Jim Valdes and Will Ostrom spend the day getting the mooring ready. Here, they are loading a float into a SALP rosette.
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Jim Valdes and Will Ostrom spend the day getting the mooring ready. Here, they are loading a float into a SALP rosette. (Photo by David Sutherland, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
On the rainy deck of the Knorr, Amy Bower, drinking hot chocolate to keep warm, watches, as the mooring slowly unspools. (Photo by David Sutherland, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
The Research Continues
Today's Journal from Amy
It is lowing a gale (high winds) now. Good thing we deployed the mooring last night. The weather is much worse now. Everyone had a good sleep today after working through the night. Now we are looking for an eddy to throw the float into. Slow going with 30+ knot winds on the nose. More to come...
Today's Journal from Kate
The SALPS are in place waiting for an eddy to pass by. A float will be released each time the mooring instruments detect an eddy is close by. Meanwhile back in the lab the work continues.
Every few hours Amy releases an XBT (expendable bathythermograph) device into the water. As we watch the computer after the device is released, a graph forms on the computer, charting the relationship between the depth and the temperature. Amy hopes the temperature will rise as the depth increases, indicating the presence of an eddy. Amy spends hours at her computer examining data for salinity, temperature, and depth. She plans to deploy the one float left onboard tomorrow directly into an eddy.