This summer, I have been working in Uwe Send's research group, known at Scripps for it's Moorings. In our case, a mooring is a buoy which has wide-ranging capabilities for oceanic measurements, and our lab is at the forefront of this powerful research technique. Before the end of 2010, we will be deploying moorings in three very different, very specific research projects, two of which will go out in the next week.
Besides lots of surfing, my summer involves a single instrument pair on only one of these moorings, giving an example of the extensiveness of the data collected. I have been commissioned to analyze irradiance differences collected by two radiometers; one at the surface and one at depth (30 m for the near-shore mooring, 80 m for the deep water mooring). Using this information, we hope to find the bio-mass of phytoplankton in the upper ocean.
As light propagates in water, it gets decayed by various phenomenon; particles, dissolved organic matter, phytoplankton, and water itself all contribute to the absorption or scattering of various wavelengths we analyze. One of the major contributors, after water itself, is the chlorophyll in phytoplankton, which converts the light into energy. Through the research of others, we hope to quantify each of these values, finding the chlorophyll content as a function of total decay.
Preparations are being made now for my lab to go on a 5 day, 2 mooring deployment next week off of the Channel Islands. The first will be deploying a large buoy in the GEOCE project, where our lab coupled with other researchers use high precision GPS and pressure sensors to monitor minor fluctuations in the sea floor. The second deployment is actually a switch of a buoy in the CCE project, where we monitor the California Current Ecosystem from both a physical and biological sense. The cruise leaves Monday morning at 7am after a fast-paced pair of deployments and a single recovery, we will get in either Friday night or early Saturday.
My current project is to find a way to get to the boat Monday morning. I have been able to make the most of San Diego despite being car-less. I ride my 60s-era Centurian everywhere, store my boards in the lab, and make ample use of public transport, including Amtrak for long distance travel. Last weekend, for example, I made it north to go camping just above Santa Barbara with some high school buddies. The surf was great, the sun was warm, and food was delicious.
For a much better description of the research done in this lab, visit the web site http://mooring.ucsd.edu.
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