US GO-SHIP is part of the international GO-SHIP network of sustained hydrographic sections, supporting physical oceanography, the carbon cycle, and marine biogeochemistry and ecosystems. The US program is sponsored by US CLIVAR and OCB. Funded by the National Science Foundation and NOAA.
News
I08S 2016 Weekly Report 1 Feb 16, 2016
From Alison Macdonald (chief scientist) and Viviane Menezes (co-chief scientist)
Feb 4 – 8 MOB,
Feb 8 – Feb 16 at sea
Current position: 55.24°S, 87.14°E
Winds: from the SW at 29 knots
We are coming up on day 9 of our steam south toward Antarctica making this weekly report overdue. We spent four hot, hotter and most hot days (104°F) in Fremantle loading the ship, but in spite of the heat the load went smoothly. With the air conditioning inside the ship working, unpacking was a welcome relief from moving containers onto the ship. Everyone was generous with their time and energy making bring on board and securing the drifters, floats, 60 odd containers of empty bottles for non-sailing participants and the ship stores relatively simple tasks. On the last day in port there was plenty of time for last minutes dips, trips to the supermarket and Target across the way and of course Super Bowl watching.
On the morning of departure, Rick Rupan gave us a tutorial on the SOCCOM Floats after which we had a sorting and securing extravaganza in the science hold. We managed to use just about every ratchet strap on the ship, which is a good thing because wasn’t long after waving good bye to friends and family onshore that all those straps were put to the test.
Our first full day underway was a busy one with the CTD-watch students getting lessons on the CTD-watch and on the rosette with all its various components, and drills occurring after lunch. The following day, our test cast, went well with the Cast6 system deploying and recovering the rosette as advertised, the instruments performing as expected and all the Courtesy of J. Gum Courtesy of J. Gum students getting a chance to fire bottles and sample. One misfire reminded everyone to keep the mouse away from the button when not firing a bottle.
We steam and we stay busy. Underway pCO2 is being measured and every 4 hours underway sampling for oxygen, pH, DIC, Talk, Salts and nutrients occurs. Once a day an XBT is deployed to calibrate the multi-beam bathymetry. Anyone who hasn’t done it before can sign up to be the XBT deployer of the day. We have been receiving ice reports from both SIO and the RSV Aurora Australis, which is occupying stations to the east of us. We have determined a track to the west of the 2007 line, which will bring us to the 500 m isobath while avoiding ice. However, wind and waves have slowed us. We do not yet know whether it will be possible to perform the shelf stations without going to longer station spacing on the return journey. So we steam on making best possible time.
We are mostly recovered from the cold that came onboard with us back in Fremantle and mostly recovered from the seasickness that comes with the rocking and rolling of the Southern Ocean. A cribbage tournament is underway. Spirits are high as we look forward to our first station. We continue southward.
Arctic Geotraces 2015 Letter from Jim Swift, CTD/hydrographic Scientist, 10 Oct 12, 2015
HLY1502 letter 10 from Jim Swift
final letter from sea
Sunday, 11 October 2015, 3:00 pm, local date and time (2300 11 October UTC)
4.3°N, 166.4°W (about 26 miles north of Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands)
air 6 degC / 43 degF
water 9 degC / 48 degF
wind 26 knots from W
on final approach to Dutch Harbor, Alaska
Dear Family, Friends, and Colleagues,
Our final days of oceanographic work on HLY-1502 continued the wait-for-a- weather-window theme of the previous week, although science operations transpired without incident during the times we were able to work. Working over the stern - required at Geotraces station locations - was restricted to wind and sea conditions unlikely to result in problems with the oceanographic cables, and with fall storms in the area those times were fewer than hoped. But Geotraces did manage a sequence of three continental slope stations (at 3465, 1000, and 85 meters water depth) and a 35 meter deep continental shelf station. The CTD/rosette casts my team carries out use the starboard A-frame. From there we can work in a somewhat broader weather window and so we were able to add casts at 2600, 1600, 500, 300, 160, and 68 meters deep. Overall these sum to a fine cross-section of measurements over the abrupt Canada Basin
- continental slope - Beaufort shelf transitions.
The ODF CTD/rosette program (my program) went well right to the end. Over the course of a 64-day expedition there were very few rosette problems, the analysts maintained outstanding data quality (there were only a few nutrients or oxygen values coded ‘bad’ out of thousands the entire cruise), and there was excellent attention to data processing. The CTD/hydrographic data the science teams will carry home is ready for initial research use, with little change expected from the few final data processing steps remaining ashore.
Following completion of the oceanographic work, after waiting a bit for acceptable flying weather, two officials from the Department of Homeland Security (which includes the Coast Guard) were brought out by helicopter from Barrow to ride the ship to Dutch Harbor. The next day a crew member was flown ashore for medical attention, and then the Healy began a fast transit south. (See photo of helicopter operations.) Winds have often been above 20 knots, and there was a stretch where sustained winds of about 40 knots were recorded, but fortune has smiled upon us: the winds have been behind us, giving us a fast and relatively comfortable “downhill” ride almost all the way.
In the early parts of the past week, there were partly clear nights several times, with active auroras. Even the somewhat rarer pinkish aurora was seen (see attached photo).
