By Eric Lindstrom Friday, 5 October 2012 — We got a call today from the Commander of the International Space Station (ISS), Sunita “Suni” Williams. Suni, who was calling while the ISS was passing over Eastern Russia, wanted to congratulate us on our SPURS expedition. We had 30 minutes of wide-ranging conversation about life at […]
By Eric Lindstrom A team of scientists from University of Washington is focusing on long-term observations in SPURS region with autonomous instruments: Argo floats (Drs. Stephen C. Riser, Jeffrey Nystuen, and student Jessica Anderson), Seagliders (Drs. Craig Lee, Charlie Eriksen, and Luc Rainville), and Lagrangian floats (Drs. Eric D’Asaro and Andrey Shcherbina). Their sentinel instruments […]
By Eric Lindstrom A number of the instruments deployed during SPURS are “works in progress.” They work well, but need exercise in new or more challenging environments to perfect them. The whole of SPURS is an experiment, taking salinity measurement in the ocean to an entirely new level. Extended deployment of sensor webs in hostile […]
By Eric Lindstrom “The techniques I developed for studying turbulence, like weather, also apply to the stock market.” Benoit Mandelbrot If Mandelbrot’s statement is true, maybe oceanographers studying ocean microstructure (caused by turbulence), besides writing journal articles about mixing in the ocean also work on padding their retirement accounts with stunning stock market acumen? Jokes […]
By Eric Lindstrom Almost everyone can imagine the bridge of a ship – from the movies, a tour of a ship, or maybe you are the master of your own vessel. It is the place where control of all ship operations is commanded. On the bridge of the Knorr, an officer and a seaman are […]
By Eric Lindstrom The complex job of managing the data from SPURS is daunting because of the number of different platforms and data streams that need to be logged and cross-calibrated. Overall, by NASA standards, we are dealing with relatively small quantities of data (Gigabytes) but there are many,many different sensors and platforms involved. The […]
By Eric Lindstrom Yi Chao is one of the “spiritual leaders” of our “dry” team in SPURS (those people who help from land). He is an ocean modeler in California who has been involved with Aquarius and SPURS for many years. He long ago decided to be on the dry team because of the seasickness […]
By Eric Lindstrom The SPURS work has renewed interest in the broader community in studying the ocean to better understand the global water cycle, heating and cooling of the oceans, and oceanic mixing. Julian Schanze of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution/MIT is about to complete his Ph.D. in physical oceanography under the supervision of Ray Schmitt. […]
By Eric Lindstrom The thermosalinograph (TSG) on Knorr is a shipboard instrument for measuring temperature and salinity of the near surface water . It is situated in a lab and receives a flow of water taken in near the bow and piped out near the stern. It is quite an adventure going down to see […]
