Transcript

Transcript

Narration: Kathleen Gaeta

Transcript:

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In Newport, Oregon, during the

month of October, an

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environmental research vessel

called the Bold Horizon prepared

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to embark on a month long

journey as part of a scientific

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mission called S-MODE.

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So S-MODE is one of the NASA

Earth venture series

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experiments. So it's a big

multi-institutional experiment.

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We're mostly looking at the

upper ocean velocities, how the

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upper meters of the ocean move.

So we're learning that these

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small scales, or small scale

currents are more and more

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important for our understanding

of ventilation or how the upper

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ocean is interacting with the

atmosphere. So right now, it's

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important to— we're unpacking

all our packages and installing

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instrumentation, making sure

everything works and everything

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fits. We have just two days,

maybe three days just to do it.

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And it's a lot of work, a lot of

instrumentation go up top very,

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to the top of the ship, some go

down below.

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So we care about the vertical

movement of things like heat and

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carbon in the ocean, because

it's really important for

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climate change. So I'm on the

biology team. And in terms of

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biology, we care about how

carbon moves throughout the

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ocean, because if that carbon

gets deep enough in the ocean,

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it stays there, and it's not

released to the atmosphere. And

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that's really important for

what's called the greenhouse

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effect. If you have more carbon

dioxide in the atmosphere, you

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have more heating. And then in

terms of the physics side, we

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care about things like

temperature and salinity,

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because the ocean moves around

heat, and that's how the ocean

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controls the world's climate.

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This is an Imaging Flow Cytobot,

we're going to use it to look at

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phytoplankton community

composition at the sea surface.

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We'll sample from the ship

seawater intake over there. When

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a cell flows through the system,

from the seawater intake, it

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will trigger the lasers. And

then once that happens, the

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camera will take a picture.

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Teams of scientists spent the

better part of a week

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retrofitting the ship for their

instruments and data collection.

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I'm just testing this float,

this float will be deployed in

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this S-MODE mission to measure

the vertical velocity. And this

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is the— this is the spatial

characteristics of this float

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because it can move with the

water per se. So it can measure

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the W, means the vertical

velocity.

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So we have like these two

primary disciplines that are

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going to be on one boat

together, and that's going to be

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the biology folks that are

trying to understand how the

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biology of the ocean is

interacting with the physics. So

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then we also have a lot of

physical oceanographers on the

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boat. And it's kind of bringing

us together that we can piece

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together this larger story of

submesoscale features, what's

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happening on these smaller

scales that are not are not

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currently captured by existing

models and measurements.

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In addition to the scientific

fields on board, the Bold

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Horizon isn't the only component

of the mission.

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The excitement of this project

is that a lot of this is cutting

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edge. So the interaction of

these multiple platforms is the

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biggest challenge. So we have

three aircraft flying overhead.

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We have multiple vehicles on the

surface have multiple vehicles

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underwater, but we will need to

navigate our way through this

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constellation of instruments.

The other thing is that we are

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chasing these really fast ocean

features. They change really

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fast and matter of hours. That's

why having eyes in the sky is a

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great asset. So they will be

able to direct us to just the

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right spots and we will try to

move all our surface assets,

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move our ship to where the

action is and be there right in

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time.

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For these, we're watching radio

science to measure atmospheric—

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weather in the atmosphere. So

temperature, pressure, humidity

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and winds. And the reason we're

doing this as part of our field

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experiment, is because that we

know from other past evidence

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that the ocean can affect the

weather. And one thing that

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we're really interested in is

seeing how big of a change in

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ocean temperature or ocean

currents can affect the weather.

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Part of the low cost of the

system is it's just a Styrofoam

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cup, really, and the electronics

are really the star of the show

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here.

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The most exciting thing about

this line of work is that you

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never know what to expect. So

this this sense of discovery

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that I think drives most people

that go out to sea. We know

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there will be new exciting

features waiting for us there.

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We don't know what they are. We

don't know where they are, but

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we'll be chasing them. We know

we will find something that will

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motivate us and really got us

excited that keeps us you know,

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working through the nights to

actually understand what it is

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happening how the ocean works.