for its message of how resilient are nature and the human spirit.
SOLAR OBSERVATIONS – OUR FRIEND THE SUN
One spot observation we were able to make while underway was solar intensity. The weather has been terrific, bright sunshine, which is good fortune in these very wet regions. The rainfall in Juneau is around 3.3 meters (130 inches) per year, compared with 0.8 m (32 inches) for Seattle and, approximately, New York. We have clear skies and sunshine. Time to take some solar radiation measurements.
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| Michael takes a sun shot with the Microtops radiometer. |
The photo to the left shows an instrument called a radiometer. There are many popular images on the Internet which shows the sun through a thick cloud of pollution. Just about everyone is too familiar with this sort of pollution since more than half the people in the world now live in cities. Particles in the air are called aerosols. Aerosols might be water droplets or ash, or soot, or dust. They can be extremely small so they are carried great distances by the wind or they can be very large such as water drops. Sunlight will pass through clear air with almost no change. But when light has to pass through aerosols it scatters and the intensity of the beam is reduced. The attenuation and scattering of light photos as they enter the atmosphere and make their way to the surface is a very important part of the climate puzzle.
The radiometer we use is called a Microtops. It is very expensive and was provided to us by Dr. David Covert of the University of Washington Joint Institute for Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO). We want a clear view of the sun. No clouds. The measurement is very simple: hold the Mircotops precisely toward the sun and measure the direct beam radiance from the sun. Thanks to satellites we know exactly the radiance at the top of the atmosphere with the Microtops we measure the same beam at the surface. Therefore, we can say how much the aerosols contribute to attenuation and scattering. This is no different than measuring sound attenuation through a wall.
THIS JUST IN: CARBON DIOXIDE: IAP STATEMENT ON OCEAN ACIDIFICATION.
The above article just came to me from the newsletter “What’s New” published by Bob Parks, Univ. of Maryland. See http://www.bobpark.org.
“At a departmental colloquium 30 years ago the speaker assured the audience that carbon dioxide buildup in the atmosphere would be buffered by absorption in the ocean. I kept waiting for that to happen. Of course, it was happening. According to a statement issued this week by the Interacademy Panel, whose 60-some members range from the Albanian Academy of Science to the Zimbabwe Academy of Science, a quarter of the CO2 produced by human activity in the last 200 years has been absorbed in the oceans. Unfortunately, excessive CO2 in the oceans is no more benign than that in the atmosphere. Marine life that depends on calcium carbonate is particularly effected. Moreover, ocean acidification is irreversible on a timescale of thousands of years. The only way to mitigate ocean acidification is to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere. Sequestration, that will at best affect the second derivative. We must reduce production.”
Michael Reynolds
All comments gladly received at michael@rmrco.com
Photographs by David Thoreson
*This crew log submitted by Iridium OpenPort and Stratos
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