Research in the Atlantic

NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association) is the government agency who controls information regarding to the current or future weather conditions. For the last three weeks, we used the NOAA Ship Pisces for the recovery and deployment of several oceanographic moorings in the Tropical North Atlantic.

(Link for our CRUISE TRACK; select ship PC, last 30 days.)

“We” in this case includes researchers from SIO and WHOI, the two leading oceanographic facilities in the world. WHOI did the majority of the work, and therefore sent more researchers. SIO had only two goals related to our MOVE project, and sent only me. NOAA provided the ship personnel, including NOAA officers (drive the boat), engineers (keep the boat running), cooks, and deckworkers.

Some background: The Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) consists of the Gulf Stream (transporting warm water north along the Eastern Seaboard of the USA) and the deep water return flow (transporting cold water south along the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean). Some researchers say that Climate Change predicts the MOC to slow down with dire consequences; The Day After Tomorrow is based on this idea. It is important, therefore, to monitor the MOC, which is the purpose of my lab's MOVE project.

Sunny recovery

Basically, I was on a boat to save (or at least warn) Jake Gyllenhaal in The Day After Tomorrow.

--Primary goal: Recover a single bottom-mounted instrument.

--Secondary goal: Establish acoustic communication with 4 other instruments.

Recovery was successful; I sent an acoustic signal to the instrument, releasing it from the seafloor. It floated to the surface and we spent a long time looking for it (beachball in an ocean). Once we brought it on board, I downloaded it's four years of data and made triple-backups.

Acoustic download is an interesting process, related to the old dialup connections. Those connections would use sound over the phone line to transmit information; AOL's “ooooo-uuuu-eeeeee-aa-oooo-aa-ooooo-uuuu-eeee-oooo” described the phoneline's 56K modem (i.e. 56,000 bits/sec). With the acoustic communication, I used a similar method (and it even sounded similar), though only at 140 to 800 bits/sec. This snail pace was enough at one location, and I downloaded a near-complete set of data. At other locations, I was only able to “ping” the instrument, making sure it still existed.

Sunrise after a night of Acoustic Comms

WHOI was on the vessel to recover their old full-depth mooring, and deploy a new one. I have taken part in several such deployment/recovery efforts (see POST), so I helped them as well. The float for their mooring actually broke free, so we needed to chase it down near South America.

Schedule:

Day 1-6: Full ahead steam.

Day 7: Deploy WHOI Buoy

Day 8: Partial WHOI Recovery. Acoustic Communications.

Day 9-10: Catch up to WHOI Float

Day 11: Recover WHOI Float

Day 12-13: Steam to Acoustic Sites

Day 14: Partial acoustic download. Acoustic Communications.

Day 15: St. Croix!

Day 16-20: Fuller ahead steam (you always travel faster BACK to port)

Somethings interesting:

--There was one day where the ocean was bone-glassy. There were 3-4 days where the ocean was a punishing 10-12 foot, with 40 knot winds.

--St. Croix was really neat, though I was only able to taxi to a beach and hang out. To get back to the boat, I had to trade my straw hat for a ride; we had spent our money on food, etc.

--If I wait until the end of a cruise like this, it gets too long (e.g. description, background, anecdotes). I'll try to post during the cruise in the future.

There is not much to do in Norfolk, VA

Galley

Room

Workspace

Movie room

We remove the side of the boat in order to deploy the mooring

My job was to hold this line as we put the surface float in the water.

Float is in the water, a lot of wire and rope to follow.

Recovery of some floats and bottom release.

The Bottom floats were a huge, heavy puzzle.

Pilot Whales on the glassy day

Engineers cleaning their catch.

Surface float recovery.

St. Croix!!

Beach party time.

Rainbow

My instrument

Home again.

How to Deploy a Scientific Mooring

My lab does moorings. Engineers design and build huge floats that sit on the surface, or just beneath it. The wire that holds these floats in place will extend to the heavy anchor on the ocean floor, with a set of instruments often spanning the entire depth. We deploy these at sea, and recover them months/years later. The return is a time series of selected oceanographic quantities, for the entire water column, in one location.

Prepping the floats

A couple of weeks back, we deployed and recovered a series of moorings for our CORC Project (more at http://mooring.ucsd.edu). In 90 hours, we deployed a glider, two bottom and two subsurface moorings, recovered one subsurface and two bottom-mounted instrument, and had zero relaxing transit. I'll describe the deployments here, and touch on the recovery process in a future post.

Moorings

Surface and subsurface moorings have different designs, but similar deployment processes. The trick is to get the entire 1-4 km of cable, instruments, chain, floats, and anchor off of moving/bouncing boat without getting anything tangled.

Sometimes you have to stand on stuff

To start, we angle the boat so it is roughly steaming towards the desired location. The large float is the first thing in the water. For surface moorings, this is a huge surface buoy, while subsurface floats are smaller. Instruments start on the main float itself, and continue along the cable in carefully determined intervals.