Last night the science team cooked dinner. The Healy has an excellent galley staff, but we held our own with a meal of coq au vin (for which we used the last of the ship’s onions and carrots), rice, grilled corn, macaroni and cheese, dinner rolls (which I helped make), and ice cream cookie sandwiches. It was a fun time for the science team and all hands seemed to enjoy the dinner. [If you are wondering about the “coq au vin” on a “dry” ship, note that the Healy’s cooking wine is a salt-added commercial product made for these situations. I joked that the cooking wine was only a little less salty (15 on the salinity scale) than some of the surface waters we ran into (just over 20 on the same scale).]
We should arrive in port early this evening, a half day ahead of schedule (thanks to those tail winds). The Dutch Harbor port period will be very busy for most on the science team, who are leaving the ship. Nearly all unloading will take place when the ship returns to Seattle in November, but all labs must be stripped, packed, and cleaned, and every item left on board must be securely tied down for the Healy’s possibly rough transit across the Gulf of Alaska after it leaves Dutch Harbor.
I have never seen one of the TV fishing shows that features Dutch Harbor so I did not realize until we were told today that we will see a very much busier Dutch Harbor than we left two months ago. That was the slow time - who knew? The crab fishing season starts mid-week and we were told the town is teeming, the bars are full (including with some looking for a fight), and that we should take special care. We had all been looking forward to socializing - well, we are not looking for trouble so maybe it won’t find us.
A wide range of scientific inquiry will be made possible by the new repeat hydrography data. Because this is intended for a general audience I will say simply that my program’s results bear strongly on aspects of the ocean such as ocean warming, ocean acidification, increased stratification of the oceans, and large scale shifts of the distribution of waters away from their source regions.
All of this would not have been possible without the enthusiastic and capable support provided by Captain Hamilton, the officers & crew of USCGC Healy, and the science teams. I owe them and the US Coast Guard and National Science Foundation my heartfelt thanks for making these outstanding sections across the Makarov and Canada basins possible.
A few reflections in closing…
I have long been interested in the polar regions, and I am also drawn to hydrography, a word oceanographers use to encompass both the measurement of temperature, salinity, and other properties of seawater and also the interpretation of those data to describe aspects of the nature and circulation of ocean waters. A stroke of great good fortune brought me to Knut Aagaard, my graduate advisor at the University of Washington, who remains my oceanographic mentor and stout friend. And Joe Reid generously guided and supported me at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, providing me not only the opportunity to work with him and his group, but also to study the World Ocean itself. I have since enjoyed an exciting career working with visionary scientists and supportive ship operators, and been honored to participate on great voyages with wonderfully talented technical teams, thinking especially of the SIO Oceanographic Data Facility measurement specialists to whom I owe so much.
The plans for USCGC Healy Cruise 1502 represented a once in a lifetime opportunity to measure and interpret change in some of the world’s waters I love best. To have now sailed the oceanographically-rich track on which we engaged has been a dream come true, and, seeing this is intended to be my final oceanographic cruise, a fitting finale to the seagoing aspect of my career.
That the National Science Foundation and other Federal agencies which support science at sea, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and my family have so wholeheartedly supported me on these endeavors for so many years is a great privilege for which I will always be indebted. I enjoy an abiding satisfaction that comes from doing something worthwhile, and doing it well.
Jim Swift
Research Oceanographer
UCSD Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Arctic Geotraces 2015 Weekly Science Report from Jim Swift, CTD/hydrographic Scientist, Week 9 Oct 12, 2015
USCGC Healy Cruise HLY-1502
US Arctic Geotraces
Weekly CTD/Hydrographic Team Report 09
final report from Jim Swift, UCSD/SIO, CTD/hydro team scientific leader at sea
Sunday, 11 October 2015, 3:00 pm, local date and time (2300 11 October UTC)
54.3°N, 166.4°W (about 26 miles north of Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands)
air 6 degC / 43 degF
water 9 degC / 48 degF
wind 26 knots from W
on final approach to Dutch Harbor, Alaska
Note: This is a hydrography-oriented report from Jim Swift, who is working with the SIO Oceanographic Data Facility (ODF) CTD/hydrographic team on the US Geotraces Arctic Ocean expedition led by Dr. David Kadko, FIU, chief scientist. This is not a report from Dr. Kadko or the other science teams.
Dear Colleagues,
Our final days of station work on HLY-1502 continued the wait-for-a-weather- window theme of the previous week, although science operations transpired without incident during the times we were able to work. Working over the stern
- required at Geotraces stations - was restricted to wind and sea conditions unlikely to result in problems with the oceanographic cables, and with fall storms in the area those times were fewer than hoped. But Geotraces did manage a sequence of three slope stations (≈ 3465, 1000, and 85 meters) and a 35 meter shelf station. Repeat hydrography, which uses the starboard A-frame and could work in a somewhat broader weather window, added casts at 2600, 1600, 500, 300, 160, and 68 meters. These stations sum to a fine hydrographic section across the abrupt Canada Basin - slope - Beaufort shelf transitions.
The ODF CTD/rosette program went well right to the end. Over the course of a 64-day expedition there were very few rosette problems, the analysts maintained outstanding data quality (there were only a few nutrients or oxygen values coded ‘bad’ the entire cruise), and there was excellent attention to data processing. The CTD/hydrographic data the science teams will carry home is ready for initial research use, with little change expected from the few final data processing steps remaining ashore.
