Notes from the Field

Going to sea slows one down from the hectic sprint of modern city life and car travel.

Yesterday, Monday October 16th, I joined the Research Vessel (R/V) Roger Revelle for five weeks at sea in the Pacific Ocean. It feels great to be heading to sea again. This NASA field campaign has lasted more than a year, with intense shipboard work starting in August 2016 and finishing with this voyage in October-November […]

The CYGNSS constellation has been operating in its science data-taking mode continuously since March 2017. The satellite hardware has been performing as designed while we make adjustments to the software on-board and on the ground so we are better able to operate smoothly and autonomously. We also spent much of the summer working on the […]

There and back again Of course, a title stolen from ‘The Hobbit’ but appropriate just the same.  It’s Monday afternoon and the Atlantis is once again tied up to the dock.  We came in yesterday on the early morning tide and quickly began the task of ‘demobilization’ – i.e., unloading the tons of scientific gear […]

Near Oceans End This cruise is all but over and at this time tomorrow I will be several beers deep in the aftermath of the end of cruise party. Meantime I promised that sweet heart,  Kristina, that I would write a BLOG … so here you go sister :). There is something about standing on […]

Life at Sea:  All Science All the Time and That’s a Good Thing….well mostly. Any cruise aboard a research vessel feels like the days of the week are blended into one. The only timekeeping that one really has to pay attention to is the hour. When is the next instrument to be deployed over the […]

Beasties from the Black Now one thing that’s great about being part of a multi-disciplinary research cruise with a large number of scientists and their wide ranging studies is that you sometimes get to indulge in your own interests. By way of example during the 3 NAAMES cruises so far I have been able to […]

There are no days off and there is always more work to be done, but scientist-musicians on board the research vessel find a few minutes to jam.

Muffin O’Clock Through Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, it was discovered that time is not a static measurement, rather it is relative to the observer. Somewhat similarly, time becomes both integral and meaningless while on a boat, completely relative to the scientist’s schedule. Time is integral to the individual with their stopwatch waiting for the precise […]

Almost a month at sea. It’s not the first time. I have been at sea several times in these years but every time is special and unique. It is unique for the research we conduct, for the people we meet, the seas we cross, and the infinite things we still learn from each other at […]