At the end of the wire, a couple lengths of chain, more flotation, and finally the anchor (normally railroad wheels) are lifted over the ship's edge. We continue to steam to the desired location, with sometimes trailing 4km of wire, floats, and instruments. Once the Chief Scientist gives the signal, the anchor is dropped and pulls all to rest vertically in the water column.

Anyways, watch a couple timelapses and check out a bunch of photos.

This is the beginning of the first deployment. It lasted over 6 hours, was in ~3800 meters of water, and had a subsurface float that rested at about 50 meters below the surface.

This is the end of the first deployment, the anchor is about to drop when the camera card fills.

This is the (almost) entirety of the Second Deployment. It lasted only about 2.5 hours, was in 800 meters of water, and again the SD Card filled up right before the anchor drop.


Somethings Interesting:

--Our instruments use magnets to induce tiny electric pulses in the wire that holds them in place. Similar to Morse Code, this process transmits all the data from each instrument to a single modem. The surface modem will transfer the data via satellite; the subsurface modem is acoustic, and will transmit the data to a passing glider, which will bring the data to the surface within reach of the satellite.

--Our deck leader is a salty German who has the uncanny ability to tell you exactly which box (of over 20) holds each wrench, bolt, and wire length. Rumor has it his toes are made of steel, and has no need for steel toed boots.  

--Our lab is playing a large role in the OOI Project, where 4 moorings systems will be put in 4 of the roughest waters, essentially on the corners North and South America. The deployments and recoveries will be nothing short of exciting.

Port Hueneme, in Oxnard

A ship, bigger than ours

Fully loaded, ready to depart

Some first years earned their sea legs

Full moon!!

Paul caught a fish; lab BBQ a week later

Pre-Deployment meeting; Chief Scientist in sneakers, Deck Leader in Shorts and Boots

First Instrument; it's covered in Copper to keep off Bio-Fouling

Location of GoPro Camera

Last set of floats with release.

Deck Leader

Deployment 2, surface floats.

Deck Leader, rolling a Cig

That's me

Our Bottom Releases are acoustic and let go only to a particular set of frequencies.

Anchor!! For Deployment 2

Unloading back at Port

Showers that Cleanse

Recently, I've had a couple of those cleansing showers. The ones that cause the water to turn brown from all the dust, dirt, or whatever. They require cleaning under the fingernails, and smell-checking your armpit until you've scrubbed it enough. You may have to shampoo twice to remove the salt crust from sweat or the ocean.

I love these showers.

Often, these showers follow camping trips, like the Baja Surf Trip two weekends back (previous post). That shower washed off three surf sessions, ~20 hours of driving, and two nights on the ground. I washed off sweated out alcohol and spilled hot sauce. There was a bunch of dogs at Cuatros Casas, all of whom were gross, and some of whom I petted. All of that came off in that shower, two Mondays ago.

Gorgeous and Glassy

Two Tuesdays ago, I went to sea with class to deploy my lab's Del Mar Mooring. Thankfully, the post-cruise shower only had to wash off sweat and grease; everything is clean when we put it in the water. Mooring recoveries, conversely, pick up all those same instruments after they've been fouled by all the biology in the ocean (e.g. algae, barnacles, mussels, etc.); I remain pungent from all the bio-scraping until I make it home, and take that shower.

Look at all that smelly biology on a previous mooring.
Photo Courtesy of James Broesch

My most recent cleansing shower was late Saturday night, following a day trip to an orphanage in Tijuana with Jeff. We went down with his family and Church Group to install a kitchen, fix door frames, lay gas line, and paint. We arrived earlier than the rest, allowing us to lay down a second coat on the soon-to-be installed kitchen cabinets, and even sneak away for our street tacos (news flash: Taqueria La Gloria makes their own corn tortillas!!). Upon returning, we were given the gas line job with two others. This was my first experience with anything plumbing related, but with Jeff's guidance we were able to finish.

Jeff surveying the line, Martin works at the orphanage

The shower that followed removed sweat from the Baja sun, as well as the grease, dust, and dirt the job required. It's weird to be able to wash off and return home so easily. While the line we set led to a water heater, the orphanage has no such luxury as the comfortable apartment I have made for myself. 

On Sunday, I woke up late, biked some errands, and read at the beach.

Somethings Interesting:
--Sunday was also Election day for Mexico. Exit polls show a return of the Institutional Revolutionary Party after a 12 year hiatus.

--Following Zanzibar, it took me 2 full days to get home, stopping in Tanzania overnight, and again in London. The shower that followed washed off the recent sleeping on airport benches, the bender with Spike on the way home, and the pit toilet on mainland Tanzania. 

--For info on the Del Mar Mooring, see my lab's website...
http://mooring.ucsd.edu/
Projects-->Del Mar

Ray holding it down.

Deploying the Camera

Hey Matt!

Lots of waiting.

The mooring is away.

Locals on a mission

Taqueria La Gloria