Following completion of the CTD/hydrographic work, after waiting a bit for acceptable flying weather, two officials from the Department of Homeland Security (which includes the Coast Guard) were brought out by helicopter from Barrow to ride the ship to Dutch Harbor. The next day a crew member was flown ashore for medical attention, and then the Healy began a fast transit to Dutch Harbor. Winds have often been above 20 knots, and there was a stretch where sustained winds of about 40 knots were recorded, but fortune has smiled upon us: the winds have been behind us, giving us a fast and relatively comfortable “downhill” ride almost all the way.
In the early parts of the past week, there were partly clear nights several times, with active auroras. Even the rarer pinkish aurora was seen (see attached photo).
Last night the science team cooked dinner. The Healy has an excellent galley staff, but we held our own with a meal of coq au vin (for which we used the last of the ship’s onions and carrots), rice, grilled corn, macaroni and cheese, dinner rolls, and ice cream cookie sandwiches. It was a fun time for the science team and all hands seemed to enjoy the dinner.
We should arrive in port early this evening, a half day a‹head of schedule (thanks to those tail winds). The Dutch Harbor port period will be very busy for most on the science team, who are leaving the ship. Nearly all unloading will take place when the ship returns to Seattle in November.
A wide range of scientific inquiry will be made possible by the new repeat hydrography data. Preliminary analyses show that the mean temperatures in the layer defined between the sigma-0 27.8 and 28.05 isopycnals - which corresponds roughly to the density of the northern source of Denmark Strait Overflow Water - warmed considerably between 1994 and 2015 over the Chukchi Borderlands and in Makarov Basin, but there was little change between 2005 and 2015 from the Southern Canada Basin to the crest of the Alpha Ridge.
There were some strong changes in the halocline waters on the outbound section. For example the maximum in dissolved silicate, which lies in the halocline (roughly 150 meters) and well above the DSOW layer, showed large Makarov Basin 1994 to 2015 cruise-to-cruise differences, but small changes over 2005 to 2015 in the Canada Basin. And as is known from other recent studies, surface salinities over the two Canadian sector basins are now much fresher than they were in the past, yet we found that the lower intermediate water salinities are often a little higher now. There are exciting results in the ocean carbon and CFC/SF6 data as well.
All of this would not have been possible without the enthusiastic and capable support provided by Captain Hamilton, the officers & crew of USCGC Healy, and the science teams. I owe them and the US Coast Guard and National Science Foundation my heartfelt thanks for making these outstanding sections across the Makarov and Canada basins possible.
A few reflections in closing…
I have long been interested in the polar regions, and I am also drawn to hydrography, a word oceanographers use to encompass both the measurement of temperature, salinity, and other properties of seawater and also the interpretation of those data to describe aspects of the nature and circulation of ocean waters. A stroke of great good fortune brought me to Knut Aagaard, my graduate advisor at the University of Washington, who remains my oceanographic mentor and stout friend. And Joe Reid generously guided and supported me at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, providing me not only the opportunity to work with him and his group, but also to study the World Ocean itself. I have since enjoyed an exciting career working with visionary scientists and supportive ship operators, and been honored to participate on great voyages with wonderfully talented technical teams, thinking especially of the SIO Oceanographic Data Facility measurement specialists to whom I owe so much.
The plans for USCGC Healy Cruise 1502 represented a once in a lifetime opportunity to measure and interpret change in some of the world’s waters I love best. To have now sailed the oceanographically-rich track on which we engaged has been a dream come true, and, seeing this is intended to be my final oceanographic cruise, a fitting finale to the seagoing aspect of my career.
That the National Science Foundation and other Federal agencies which support science at sea, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and my family have so wholeheartedly supported me on these endeavors for so many years is a great privilege for which I will always be indebted. I enjoy an abiding satisfaction that comes from doing something worthwhile, and doing it well.
Jim Swift
Research Oceanographer
UCSD Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Arctic Geotraces 2015 Weekly Science Report from Jim Swift, CTD/hydrographic Scientist, Week 8 Oct 5, 2015
USCGC Healy Cruise HLY-1502
US Arctic Geotraces
Weekly CTD/Hydrographic Team Report 08
from Jim Swift, UCSD/SIO, CTD/hydro team scientific leader at sea
Sunday, 04 October 2015, 7:30 pm, local date and time (0330 05 October UTC)
73°N, 158.8°W (on the Beaufort slope)
air -4 degC / 25 degF
water -0.5 degC / 31 degF
wind 1-2 knots from ENE
on station 060 (a Geotraces ‘slope’ station)
Note: This is a hydrography-oriented report from Jim Swift, who is working with the SIO Oceanographic Data Facility (ODF) CTD/hydrographic team on the US Geotraces Arctic Ocean expedition led by Dr. David Kadko, FIU, chief scientist. This is not a report from Dr. Kadko or the other science teams.
