I understand lurking -- I would be reluctant to write comments if I
were in your position too. But it really is nice for me to see that
people are interested, and if you're not, let me know what you think
might be worth writing about. Since we've gotten most of the basics
of the science objectives and techniques out of the way, I can
digress or dive in more detail. Your call...
We're approaching hump day on the cruise -- and transitioning
activities to other parts of the Amundsen Sea. Autosub went under
the ice 6 times for up to 24 hours at a time and we spent more time
in front of and around PIG than any other cruise (possibly all put
together) up to this point. In the next few days, we should be back
in the sea ice and placing "drifters" to track the motion of some of
the thicker ice floes. More moorings, including an ice-tethered
profiler, will be deployed. Our general movement will be northwest,
where the water is cooler (but still warm by antarctic standards).
We'd like to understand why.
It looks like email service will continue to be iffy for the next few
weeks of the cruise track so stick with me despite irregular
updates. I'll try to make them count.
Friday night midnight movie last night: Man on Wire. Next Friday
word has it that it will be Encounters at the Edge of the World,
another documentary, this time about Antarctica, and starring one of
the IT techs, a former McMurdo resident. No football here tomorrow,
but I heard a rumor there might be some liquid Nitrogen ice cream.
Hope to hear from you soon!
Chris
OMG I just posted a whole long thing and it got fricked up and lost. I am so sorry.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I just wanted to say hi and tell you I read every post -- you're not just shouting into an empty canyon! I hear you!
:-)
Lots of love.
ok, no more lurking!
ReplyDeletewasn't man on wire great? just watched that last week too.
nate says to tell you the following:
1) that he would like a beer making lesson when you return to land,
2) that you should practice to be man-on-wire-on-ship,
3) in case you didn't know, a new google earth focused on oceans came out--anything you want plotted?
mc and nate
Did you see your shadow? How much more winter do we expect? (Yes, I know the hemisphere's are reversed, but the kids wanted me to ask.)
ReplyDeleteThey also wanted to know, if you are sleeping when a calving occurs, can you hear it through the hull or do the engines make too much noise?
Encounters was great. We particularly liked the listening to seals under the ice.
Are the "drifters" available to watch on-line? We have been following a couple with NOAA's Adopt A Drifter program in the northern Gulf Stream that are out over the Grand Banks now.
Chris: Do you guys get any news downloads? There have been two great articles in the daily papers about Antarctic melt. One highlighted the fact that the deep ocean is kind of a kidney for CO2 (absorbs it and flushes it out of the atmosphere), but with a super-long cycle it just can't keep up. Another article is about the ozone layer (we're fixing that with less chlorofluoro) but at the penalty of warming up the area underneath it. On another front, sturgeon are moving but very few stripers in the bay.
ReplyDelete