Thursday, September 30, 2010

NOAA Teacher at Sea: Barbara Koch

NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow

Mission: Autumn Bottom Trawl Survey Leg II

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Weather Data from the Bridge

Latitude 41.53

Longitude -71.32

Speed 0.00 kts

Course 58.00

Wind Speed 16.00 kts

Wind Dir. 143.26 º Surf.

Water Temp. 18.79 ºC

Surf. Water Sal. 31.45

PSU Air Temperature 21.50 ºC

Relative Humidity 91.00 %

Barometric Pres. 1014.67 mb

Water Depth 12.53 m

Cruise Start Date 9/27/2010

Science and Technology Log

NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow is now docked in Newport, Rhode Island due to a deep trough of moisture from the East Pacific and Tropical Storm Nicole in the Atlantic moving up the Atlantic coast towards New England. The National Weather Service has issued a gale warning, because winds associated with this weather system are causing rougher seas, and it is too dangerous for the ship to continue trawling the ocean floor. When ships are at sea conducting research, it is vitally important that NOAA monitors current weather and wave conditions to insure the safety of the crew and scientists aboard their vessels. Actually, NOAA provides current weather information for everyone in America, including commercial fishermen and all of us on land. Visit NOAA’s National Weather Service website at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/ to see what’s happening today.

Our ship is equipped with instruments that collect weather and water data. Data is collected for wind speed, wind direction, water temperature, surface water salinity, air temperature, relative humidity, and barometric pressure. The information listed above under “Weather Data from the Bridge” is information gathered from the weather station located on top of the ship. Weather information is posted hourly. NOAA also has buoys placed in the waters around the United States, the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans that collect data. Visit the National Data Buoy Center’s website at http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/ to see where they are located and to read current data.

Wind movement in the atmosphere and water movement in the ocean are interrelated. When wind blows across the surface of the ocean, friction causes water molecules to move in a circular motion. Energy built up from friction transfers from one molecule of water to the next as each molecule rotates into the next. This action causes a wave to form. The size of the wave depends on three factors; the strength of the wind gust, the distance it blows (fetch), and the length of time it gusts (duration). NOAA’s buoys and ships collect wave measurements over a twenty minute sampling period for wave height (WHGT), wave period (APD), and the period with the strongest wave energy (DPD). A “gale warning” is issued when wind speeds are expected to measure 39-54 mph causing waves to reach between 18-25 feet in height. So, we are here until the seas calm down, which may be Saturday. While at dock, we’ll have time to explore Newport.

Personal Log

I’m really sad that we had to go in to port because I was just getting my sea legs and starting to feel comfortable with my work in the wet lab. But, I am glad to have a little time to wash my clothes. Everything I wear in the lab smells like fish! We wear our regular clothes, but put “foul weather gear” on over them before going into the wet lab. Foul weather gear consists of rubber boots, suspendered waterproof pants, and a waterproof rain jacket. Here is a picture of the gear hanging in the room where we get into our gear, and a picture of me in my pants holding a large skate. We store the pants over the boots so we can just step right in and pull the pants up, just like fire fighters. We always spray all the fish remnants off before we come back into this room to take off our gear.

We also wear rubber gloves during all of our work. The scientists have been using the blue gloves like the ones John is wearing at right, but scientists from past cruises commented they had a hard time holding onto the fish, so we are testing two other types of gloves on this cruise. The two gloves are rubber, but one is thick like the blue gloves and one is thinner. Both gloves have ridges on all of the fingers to allow for better gripping. I’ve been wearing the thicker orange gloves. So far, these gloves have worked well for me. I am able to easily pick up flat fish like flounder, but the sharp point of a scup’s dorsal fin poked through my glove once. That hurt! I’m just glad I didn’t have the thinner gloves on. A lot of fish slime also collects on the ridges throughout the watch. That’s easily remedied with a quick rinse from the nearby hose. Now, I think I’ll try out the blue gloves, so I can make a valid comparison. I’ll let you know my results at the end of the cruise.