Dear Colleagues,
This week started out rough for the expedition’s science programs, with Geotraces hit especially hard. Reversing the order of the cruise plan worked out well for most of the cruise, enabling excellent Arctic Ocean spatial coverage for example. But one of the acknowledged risks was the degree to which fall storms would undermine the ability to carry out the final stations when the ship was in open water late in the season, just as we are now. Although we arrived in the southern Canada Basin with equipment working well, and what seemed to be a fine amount of time to do the scheduled work (I am not privy to the cruise time line, however), a series of low pressure systems has disrupted station work and led to damage to two of the three oceanographic cables used this cruise: the trawl wire experienced damage some hundreds of meters above the termination and the Vectran synthetic cable required for the trace metal rosette program had to be inspected for possible damage about 1000 meters above the termination. Both of the cables are used over the stern A-frame and both were involved in very high wire angle situations during casts the same day of worsening weather during the past week. No equipment was lost. The trawl wire was quickly put back into service, and the Vectran cable issue also was not a special problem, but the core issue remains that stormy weather makes for rough conditions, affecting most severely our science operations over the stern. We lost several days of stern operations due to weather, and this has put a dent in plans for the final thrust of the science program, which focuses on examining the basin-to-slope-to-shelf transition in the Southern Canada Basin. By the time of next week’s report all this will have been settled one way or the other.
One other cable problem, not associated with bad weather, occurred a few hours ago: We lower the big 36x10-liter ODF rosette to within 10 meters of the bottom, take our first water sample, then haul it up and stop to take other water samples at other levels. When it came time to haul up from near the bottom, the winch went down instead of up and quickly lowered the rosette onto the bottom. No damage was done to the rosette, but when tension is taken off the CTD cable like that, the cable kinks due to accumulated torque, so after the rosette was back on deck we had to cut off the kinked part and make a new termination. As a result all three of our oceanographic cables have had new terminations since my previous report.
Although we are now in good weather, storms continue to haunt us with the next one due some time Monday. If it is bad enough and lasts long enough, that might be the end of science operations on the Canada Basin section because at some point we must begin heading for Dutch Harbor.
Fair weather windows can be short, making science planning less orderly than the norm preferred by the Coast Guard, which prefers a firm plan for the next 24 hours at 6:30 pm each day. There is also the matter that bathymetric charts for this region are inaccurate whereas we need to stop and do stations at scientifically-chosen isobaths, rather than assign in advance firm positions as favored by the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard has patiently worked this out with us, and now we are working well together on this.
Meanwhile, the CTD/hydrographic measurements and data processing for both Geotraces and repeat hydrography continue to go very well when we are able to work. Deck operations are smooth and quick, the CTD works well in the just- below-freezing (as opposed to deeper cold) weather of the past, and all hydro team lab systems continue excellent performance. The CFC and ocean carbon teams have been able to do full profiles, generating a treasure of data for repeat hydrography.
Here in the Canada Basin we have replicated a significant portion of the section done from the Swedish icebreaker Oden in 2005. Temperature comparisons show that the mid-depth layers have warmed since 2005 and that the upper layer has greatly freshened. These results are overall similar to the 2015-minus-1994 Makarov Basin differences reported earlier this cruise, demonstrating the widespread nature of these Arctic Ocean changes.
I mentioned in last week’s report that we were going to be looking for intermediate depth waters from the Chukchi Borderlands / Northwind Ridge boundary spreading into the Canada Basin interior. This week we did see boundary-like waters along our transect, in the same latitude range where they have been observed previously. There are also clear indications that the shallower halocline silicate maximum layer is being swept into the Canada Basin from that same Chukchi Borderland / Northwind Ridge area.
One way or the other our science work ends in a few days. We are tired, but not tired out. We are certainly not hungry, not with the excellent food the galley continues to provide. We enjoy working with our Coast Guard comrades, who treat us very well indeed. But we are all - Coast Guard and science teams alike - ready to finish up and head for port.
Saving a nice moment for last: We had a clear night with an aurora! Cory Mendenhall, the ship’s public affairs officer, captured a wonderful photo (attached) from the Healy’s helicopter pad, looking forward towards the hangar, with the ship’s red night lights glowing and the moon illuminating the sky beyond, auroral drapery shifting, changing, beautiful.
I will send a final report in one week.
Jim Swift
Research Oceanographer
UCSD Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Read MoreArctic Geotraces 2015 Letter from Jim Swift, CTD/hydrographic Scientist, 9 Oct 5, 2015
HLY1502 letter 09 from Jim Swift
Sunday, 04 October 2015, 7:30 pm, local date and time (0330 05 October UTC)
73°N, 158.8°W (on the Beaufort slope)
air -4 degC / 25 degF
water -0.5 degC / 31 degF
wind 1-2 knots from ENE
on station 060 (a Geotraces ‘slope’ station)
Dear Family, Friends, and Colleagues,
This week started out rough for the expedition’s science programs, with Geotraces hit especially hard. Reversing the order of the cruise plan worked out well for most of the cruise, enabling excellent Arctic Ocean spatial coverage, for example. But one of the acknowledged risks was the degree to which fall storms would undermine the ability to carry out the final stations when the ship was in open water late in the season, just as we are now. Although we arrived in the southern Canada Basin with equipment working well, and what seemed to be a fine amount of time to do the scheduled work (I am not privy to the cruise time line, however), a series of low pressure systems (fall storms) has disrupted station work and led to damage to two of the three oceanographic cables used on this cruise: the trawl wire experienced damage some hundreds of meters above the termination and the Vectran synthetic cable, required for the trace metal rosette program, had to be inspected for possible damage about 1000 meters above the termination. Both of the damaged cables are used over the stern A-frame and both were involved in very high wire angle situations during casts the same day of worsening weather during the past week. No equipment was lost. The trawl wire was quickly put back into service, and the Vectran cable issue also was not a special problem, but the core issue remains that stormy weather makes for rough conditions, affecting most severely our science operations over the stern. We lost several days of stern operations due to weather, and this has put a dent in plans for the final thrust of the science program, which focuses on examining the basin-to-slope- to-shelf transition in the Southern Canada Basin. By the time of next week’s letter all this will have been settled one way or the other.
