Every day people on this ship say things so inspiring that I’m reminded why I love science. One student said people today always “think smaller” and are zooming in to closer, smaller scales, but that she loves “the global” and wonders why things on global scales, like the ocean, seem to have lost our attention. She will write more about her inspiration and work later in the blog, but for now I’m learning so many things as she and other students continue to share their work. Here are a couple more that I hope inspire you too.
Alena (who is from Russia) talked about how water masses from different places, like the Arctic or Atlantic, each have a “fingerprint” of unique chemical, physical, and biological characteristics. When the mooring detects changes from one depth to another, it is detecting a separate water mass. If it detects changes over time at a certain location/depth, it means there were changes in conditions at the origin of the water mass (even if it was 1000 years ago or an ocean away). And this applies worldwide, from the Arctic to Miami and back again.
Meri (who is from Finland), told us about the two water currents from the North Atlantic Ocean. These two “branches,” the Barents Sea Branch and Fram Strait Branch, enter and are distributed around the Arctic, partially mixing with each other and other Arctic waters. This massive mixing mostly occurs north of the shallow Kara and Laptev Seas, and causes changes in temperature and salt content. This is one of the reasons why our ship is there as we speak.
Here Alena and Meri are in the ship’s hangar (imagine a helicopter fitting in here) learning about components of the instruments that will go into the ocean and tell us even more about these global effects.
Hello! I’m one of Ms. Gilbert’s students. She has us reading your blogs and I must say that I find all you do interesting. I’m more of a math person myself, but I do find science intriguing. My question for you is; Besides the harsh weather conditions, what is the most challenging part of your trips? Scientifically speaking.
Hi Marangelie, I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog, and to hear you’re a math person, because in science, you need lots of math to analyze observations and make models of the climate! I think the most challenging part of this trip is that I am trying to understand and learn so much – about the ship, the Arctic, the science and research people are doing onboard, how the equipment works – because I really want to explain to everyone on the blog how cool it all is!
Hello, I’m one of Ms.Gilbert’s students, She has us reading your blogs and I am very interested in your research. I was wondering what has been the most challenging part of this trip so far?
Dear Emily, I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog! I think the most challenging part for me is that I want to learn about so much so fast, so I can write about it and share on the blog – how the ship works, what experiments scientists are doing, what their research says about climate, and how the equipment works. There is so much! Of course sometimes it’s also challenging to sleep when the ship s crunching through ice and it sounds like a construction zone! 🙂