It's Been A Long Day Out In The Boats
Today I named my boat Strømlinjet
We had a very productive and fun day on the fjord. After spending the day in a rocking boat, I feel like my bed is swaying!
Bumper Boats
Jake C. from Los Coches Creek Middle School asks, "How many times did you hit icebergs while driving?"
How many times did you hit icebergs while driving?
There is so much ice in the water that driving is like playing a video game where you have to try and miss all of the obstacles. At a certain point I just can't miss them anymore and I just accept that we are going over that one. Oops! And that one too! Crunch! So to answer your question, Jake, I didn't hit any "icebergs" but I went over and sideswiped many little chunks of ice.
My, How Things Have Changed...And Stayed The Same
Kevin S. from Avocado asks, "What Instruments Do You Use And What Do They Do?"
What instruments do you use and what do they do?
Today we took 12 CTD casts. A CTD is an instrument that is lowered into the water and all the way down it measures three things: conductivity, temperature and depth. The conductivity part is actually measuring salinity or salt concentration.
A CTD, courtesy of SeaBird
The purpose of this is to get a "picture" of what the water is like. You might think that the water is all the same down there, but due to differences in density, different water masses lay on top of each other with different degrees of mixing. There is water coming into the fjord from the ocean and there is water in the fjord coming from the melting glaciers. By knowing where these water masses are we can determine where we want to put our next set of instruments and understand the dynamics of the fjord and how it is affected by different climatic conditions.
When I was a midshipman studying oceanography in college I spent many hours out on the Chesapeake Bay getting measurements from a CTD. That was a while ago and the way we take the measurements now hasn't changed that much. But while reflecting on that today I thought about what a completely different situation I am in now. I never thought I would have to push ice out of the way of my CTD!
Move that ice! CTD coming through!
Thanks for checking in and let me hear from you!
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