One other cable problem, not associated with bad weather, occurred a few hours ago: We lower the big 36x10-liter ODF rosette to within 10 meters of the bottom, take our first water sample (by closing it via remote control from our CTD computer), then haul the rosette up and stop to take other water samples at other levels. When it came time to haul up from near the bottom, the winch went down instead of up and quickly lowered the rosette onto the bottom. No damage was done to the rosette, but when tension is taken off the CTD cable like that, the cable kinks due to accumulated torque, so after the rosette was back on deck we had to cut off the kinked part and make a new termination. As a result all three of our oceanographic cables have had new terminations since I last wrote.
Although we are now in good weather, storms continue to haunt us with the next one due some time Monday. If it is bad enough and lasts long enough, that might be the end of science operations on the Canada Basin section because at some point we must begin heading for Dutch Harbor.
Meanwhile, the CTD/hydrographic measurements and data processing for both Geotraces and repeat hydrography continue to go very well when we are able to work. Deck operations are smooth and quick, the CTD works well in the just- below-freezing (as opposed to deeper cold) weather of the past, and all hydro team lab systems continue excellent performance. The CFC and ocean carbon teams have been able to do full profiles, generating a treasure of data for repeat hydrography. Here in the Canada Basin we have replicated a significant portion of the section done from the Swedish icebreaker Oden in 2005. Temperature comparisons show that the mid-depth layers have warmed since 2005 and that the upper layer has greatly freshened. These results are overall similar to the 2015-minus-1994 Makarov Basin differences reported earlier this cruise, demonstrating the widespread nature of these Arctic Ocean changes.
The fair weather windows can be short, making science planning less orderly than the norm preferred by the Coast Guard, which prefers a firm plan for the next 24 hours at 6:30 pm each day. (This is understandable seeing that they must orchestrate functions for a large crew.) There is also the matter that bathymetric charts for this region are inaccurate whereas we need to stop and do stations at scientifically-chosen isobaths, rather than assign in advance firm positions as favored by the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard has patiently worked this out with us, and now we are working well together on this.
Because we are now in open water and the air is usually sub-freezing, we see a moderate amount of sea ice formation, mostly grease ice but sometimes forming into small pancakes. The pancakes do not interfere significantly with the operation of the Healy’s rapid-launch small boat, which Geotraces uses for near surface trace metal sampling away from the influence of the ship (see photo taken by Chris Marsay, Skidaway Institute of Oceanography).
One way or the other our science work ends in a few days. We are tired, but not tired out. We are certainly not hungry, not with the excellent food the galley continues to provide. We enjoy working with our Coast Guard comrades, who treat us very well indeed. But we are all - Coast Guard and science teams alike - ready to finish up and head for port.
Saving a nice moment for last: We had a clear night with an aurora! Cory Mendenhall, the ship’s public affairs officer, captured a wonderful photo from the Healy’s helicopter pad, looking forward towards the hangar, with the ship’s red night lights glowing and the moon illuminating the sky beyond, auroral drapery shifting, changing, beautiful.
One way or the other our science work ends soon. I will send a final letter in one week.
Jim Swift
Research Oceanographer
UCSD Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Read MoreArctic Geotraces 2015 Weekly Science Report from Jim Swift, CTD/hydrographic Scientist, Week 7 Sep 29, 2015
USCGC Healy Cruise HLY-1502
US Arctic Geotraces
Weekly CTD/Hydrographic Team Report 07
from Jim Swift, UCSD/SIO, CTD/hydro team scientific leader at sea
Sunday, 27 September 2015, 1:30 pm, local date and time (2130 27 September UTC)
77°27’N, 147°54’°W (over the Canada Basin)
air -2 degC / 28 degF
water -1.2 degC / 30 degF
wind 4 knots from WNW
on station 052 (a Geotraces ‘full’ station)
Note: This is a hydrography-oriented report from Jim Swift, who is working with the SIO Oceanographic Data Facility (ODF) CTD/hydrographic team on the US Geotraces Arctic Ocean expedition led by Dr. David Kadko, FIU, chief scientist. This is not a report from Dr. Kadko or the other science teams.
Dear Colleagues,
We experienced a Big Change on Friday: We left the Arctic ice pack. There are some ice bits around, and we are not far south of a few belts of broken up new ice, but we have left the pack behind. Another big change is that our internet access returned yesterday evening when we arrived at this station.
During the past several days the weather warmed to only a few degrees under freezing, which is easier to contend with. We have had a fair bit of snow, but the ship puts out enough heat that the decks are less icy now. It’s a noticeable change. The ship can now transit day or night, and the work goes on. We also have full darkness every night, and we are keeping our hopes up for a clear night with an auroral display. (At Sunday brunch today a couple of the grad students said they could see shifting illumination - presumably an aurora - behind the clouds last night.)
