The response of cloud characteristics to increasing aerosol concentrations represents one of the largest uncertainties in our current understanding of climate change. We need to better understand the ability of aerosol particles to act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) under relevant atmospheric conditions. CCN activation is determined by particle size, composition, and water vapor supersaturation. […]
The Small Stuff Matters The most important form of life in the ocean also happens to be the smallest. Phytoplankton provide the foundation of marine food webs, regulating global climate and the transport of nutrients and carbon. Phytoplankton populations fluctuate, sometimes growing high in numbers if they receive plenty of sunlight or nutrients. Other times, […]
Most of us think that our everyday lives put us under pressure, but the real pressure – in a physical sense – happens deep below the ocean surface. On Friday, most of us in the NAAMES III science teams aboard the Atlantis performed an exercise that clearly demonstrates that pressure. The ship is always buzzing […]
The Scripps research group focuses on aerosols, which are microscopic liquids and solids suspended in the air. Aerosols may be formed over the ocean when wave generated bubbles burst and eject particles into the atmosphere. Aerosols may also be formed from gas phase compounds released from the ocean that then react with sunlight and oxidants […]
Sea Sweep gently surfs Generating aerosol On the Atlantic While some aboard the Atlantis are fighting bubbles with rigor (see September 1, 2017 post), the atmospheric chemists on the bow of the ship are busy generating them. Not the same ones that the biologists were battling in the earlier post, but new ones that mimic […]
A Light Puzzle Today we were able to finish our first official station of NAAMES 3! Our group, the UCSB Optics team, saw a whirlwind of activity as we deployed half a dozen different instruments to begin to characterize all the different ways that light interacts with the ocean. You could call us the most […]
Lighting Effects: The crew completed a visual assessment test in the Crew Quarters (CQs) by setting the light to the correct mode, turning all other light sources in the CQ off, and performing one Numerical Verification Test and one Color Discrimination Test. The crew will then photograph the completed tests, before transferring the photos for downlink. …
Sampling at the bow: measuring ocean-atmosphere exchange One of the main objectives in the NAAMES mission is to understand what gases and particles present in the surface ocean get into the atmosphere and influence clouds and climate. To help answer this question, our group measures gases present in both the ocean and atmosphere, as well […]
The Royal Treatment It can be tough saying goodbye to your loved ones as they sail off for a month at sea in the great, wide unknown. And perhaps some of you are concerned about the conditions we might be exposed to – which tropical storms will we collide with, what crazy hours will we […]
MBSU I-Level Maintenance: In early August, ground teams successfully transferred a degraded Main Bus Switching Unit (MBSU) from External Stowage Platform 2 (ESP2) site 4 to the JEM Airlock. Today, the crew removed the MBSU from the JEM A/L and performed Intermediate Level (I-Level) maintenance on the unit. This MBSU is one of two failed …
