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Ocean Interactions
Ocean and Atmosphere connecting Scientists, Teachers & Students
Heritage Middle School, Longmont, CO
Class profile (to come)
Teacher: Ms. Taylor
Q & A (11/17/03)
1.) What exactly have you studied? When you flush, where does it go?
Is this two separate questions? Are you trying to sneak 4 questions in here? I'll answer the second part (for an answer to the the first part, read my biographic sketch on the website....when we flush, it goes down into a large sewage tank. Very close to shore (inside of 3 miles), the ship is required to process the sewage much like it is processed back home at the sewage treatment plant (with chemical decomposition). However, when we are far enough from shore, every once in awhile this sewage tank is 'flushed' into the sea. It is all natural, so it isn't considered a pollutant. Also, the sewage mixes with the seawater quickly, so it is diluted fairly quickly.
2.) Has there been any storms that you have been afraid of or that look dangerous? What has been your favorite sea creature that you have seen?
The turtle is my favorite animal out here (see my write up above and Brenda's write-up). I also enjoy seeing porpoises, but there were only a few seen this trip, and they were at a distance.
3.) Dear Jeff, what kinds of ships did you see?
It isn't very often that one sees ships while at sea in the deep ocean, except far away on the horizon. That isn't to say that there aren't ships out here, but it is just that they aren't confined to highways like cars. We see more ships the closer we get to land and ports. Most of the ships we have seen on the TAO buoy line are fishing vessels. Because the fish congregate under the buoys, the fishermen take advantage of this fact. They can often be seen a few miles away from us, waiting for us to leave the buoy so that they can fish under it. A few of these fishing vessels have unscrupulous crews, and they destroy the buoys in their zeal to selfishly capture the fish. This has bothered me during this trip, but there isn't too much I can do about it. There aren't any cops out here to police the fishing vessels. When we get closer to the Panama Canal, we will see container ships. These vessels are much bigger than the Ron Brown (maybe 5-10 times our size) and they hold hundreds of containers which are the size of tractor-trailers. These containers are the import/export goods of the world, such as Play Station game controllers, shoes, clothes, etc. Also, there are very large vessels filled with cars from Japan (or the U.S.) heading for other countries. If you want to see some of the canal traffic, you can visit the canal webcam site at: http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html I will try to let you know when the Ron Brown is going through the canal, and maybe you can look for it on the camera. However, I have to warn you that it will probably be late at night. The Ron Brown is a small vessel (only 279 feet), and the largest vessels have priority to go through the canal during the daytime hours. This is a safety consideration, since the operators of the canal realize that the larger vessels are harder to steer and daylight makes their operation safer in the close quarters of the Canal.
Q & A (11/10/03)
1. Are you having fun? How is your work coming along?
For the most part, I'm having fun. I have alot of friends on the ship, so there's always someone to talk with or joke around with. We do have some leisure time to fill, and I've been reading alot (biography of Andrew Jackson). Everyone has a job on the ship, so one needs to be aware and permit the other guy to do his/her job too. I've found that the best way to go about life on the ship is to develop a routine.
So, here is my daily routine:
5:00AM Wake up.
5:15AM Calibrate the temperature and humidity measurements on the bow with a hand-held psychrometer.
5:30AM Say 'Hello' to the Chief Steward (Richard Whitehead) as he begins his day and get my first cup of coffee.
5:45AM Launch the first radiosonde balloon of the day.
6:15AM Check on data acquisition system and transfer files from the night before.
7:00AM Breakfast (eggs, bacon, fruit, yogurt, juice).
7:30AM Check on the status of the radiosonde signal.
8:00AM Work on computer...fixing analysis code, daily routines to check data quality, etc.
9:00AM Grab another coffee, read a little.
9:30AM Work out in the ship's weightroom (rowing machine and treadmill).
10:30AM Shower
11:00AM Lunch (Salad and sandwich)
11:30AM Relax in lounge and read a magazine (some of them are getting pretty old).
12:00PM Calibrate temperature and humidity measurements on the bow.
12:30PM Work on the computer. Check on data quality and instrumentation. Read my e-mail.
1:30PM Daily walk-around to all the instruments, clean off the optics on the ceilometer, radiometers, hygrometer, etc.