We are greatly pleased that the engineers repaired the second evaporator, so everyone has now caught up on laundry, are we’re back to regular dishes and silverware in the mess.
The work carried out by the CTD/hydrographic team is going quite well. Although steady vigilance on equipment, procedures, and data is always beneficial, few problems have been popping up. The lack of problems is partly attributable to the warmer weather we have experienced much of the past week. Those few degrees make quite a difference to sensors that are at risk in past weeks’ deeper cold but are fine at -2°C.
Healy’s track is now (and next week) over the deep, flat abyssal plain of the Canada Basin. During pre-cruise planning I had asked that this part of our transect from the Pole to Alaska be moved east a bit to help assure a ‘miss’ of boundary currents associated with a major feature in the bathymetry west of us called the Chukchi Borderlands and Northwind Ridge. The point was that there are indications from past data that boundary waters spread from there into the Canada Basin, and so I wanted to be sure that any ‘boundary water’ we saw was truly in the basin and not just an artifact of our coming close to the boundary itself. Preliminary data indicate this is all working out as planned, i.e. that we are seeing the boundary-separated waters well away from the boundary itself. We even saw temperature-salinity intrusion features and a small decrease in light transmission at the appropriate level at a propitiously-located Repeat Hydrography station, signs of boundary water intruding into our basin-interior location.
Observing and enjoying sea ice is one of the highlights of working in the polar regions. Thus when I realized that we would be leaving the ice - perhaps for good for me - I spent a bit more time up on the bridge. I sent a selection of ice photos in my weekly outreach report. For this science report I will include a few favorites. (The small file size versions that fit into email may not do the scenes justice, but it’s the best I can do for now.)
On a cold, windy day, new ice crystals form off the edge of solid ice and as they are blown away from the ice edge they form into windrows generated by Langmuir circulation (photo by Bill Schmoker, Polar Trec):
If the wind is still, a thin sheet of ice forms, and then when that sheet is disturbed from the edge (say by the pressure wave ahead of the ship), it will fracture in right-angle patterns - a wonderful macroscopic effect of a microscopic aspect of ice crystals - called finger rafting (my photo):
Finger-rafting occurs on a wide variety of spatial scales. On this trip I saw some unusually large scale rafting - football field size (note the right angled ‘fingers’ in this photo I took):
All is well.
Jim Swift
Research Oceanographer
UCSD Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Read MoreArctic Geotraces 2015 Letter from Jim Swift, CTD/hydrographic Scientist, 8 Sep 28, 2015
HLY1502 letter 08 from Jim Swift
Sunday, 27 September 2015, 1:30 pm, local date and time (2130 27 September UTC)
77°27’N, 147°54’°W (over the Canada Basin)
air -2 degC / 28 degF
water -1.2 degC / 30 degF
wind 4 knots from WNW
on station 052 (a Geotraces ‘full’ station)
Dear Family, Friends, and Colleagues,
We experienced a Big Change on Friday: We left the Arctic ice pack. There are some ice bits around, and we are not far south of a few belts of broken up new ice, but we have left the pack behind. Another big change is that our internet access returned yesterday evening when we arrived at this station. Most of us have taken a start at examining our shore email - that part of the outside world making its return to our lives byte by byte, plus we can now send and receive somewhat larger emails (such as this one).
During the past several days the weather warmed to the upper 20s (in Fahrenheit degrees), which is easier to contend with. We had a fair bit of snow, but the ship puts out enough heat that the decks are less icy now. It’s a noticeable change. The ship can now transit day or night, and the work goes on (and on). We also have full darkness every night, and we are keeping our hopes up for a clear night with an auroral display. (At Sunday brunch today a couple of the grad students said they could see shifting illumination - presumably an aurora - behind the clouds last night.)
We are greatly pleased that the engineers repaired the second evaporator, so everyone has now caught up on laundry, are we’re back to regular dishes and silverware in the mess.
The work carried out by the CTD/hydrographic team is going quite well. Although steady vigilance on equipment, procedures, and data is always beneficial, few problems have been popping up. The lack of problems is partly attributable to the warmer weather we have experienced much of the past week. Those few degrees make quite a difference to sensors that are at risk in past weeks’ deeper cold but are fine at -2°C (28°F; i.e. temperatures near the seawater freezing point).
Healy’s track is now (and next week) over the deep, flat abyssal plain of the Canada Basin. During pre-cruise planning I had asked that this part of our transect from the Pole to Alaska be moved east a bit to help assure a ‘miss’ of boundary currents associated with a major feature in the bathymetry west of us called the Chukchi Borderlands and Northwind Ridge. The point was that there are indications from past data that boundary waters spread from there into the Canada Basin, and so I wanted to be sure that any ‘boundary water’ we saw was truly in the basin and not just an artifact of our coming close to the boundary itself. Preliminary data indicate this is all working out as planned, i.e. that we are seeing the boundary-separated waters well away from the boundary itself.
Observing and enjoying sea ice is one of the highlights of working in the polar regions. Thus when I realized that we would be leaving the ice - perhaps for good for me - I spent a bit more time up on the bridge. We do not see icebergs (glacial ice) here; the ice here is formed over the open ocean, shelf seas, and near river mouths. In fact, new sea ice has been forming the past few weeks as winter nears. To provide an idea of what I’ve seen this trip, I have included some ice photos. (The small file size versions that fit into email may not do the scenes justice, but it’s the best I can do for now.)
