In the summer of 2012, Arctic sea ice has broken the previous record for minimum extent (set in 2007), fallen below 4 million square kilometers, and, as of September 17, dropped below 3.5 million square kilometers in extent. Multiple studies indicate that the Arctic will eventually lose its sea ice during the summers of the future. […]
Mooring Deployment
By Eric Lindstrom The central mooring at the SPURS site is a critical piece of gear. It will provide us with a time series of upper ocean properties at one location over the entire year. We’ll build the other SPURS measurements around this spot on this and future voyages. We’ll “fly” the gliders in patterns […]
Seaglider #189 Away!
By Eric Lindstrom We just launched the first of our autonomous vehicles – a pink Seaglider with the sexy name of #189. Underwater gliders are the longest-range autonomous undersea vehicles in the oceans by virtue of their very simple propulsion mechanism: the translation of a vertical force into an horizontal one through use of wings. […]
Bring SPURS and Aquarius Into the Classroom!
By Eric Lindstrom “Why do sharks swim in saltwater? Because pepper water makes them sneeze!” Jokes aside, why is saltwater so important? Find out using our educational resources about ocean salinity. Along with our expedition, there are many web resources for educators wishing to incorporate oceanography and salinity into their curricula. This post highlights some […]
Profiling Salinity from the Ship
By Eric Lindstrom A workhorse of our voyage is the two primary means of measuring salinity from the ship. We use two different Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth (CTD) instruments. One is used on station, when the ship is stationary and the other is used while we are underway (smartly dubbed the underway CTD). Remember that […]
Are We There Yet?
By Eric Lindstrom If you all are waiting to see some action at sea, I am sorry it is taking a bit to unfold. It takes about a week from Woods Hole to reach our study site at 25N, 38W. It’s good for us to have the time to check and re-check the instruments, get […]
Discovering Hot Towers
Two hours before Hurricane Isaac made landfall, a satellite orbiting hundreds of miles above the storm used a radar instrument to map the storm’s inner structure. The instrument on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) observed two extremely tall complexes of rain clouds called hot towers in the eyewall, a sign that Isaac was trying to strengthen. The towering clouds […]
Measuring Salinity from Space
By Eric Lindstrom Recent years have seen significant developments in satellites for oceanographers. The European Space Agency launched the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission and NASA launched the Aquarius instrument on the Argentine SAC-D mission. Salinity has always been a challenging but critically important measurement for oceanographers. The small changes in salinity that […]
September puzzler
Every month, NASA Earth Observatory will offer up a puzzling satellite image here on Earth Matters. The fourth puzzler is above. Your challenge is to use the comments section below to tell us what part of the world we’re looking at, when the image was acquired, and what’s happening in the scene. How to answer. […]
Of ship meals and science
By Eric Lindstrom Saturday, 8 September 2012 — Given the talk around the Knorr’s dinner table, you would have to say that oceanographic expeditions run on their stomachs. Key to surviving weeks away from home and family is good food and good moods. The food on the Knorr is excellent, so we are likely to […]