2:00PM Hang out on the fantail while the buoy work goes on. Check up on the latest gossip.
3:00PM Work on the computer some more (this is a constant task).
3:45PM Go to my room to relax a read a little before dinner.
4:30PM Dinner (Steak, spaghetti, ....it's all good).
5:00PM Read and send e-mail.
5:30PM Movie time.
7:30PM Calibrate temperature and humidity measurements on the bow.
8:30PM Read.
9:00PM Bedtime.
I've been away from my home since October 10th, so I'm getting a little homesick. The beds on the ship aren't too comfortable. At this stage of the experiment, I still have lots of work to do each day to make sure that the data still looks good and that all of our instruments are working properly.
2. What does it smell like at sea?
Have you ever been to the shore? How it smells salty and like wet rotting grass? Well, it doesn't smell like that! There is a subtle salty smell in the air, but for the most part it is a very refreshing and clean smell. It certainly does not smell like Colorado, where I can always scent the pines and the dust. One remarkable thing, often when you are close and downwind of land, you can smell it even if you can't see it. One can smell the trees and vegetation. However, that only works if we are within 5 miles of land (and we are more than 1000 miles from the nearest point of land).
In order for the ship to run, we have to burn diesel fuel. Also, there are lots of places where cooling air is brought into the ship's systems or expelled out. So, depending on where you are on the ship and which way the wind is blowing, it could smell like diesel or the kitchen or like fresh sea air. The ship can also be pretty noisy in places for the same reasons (fans, blowers, etc).
3. How is it on the ship? Are you getting sick? yes or no?
I've been on many ship excursions, so I don't really get seasick anymore. If the sea is really rough, sometimes I feel like I need to take a nap, but I don't really get sick enough to toss the Oreos. Also, in this part of the world, the seas aren't too rough. Today, we have about 5 foot swell, which isn't too bad a ride for a ship this size (275 feet long). Near the equator, the winds aren't too strong, and the trade winds don't affect the seas too much north of here, due to the presence of the Panamanian Isthmus (it prevents the seas from getting too big).
Questions (10/27/03)
Hello to Ms. Taylor's class. Tammy and Jeff had a fun time visiting your class a few weeks ago. Hopefully, you will have had a chance to check out the website by now.
1) At this precise moment, our position is Latitude 8.1 North, Longitude 94.9 West. It might be interesting to you to find that spot on a map or globe. Today, we have moderately overcast skies....it had been raining each day while we were a little further north (which is typical for that area). The swells are running a little rougher today (about 4-5 feet), and the wind is moderate at 7 m/s. The air temperature, which doesn't change much during the day or night is about 26 degrees C. Sea surface temperature is approximately 27 C. Humidity is 90 percent (very much higher than in Colorado!). There is alot of water out here.....in all directions, all you can see is the ocean.
2) We went through the canal about a week ago, and there are plots of our ship's tracks on the website. Transiting through the canal is quite an experience....including the sight of the jungle all around you. The rainforest smells something like rotting wood, but it is a more pleasant smell...more floral, I would suggest. It isn't easy to hear much from the surrounding forest, because the ship's engines are rumbling, the cooling fans are hissing, and the canal 'mules' are whining, etc. I have hiked in the rainforest around Panama City, and there are thousands of beautifully-colored singing birds in there. There are many birds in the forest there because all those that migrate overland have to pass across the narrow Isthmus of Panama to go between North (or Central) and South America. There are singing sounds of birds and the drone of bugs, but occasionally, you can hear a howler monkey. Living in Colorado, we get used to the dry conditions....in Panama, the air is very humid and all the trees moist and the ground is muddy.
3) All the groups on the ship were busy during the transit to the Canal and the transit from the Canal to the buoys. We are completing the set up of our gear, calibrating our instruments and checking the data for quality. We are also testing our analysis software to be sure that all of the programs work correctly. This is a very important time, because we want to make sure everything works as expected before we get to the buoys and we begin to take data. If something is broken, it needs to be fixed or replaced. We have brought along alot of spare equipment, but sometimes we need to improvise to get something to work. This is why it is important to have knowledgeable electronic and electrical engineers on board to help us fix any instruments that have problems.
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