On a cold, windy day, new ice crystals form off the edge of solid ice and as they are blown away from the ice edge they form into windrows caused by a phenomenon called Langmuir circulation (photo by Bill Schmoker, Polar Trec):
If the wind is still, a thin sheet of ice forms, and then when that sheet is disturbed from the edge (say by the pressure wave ahead of the ship), it will fracture in right-angle patterns - a wonderful macroscopic effect of a microscopic aspect of ice crystals - called finger rafting (my photo):
Finger-rafting occurs on a wide variety of special scales. On this trip I saw some unusually large scale rafting - football field size (note the right angled ‘fingers’ in this photo I took):
“Frost flowers’ can form on undisturbed thin/new sea ice on a clear, cold still night (photo by Bill Schmoker, Polar Trec):
If brine is wicked from underneath into frost flowers, these can be clumpy looking (my photo):
Pressure ridges form when floes and sheets are pushed by the wind. These can pile up dramatically (just think how deep they reach!). Sea ice from near river mouths can be dirty. Here is a photo of one of the crew obtaining a dirty ice sample from a small pressure ridge (photo by Cory Mendenhall, US Coast Guard):
One of the most unusual ice formations I have seen was miles and miles of circular features in the ice - almost like giant pancake ice - in the young ice near the southern edge of the pack (my photo):
Then there are endless varieties of icescapes, some of which become dramatic when illuminated near sunrise or sunset. I will end this letter with a photo of mine which seemed to be of an almost alien scene:
All is well.
Jim Swift
Research Oceanographer
UCSD Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Read MoreArctic Geotraces 2015 Letter from Jim Swift, CTD/hydrographic Scientist, 7 Sep 28, 2015
HLY1502 letter 07 from Jim Swift
Sunday, 20 September 2015, 1:30 pm, local date and time (2115 20 September UTC)
82°23’N, 149°33’W (over the northern Canada Basin)
air -4.3 degC / 24 degF
water -1.5 degC / 29 degF
wind 7 knots from W
en route to station 045 (a repeat hydrography station)
Dear Family, Friends, and Colleagues,
We have completed our crossing of waters above the Alpha Ridge and early tomorrow will be engaged on a station which begins a long track south toward Alaska across the Canada Basin of the Arctic Ocean, one of the more nearly isolated areas of the World Ocean.
On my longer research cruises, there has been a point well into the cruise where problems of various sorts pop up. We seem be dealing with a touch of that: the wear and tear of weeks of work in the Arctic is evident in equipment quirks (and failures) and a few data issues which defy untangling. One also sees on some faces traces of dealing with the sameness and oddities of shipboard life and being away. But everyone adapts to this twilight zone and pushes through together to the finale.
Speaking of twilight, during the past week the sun began going below the horizon every evening. In the wee hours the dim, flat natural light makes it more difficult to navigate the ship through heavy ice fields. The transition from 24-hour light to day-and-night comes very quickly if one is heading south from the Pole near the autumnal equinox, as we are doing. Will we first run out of heavy ice cover or will we run out of sufficient light to drive through heavy ice at night? Considering that the autumnal equinox is almost upon us with its 12 daily hours of sun below the horizon, I’m guessing that darkness will hold up our progress some, though we plan to do station work when the ship must stop during darkness. (The navigators in the aloft conning station must be able to see pressure ridges sufficiently well in advance to avoid them. The ship has searchlights, but I’m told their reach is often not quite far enough.)
The ship’s two evaporators (a type of desalinization device) supply the large quantities of fresh water required for the 145 persons on board, including for the galley, showers, laundry, and labs. One of them went out of service last week, and so we are now on the same water restrictions we abide by on long ‘super stations’ - very short showers, paper plates & plastic tableware, and no laundry. We have not yet been told if repairs are feasible or likely. My guess is that the situation is sustainable in that the laundry was opened for 24 hours today.
We have had snowy weather. The deck crew shovels and salts the decks, but some areas of the decks are icy. We certainly feel as though winter is chasing us south. We also experienced a week of cold (around -12°C/10°F), and that took its toll on science operations. For example, the CTD/hydro program’s rosette water sampler, loaded with electronics, is stored between casts in a two-deck- high space called the starboard staging bay, which has a tall roll-up ‘garage door’. The motor mechanism which raises and lowers that door stopped working last week. There is a hand crank mechanism to very slowly raise the door above the height of the rosette, requiring at least 15 minutes of hard labor - the deck crew takes turns. Meanwhile this exposed the rosette’s electronics to the cold air for longer than desirable. We compensated by blowing warm air (from a large ducted heater-fan) onto the electronics right up until launch over the side, but this did not always work well enough. The dissolved oxygen sensor in particular is freeze-sensitive and we are slowly going through our inventory of spares to replace cold-damaged units. On last night’s cast, however, the door motor worked! The Geotraces ‘trace metal clean’ rosette is stored outdoors (partly to keep is clear of contaminants), and even though it is covered and has heaters in critical places, it has suffered more from the cold
- yesterday the CTD on that rosette failed. A spare unit has been installed and measurements will go on.
