Open the below pictures in a full-screen slideshow by Flickr
June 3, 2009 – Victoria, British Columbia
by Herb McCormick
Victoria, British Columbia (June 2): The Around the America’s expedition is aiming to accomplish several goals. It’s a voyage of discovery, a vehicle to focus attention on conservation and climate change, and a straightforward ocean adventure. It’s also a platform for scientific research and study, and in that regard, the most impressive piece of gear aboard is what’s known as the PGR Ladybug spherical vision camera mounted on the transom antenna arch.
Designed and built by the Canadian-based company, Pt. Grey Research, the Ladybug is actually six cameras in one: Five separate units are situated to provide a 360-degree scan of the horizon, and the sixth camera is stationed underneath the array and points directly down at the sea. The entire apparatus is fitted to the end of a movable boom to starboard that can be deployed some six feet over the water for maximum efficiency or stashed inboard under the arch in heavy weather underway.
 |
| Dan Clark |
Dan Clark of the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) at the University of Washington was the systems engineer who designed and built the overall system, which in addition to the Ladybug consists of a pair of control boxes-one on the arch itself, and another redundant unit stashed in a locker belowdecks-a dedicated laptop computer, dual GPS systems for recording times and locations, and numerous external hard-drives for backing up data and sending it back to Seattle where APL scientists will employ it in several related projects.
The primary program is a jellyfish study that will take place over the course of the expedition. Dr. Jenny Purcell of Western Washington University calls jellyfish “the canary in the coalmine,” meaning they are an important indicator of the overall health of the seas. Ocean Watch crewmembers will be recording samples, taking photographs and tracking positions of jellyfish colonies during the course of the trip, and this work will be augmented by the visual images supplied by the Ladybug.
In normal mode, the Ladybug will record over 86,000 separate images per day. But the crew will also have the ability to operate the camera in “burst mode” for what Clark calls moments of interest, which aren’t limited to jellyfish sightings, but which will also be switched on when encountering whales, meteorological events, storm-wracked seas and other rare occurrences.
“This is a brand-new tool and we’re going to areas that are brand new to use so we’re sure to see many things of interest,” said Clark. “We’re looking with eyeglasses that people haven’t seen before and haven’t used before. We have some best guesses about what we think we’ll see, but we’re going to keep this data set for a decade or more, and we’ll come back to it again and again.
“It might be today that we’re thinking of clouds and jellyfish and wave breaking for fundamental physics but in a year we may come back and say, ‘Did we see any marine mammals when you guys went through Juneau, because there’s something going on there right now.’ Something else that’s come up, even since we built the system, is oil slicks, and maybe we’ll get some data on slicks through the other observations you’re making.”
Clark said that in addition to it scientific mission, the APL “is really excited about the outreach potential” of the Ladybug. The sophisticated device will also be used in concert with other onboard equipment to maximize the overall potential of all of the voyage’s ongoing research and experiments.
“Maybe you’ll pick up a whale and then you can throw the hydrophone sensor overboard and get an acoustic sampling,” he said. “And you can put the camera in burst mode and you’ll have a visual sample. I don’t think anybody’s done that before. There are a lot of different combinations since we have so many tools on board. That’s what happens when you take cutting-edge technology and you push it into areas you’ve never seen before.”
Ocean Watch’s resident scientist for the opening stages of the voyage, Michael Reynolds, put it all succinctly. “It’s been said that great advances, especially in oceanography, occur with the development of a new instrument.” Thanks to the scientists at APL, Ocean Watch will hopefully be blazing new trails.
- Herb McCormick
*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.
