Thursday, November 29, 2012

R/V Melville day 19

Day 19- Interview
Ruth Musgrave (Chief Scientist)

Ruth Musgrave is PHD student at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) focusing on oceanographic fluid dynamics. Ruth was born in the west London, United Kingdom. From a young age Ruth was intrigued by math and the constant challenge that came with it. Moving to Australia at the age of 20 Ruth obtained a Bachelors in Science (BS) in physics from Melbourne University, followed by an honors in applied math from Monash University (Australia). Ruth worked as a Patent attorney for a year and dreaded every second of it. She moved to the United States to pursue a PHD which she is currently working on, and loves everything about it. "In most jobs you do the same thing every day, you're told what to do by your boss and do the same thing every day. My job is nothing like that and thats why I love it," -Ruth Musgrave. 

Ruth's favorite places to travel are;
East Anglia, United Kingdom - To visit family 
and Baja California, Mexico - because its wild, remote, you can get away and enjoy life.  

"The ocean is full of the most incredible currents, It blows me away." -Ruth Musgrave 

Ruth Musgrave

Enjoying a beautiful day

Hydroulic mixing (fluid dynamics) 

Sunrise from the hot tub
#the_nightshift aka the 4am HOTUBBERS 

Ruth and her many Teas getting work done 

Ruth presenting her data from Mendocino Ridge
Downloading data
 
Chief scientist at work 


Smile :)

Ruth operating the A-Frame

R/V Melville day 18


Day 18- Interview 

Amy Waterhouse (Chief Scientist)


Amy Waterhouse is a post doc Physical Oceanographer. She is a Canadian native who currently resides in La Jolla, California. Amy grew up sailing, windsurfing, kayaking and swimming with her family as a  child and from a young age fell in love with the ocean. Following her heart she pursued her dreams and obtained a masters in oceanography at the University of British Columbia (UBC). After extensive field work and many expeditions in Florida, Mexico, and even Korea, Amy got her PHD at the University of Florida. She now works at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (UCSD) as a post doc under the guidance of Jen MacKinnon.
Amy's favorite places to travel are Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas, and Papua New Guinea because they are beautiful, and the remoteness is just amazing.
"I love the ocean"- Amy Waterhouse
YOU CAN FOLLOW AMY'S BLOG AT - https://sites.google.com/site/mixingatthemargins/ 


Amy Waterhouse in action

Bubbly and smiling :)

Amy Waterhouse and Jonathan Nash attaching T-loggers (temperature sensors) directly onto the mooring line

Amy pinging acoustic releases off the starburt side

Amy Waterhouse and Jonathan Nash 
"technologically savvy?'

Testing testing testing

Amy Waterhouse and Jen Mackinnon performing a deck test on a pair of acoustic releases 


Sunday, November 25, 2012

R/V Melville shirt design day 17

I was asked to think of ideas for a group shirt design, i picked up a pencil and voila!  
And YES everything is hand drawn and I drew everything myself

R/V Melville day 16

Day 16 CUP DAY!!!

Today we sent around 100 cups 1335 meters so about 4380 feet down below the surface of the ocean. We attached a mesh bag filled with the cups above the CDT using a book clamp and after their descent  we recovered them and the results were AWESOME!!!

*Mr. Blas 3rd period class i will show you mine but you will all have to wait to see yours in class when I get back to land*  



My Cup (and yes i drew everything myself)

BEFORE

AFTER

My 2 cups zombie baseball and the beautiful R/V Melville

All the cups Right out of the water

Sunrise from the Hot Tub on board ;D



Beautiful sun 

Super sunny day


A Mola Mola also known as the sun fish  


R/V Melville day 15

Day 15: Question of the day

 Is Collecting data hard? -Patricia Patticakeslicious Zapien

What kind of stuff are you doing on the boat , on the second week ? -Carlos Reyes


-Collecting data is not hard, the instruments do all the work, however analyzing and writing code to compute the data is a challenge.
- During the second weeks we are doing CTD cast throughout Eel canyon gathering data on internal wave prorogation.
Chief scientist Amy Waterhouse and Computer tech Kris Weeks in the lab

Some of the gang

Multibeam rendering of the topography of the ridge (Dancing Man)

Paul Chua, Jonathan Nash, and Amy Waterhouse ready for work

MMP ready to be deployed

Scientist Paul Chua and Rez-tech Josh Manger

Vanessa Crandell on the air tugger

Chief Scientist Ruth Musgrave giving us a presentation on some of the data collected so far

Scientist Jen MacKinnon up bright and early ready for a hard days work

Computer-tech Kris Weeks launching an XPT

Sun through the fog

Friday, November 23, 2012

R/V Melville day 14

Day 14 Question of the day:

Do You Guys Have a Schedule like at School on the Ship ? -Kevon Mitchell

What kind of data does the mooring lines record? -Jerome Silvels 


-Onboard we schedule ourselves according to our watches or shifts, I personally wake from anywhere around 1-3 pm, sometimes get a bite to eat, or i will wait till dinner, after dinner have some free time then we have a science moment where somebody will speak and give a presentation on their field. soon after my shift starts from 8pm - 4am, and then begins the night shifts ritual of going for a soak in the hot tub on board while relaxing unwinding and gazing at the thousands of stars, then a quick shower and off to bed. So no we do not have a schedule like we do at school we have one a million times better!
-Mooring lines collect data on temperature, conductivity, depth, salinity, density, all to measure currents and obtain data on internal waves and hydraulic mixing.



Sunset from the bridge

Sunset and a tanker

No caption needed beautiful with jupiter 

White Water from the thrusters

Beautiful seas as far as the eye can see

Sun rising on the horizon 

Sunrise off of Eureka

Chief scientist Ruth Musgrave getting some shots from the bridge

Captain Dave Murline

Waves crashing over the side onto the deck

Thursday, November 22, 2012

R/V Melville day 13

Day 13: Question of the day

How does science on the ship compare to science being taught on land considering the fact being on the ship your actually seeing things first hand and up close ? - Tyrell Robinson

What is the purpose of measuring conductivity? - Adanna Knox-luli

What is a dynamic positioning ship? What are winches and air tuggers used for? - Lorenzo McClure



-What we are taught in class can not compare to what i have learned at sea, its the little things and the small key bits of information that really make everything click, seeing and learning what is happening, why, has really opened my eyes on the whole concept and I feel this is the best teaching method that could possibly be used.
-The purpose of measuring conductivity is to see the speed at which the water throughout the water column travels (ex. current). This gives us an idea of what the water that is under the surface is doing and where it is going.
-A dynamic positioning ship is a ship that can keep the same position if the swell and wind forbid. This ship has the normal 2 propellers under the stern (back of the ship) but also is equipped with a bow thruster which can be lowered and from within the hull of the ship this thruster is another propeller that like the two in the stern. They all can swivel 360 degrees, and each can operate at different speeds, they work together to keep the ship from changing not only direction but position.
-The Winches and air tugger are used to lower cable, instruments, and basically everything that needs to be deployed overboard is placed or aided there using either a winch or air tugger.




The main control panel room in the engine room

one of the 4 diesel powered generators

The water distiller 

The mechanic shop

The seismic compressor 

The trraction winch

The inside view of the port side propeller and shaft