The ship has cooled internally a bit, too. Many in the science team say their staterooms are chilly - one of the scientists told me yesterday at lunch that her room temperature was in the 50s. Oddly, the room I share (with two others) is fairly warm, sometimes too warm - I get no sympathy for that problem!
Over the Alpha Ridge we traversed what is likely the heaviest ice overall we will encounter this cruise. But the navigators in the aloft control station were always able to spot a feasible route, avoiding heavy, impassible pressure ridges. Sometimes it took back-and-ram operations to get through a thicker, older ice floe, but, still, progress was remarkable for a single icebreaker in this domain. For example, Healy made it solo through some areas last week - mostly using just two of the four main engines - that were too tough for Healy and Oden together in 2005; hence Healy may be the first surface ship to gather scientific data from some of these areas. Once we were heading south past the ridge crest, there were miles-long, wide leads that Healy followed. Watching from the bridge, it was almost like navigating a river with ‘shores’ of ice on either side - a truly remarkable experience.
As we were plowing through the ice the other day, we came across a polar bear
- appeared to be a relatively young one - who first moved away but then came right up to the ship as we motored by. (I’ll attach a couple of photos.) Then something spooked the bear, who took off at a speed that impressed and alarmed those who work on the ice - that bear could really move!
The galley keeps the food coming - lots of baked goods including bakery quality pastries, good soups, and some nice salads such as cous-cous with vegetables, and one made from asparagus, blue cheese, and croutons. Some items are in short supply but that is to be expected on a long voyage, the one long- term issue being a shortage of cereal and bread for the all-hours, odd-hours breakfasts and quick PB&Js always needed by a science team working long and varied schedules on a 24/7 research cruise.
This week my closing line is, “All is well, but we hope the second evaporator is back in operation soon.”
Jim Swift
Research Oceanographer
UCSD Scripps Institution of Oceanography
We are still restricted to 100k total message size in and out. I’ve squeezed in two photos of that inquisitive young bear. The close up was taken by Cory Mendenhall, US Coast Guard, and the photo of people photographing the bear was taken by Croy Carlin, OSU.
Read MoreArctic Geotraces 2015 Letter from Jim Swift, CTD/hydrographic Scientist, 6 Sep 23, 2015
HLY1502 letter 06 from Jim Swift
Sunday, 13 September 2015, 7:00 pm, local date and time (0500 14 September UTC)
85°48’N, 150°34’W (on the northern flank of the Alpha Ridge)
air -13.4 degC / 8 degF
water -1.4 degC / 29 degF
wind 4 knots from NE
on an ice station following hydrographic station 041
Dear Family, Friends, and Colleagues,
We are now about 250 nautical miles south of the North Pole, following the planned track toward Alaska along 150°W longitude. Tomorrow we will begin crossing over the very rarely visited Alpha Ridge (where a 55-hour Geotraces “superstation” is planned). Part of the area we traversed here from the Pole was not passable on my previous expeditions due to very heavy ice. We found this year that the ice has changed over the past decade to the point where Healy is able to work here solo. Still, the going has sometimes been tough, but we do keep on going. The Healy has plowed through long stretches of ice which looked to be two meters thick. Occasionally there are back-and-ram operations, meaning that if the ice stops the ship, the ship backs up in its track a ways, revs up, and pushes forward again, repeating as needed. There is quite a bit of snow on the ice, which impedes motion by increasing friction on the ship’s hull. The result has been some slow, long hauls between stations. Heavy icebreaking is noisy - ice impacts on the hull reverberate through the ship - and causes the ship to lurch about, both of which disturb sleep for many, but I do not find it bothersome.
Our measurement work is a methodical process, following a planned and practiced suite of well-honed procedures. Sometimes the ice or the Arctic cold has its say. Today the skies cleared - the sun on the ice is beautiful - but meanwhile under those clear skies the air cooled quickly, temperature dropped to well below 10°F, and we needed to improvise a bit to keep sensors and samples from freezing. I confess that while we were later sampling water in the near-freezing rosette staging bay, I was thinking of the present heat wave back home - perhaps both we and those at home would have gladly switched places for at least a few minutes of relief!
During an ice station last week, Bill Schmoker, the PolarTrec teacher on board, put his waterproof GoPro camera on a pole and pushed it down a hole drilled in the ice, pointed up, to see what there was to see. When he was reviewing the short recording, he saw he had recorded a seal swimming by (see photo, taken from a video frame) - no one had any idea there was a seal in the area.
Saturday night is “morale night” on the ship. One of the ships’ groups cooks dinner - this weekend it was Philly steak sandwiches. There is also an event, in this case “sumo wrestling” in the helo hangar, with contestants in huge padded costumes (see photo). Hilarious!
We are busy with our work, crew and science team alike. The part of the program I oversee (the water column temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and nutrient measurements) is going very well. This is a long cruise, but we have passed “hump day” - the halfway point. We press on with the planned work, with another goal always ahead of us. For my part, I find the sameness of the days helps the weeks go by, meanwhile feeling quite satisfied with our progress.
All is well.
Jim Swift
Research Oceanographer
UCSD Scripps Institution of Oceanography
PS - We are limited to 100 kb total message size, so I can include only the two photos. The image of the seal swimming past the GoPro is from Bill Schmoker, PolarTrec, and the sumo wrestling photo is by Jim Swift, SIO.
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