1 00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:15,240 In Newport, Oregon, during the month of October, an 2 00:00:15,240 --> 00:00:18,870 environmental research vessel called the Bold Horizon prepared 3 00:00:18,870 --> 00:00:21,000 to embark on a month long journey as part of a scientific 4 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:22,080 mission called S-MODE. 5 00:00:25,960 --> 00:00:30,010 So S-MODE is one of the NASA Earth venture series 6 00:00:30,070 --> 00:00:33,250 experiments. So it's a big multi-institutional experiment. 7 00:00:33,610 --> 00:00:38,110 We're mostly looking at the upper ocean velocities, how the 8 00:00:38,350 --> 00:00:43,180 upper meters of the ocean move. So we're learning that these 9 00:00:43,180 --> 00:00:46,690 small scales, or small scale currents are more and more 10 00:00:46,690 --> 00:00:51,070 important for our understanding of ventilation or how the upper 11 00:00:51,070 --> 00:00:56,950 ocean is interacting with the atmosphere. So right now, it's 12 00:00:56,950 --> 00:01:00,400 important to— we're unpacking all our packages and installing 13 00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:02,950 instrumentation, making sure everything works and everything 14 00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:07,870 fits. We have just two days, maybe three days just to do it. 15 00:01:07,870 --> 00:01:12,160 And it's a lot of work, a lot of instrumentation go up top very, 16 00:01:12,310 --> 00:01:14,890 to the top of the ship, some go down below. 17 00:01:19,550 --> 00:01:22,910 So we care about the vertical movement of things like heat and 18 00:01:22,910 --> 00:01:25,370 carbon in the ocean, because it's really important for 19 00:01:25,370 --> 00:01:29,450 climate change. So I'm on the biology team. And in terms of 20 00:01:29,450 --> 00:01:32,330 biology, we care about how carbon moves throughout the 21 00:01:32,360 --> 00:01:34,940 ocean, because if that carbon gets deep enough in the ocean, 22 00:01:35,060 --> 00:01:38,990 it stays there, and it's not released to the atmosphere. And 23 00:01:38,990 --> 00:01:40,850 that's really important for what's called the greenhouse 24 00:01:40,850 --> 00:01:44,360 effect. If you have more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, you 25 00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:47,720 have more heating. And then in terms of the physics side, we 26 00:01:47,720 --> 00:01:50,150 care about things like temperature and salinity, 27 00:01:50,600 --> 00:01:53,300 because the ocean moves around heat, and that's how the ocean 28 00:01:53,630 --> 00:01:55,940 controls the world's climate. 29 00:01:55,000 --> 00:02:11,260 This is an Imaging Flow Cytobot, we're going to use it to look at 30 00:02:11,290 --> 00:02:14,410 phytoplankton community composition at the sea surface. 31 00:02:15,430 --> 00:02:19,240 We'll sample from the ship seawater intake over there. When 32 00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:24,790 a cell flows through the system, from the seawater intake, it 33 00:02:24,790 --> 00:02:29,350 will trigger the lasers. And then once that happens, the 34 00:02:30,160 --> 00:02:32,050 camera will take a picture. 35 00:02:33,440 --> 00:02:36,140 Teams of scientists spent the better part of a week 36 00:02:36,140 --> 00:02:39,470 retrofitting the ship for their instruments and data collection. 37 00:02:46,280 --> 00:02:49,550 I'm just testing this float, this float will be deployed in 38 00:02:49,550 --> 00:02:55,280 this S-MODE mission to measure the vertical velocity. And this 39 00:02:55,280 --> 00:02:58,970 is the— this is the spatial characteristics of this float 40 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:03,560 because it can move with the water per se. So it can measure 41 00:03:03,590 --> 00:03:05,570 the W, means the vertical velocity. 42 00:03:10,550 --> 00:03:14,240 So we have like these two primary disciplines that are 43 00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:16,610 going to be on one boat together, and that's going to be 44 00:03:16,700 --> 00:03:19,190 the biology folks that are trying to understand how the 45 00:03:19,190 --> 00:03:22,400 biology of the ocean is interacting with the physics. So 46 00:03:22,400 --> 00:03:24,770 then we also have a lot of physical oceanographers on the 47 00:03:24,770 --> 00:03:27,500 boat. And it's kind of bringing us together that we can piece 48 00:03:27,500 --> 00:03:30,860 together this larger story of submesoscale features, what's 49 00:03:30,860 --> 00:03:33,230 happening on these smaller scales that are not are not 50 00:03:33,230 --> 00:03:35,900 currently captured by existing models and measurements. 51 00:03:37,940 --> 00:03:41,180 In addition to the scientific fields on board, the Bold 52 00:03:41,180 --> 00:03:43,820 Horizon isn't the only component of the mission. 53 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:48,550 The excitement of this project is that a lot of this is cutting 54 00:03:48,550 --> 00:03:53,530 edge. So the interaction of these multiple platforms is the 55 00:03:53,530 --> 00:03:57,040 biggest challenge. So we have three aircraft flying overhead. 56 00:03:57,370 --> 00:04:01,240 We have multiple vehicles on the surface have multiple vehicles 57 00:04:01,270 --> 00:04:05,590 underwater, but we will need to navigate our way through this 58 00:04:05,590 --> 00:04:09,790 constellation of instruments. The other thing is that we are 59 00:04:09,850 --> 00:04:14,230 chasing these really fast ocean features. They change really 60 00:04:14,230 --> 00:04:18,850 fast and matter of hours. That's why having eyes in the sky is a 61 00:04:18,880 --> 00:04:21,880 great asset. So they will be able to direct us to just the 62 00:04:21,880 --> 00:04:25,720 right spots and we will try to move all our surface assets, 63 00:04:25,720 --> 00:04:30,970 move our ship to where the action is and be there right in 64 00:04:30,970 --> 00:04:31,450 time. 65 00:04:38,050 --> 00:04:41,890 For these, we're watching radio science to measure atmospheric— 66 00:04:43,090 --> 00:04:46,240 weather in the atmosphere. So temperature, pressure, humidity 67 00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:50,500 and winds. And the reason we're doing this as part of our field 68 00:04:50,500 --> 00:04:55,960 experiment, is because that we know from other past evidence 69 00:04:55,960 --> 00:04:59,560 that the ocean can affect the weather. And one thing that 70 00:04:59,560 --> 00:05:03,370 we're really interested in is seeing how big of a change in 71 00:05:03,370 --> 00:05:06,100 ocean temperature or ocean currents can affect the weather. 72 00:05:07,270 --> 00:05:10,210 Part of the low cost of the system is it's just a Styrofoam 73 00:05:10,240 --> 00:05:13,420 cup, really, and the electronics are really the star of the show 74 00:05:13,420 --> 00:05:13,780 here. 75 00:05:24,490 --> 00:05:29,080 The most exciting thing about this line of work is that you 76 00:05:29,080 --> 00:05:32,290 never know what to expect. So this this sense of discovery 77 00:05:32,320 --> 00:05:36,820 that I think drives most people that go out to sea. We know 78 00:05:36,820 --> 00:05:40,390 there will be new exciting features waiting for us there. 79 00:05:40,630 --> 00:05:43,270 We don't know what they are. We don't know where they are, but 80 00:05:43,270 --> 00:05:46,810 we'll be chasing them. We know we will find something that will 81 00:05:46,810 --> 00:05:49,720 motivate us and really got us excited that keeps us you know, 82 00:05:49,720 --> 00:05:52,930 working through the nights to actually understand what it is 83 00:05:53,020 --> 00:05:54,820 happening how the ocean works.