Author: Emily Shimada Page 1 of 3

2130 Local time

Hello!

(My apologies for the lack of images. The Aleutians are stunning, but our internet is not.)

We are two days in on our transit from Seward to Dutch Harbor, where we will mobilize for the next science mission. Our port call in Seward lasted most of this past week and was the longest port call we’ve had so far this season. We lucked out with beautiful weather and enough time to have a proper changeover between off-going and oncoming STARC technicians. Changeover included walking through updates and changes to equipment and lab spaces as well as getting everyone up to speed on ice imagery acquisition for the upcoming mission, which will be way up North in solid ice. Lucky them!

Seward is quite a lovely town and is also home to the University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF) Seward Marine Center and research vessel, the R/V Sikuliaq. We met with their facility technician and picked up a variety of packages that were shipped there for STARC. This included, among other things, our two spare CTDs on loan for the remainder of the season. As you will recall, our only spare CTD had been having faulty pressure/depth readings and needed to be swapped out. One of the deliveries was a “purge kit” for the pressure port of the sensor. The kit consisted of mineral oil and a medical-grade syringe and tubing. Purging, for this sensor, rather simply involves inserting the tubing/syringe assembly into a very tiny well, sucking up any existing oil in there, and then filling it with new mineral oil. At the bottom of this small port we ended up sucking up two perfectly formed water droplets. It could be that the water contamination is what caused the initial bubbling when we last inspected the port due to emulsification and could also be responsible for the faulty readings. The true test will be the data quality that comes in on the first cast for the next cruise. Fingers crossed.

An extended stay in port affords a great opportunity to thoroughly inspect and clean the sampling equipment–namely, the two science seawater manifolds on board, which are a network of sensors, valves, piping, and tubing. Armed with a good audiobook, an armful of rags, my favorite set of wrenches and a bouquet of pipe cleaners, getting this equipment tuned and ready for its next mission is a straightforward and rewarding job.

Difficult to believe as we pass the amazing sunlit peaks of the outer Aleutian Islands, but I will soon be leaving Alaska and heading down to Seattle for my last cruise of this six-month internship. I have been to some far-flung places and think it’s pretty cool to come full-circle in a way. The very first cruise back in April was working within the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) Coastal Pioneer Array in the Atlantic and this last cruise will be recovering and deploying moorings within the OOI Coastal Endurance Array off the coast of Washington and Oregon. The observational data provided by these moorings help in understanding how climate change is impacting the ecosystem here. It’s a really cool project and I recommend reading more about it here.

This last cruise will be on the R/V Sally Ride, where I have spent most of my internship. She’s an amazing ship with a great crew and I am looking forward to getting another trip with her.

More soon!

Emily

1630 Local time

Hiya and Happy Labor Day!

We are hours away from pulling in to Seward, Alaska and I think the entire crew are buzzing with excitement to finally have several days off in a row before the next science mission up to the ice.

This week has been focused on wrapping up various projects and gaps in documentation. Early on in the cruise we were having faulty depth readings on one of our CTDs. As we only had one spare, this was cause for concern, especially on a CTD-heavy mission. Thankfully, the backup fish performed beautifully, but our issues mean that we are picking up two additional CTDs when we pull in to Seward. One is on loan from University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF) and the other is on loan from Orengon State University (OSU) and should be plenty to make it through the season of science operations. During our transit from Dutch Harbor, we stopped off in 200 m of water, attached a weight to the CTD frame, and deployed it over the transom using the A-frame and aft 0.322 wire. This setup had been previously used on the BONGO nets/FastCAT assembly during our science mission and made the most sense for this quick test, as we did not have to take apart our careful rigging of the CTD on the large rosette on the starboard side and we already had a termination ready to plug into on the aft wire. Thankfully, the depth readings looked good both on deck and during the down and up-cast. We did see some small drifting out of the water, but Seabird technicians have assured us that it is within the acceptable range for the pressure sensor.

Another round of troubleshooting cropped up when testing each of the three XBT data acquisition units on board. I can honestly say that this past month was the most XBT system-intensive one I have had throughout this internship; from installing a new DAQ unit to re-wiring the junction boxes and troubleshooting the data drops from what ended up being a faulty launcher splice. This particular day, one of our units worked perfectly during a probe launch but when we switched over to our backup unit, we were unable to establish communication through the network. We power-cycled, swapped cables, switched ports and toggled between static IP to DHCP. We think there is some trouble with the recent USCG firewall updates, and so we wired up a crossover cable directly from the acquisition unit to the server and finally established communication. It is not a permanent fix, but it works for now. The final test was the third unit, which is a legacy unit running off a separate Windows 7 machine. This is the same machine I placed in the server rack after arriving on Healy and had to reinstall the software, driver, and update the firmware. Thankfully, the probe launch worked perfectly.

In addition to hardware and networking fixes, we have also been cleaning up and providing missing documentation for the STARC operation. On my own part, I have been playing with LucidChart in order to make comprehensive drawings for the science seawater system as well as meteorological sensor maps and updated server rack cable maps. I also made a comprehensive SOP for the AutoSal Salinometer in the hopes that technicians and science party members will have some guides to turn to if they have any questions.

Another note I want to make is to highlight the incredible beauty of the Aleutian Islands: volcanic peeks viewed from a distance across the water, ice-capped mountains and glaciers lining remote bays, and falling dramatically away on some of the many hikes I have been lucky to take while in port. If you have a chance, I would highly recommend coming out this way to Kodiak, to Dutch Harbor, to Seward and get up close and personal with these majestic mammoths.

More soon!

– Emily

1330 Local time

Hi there!

We are currently hauling over to Dutch Harbor having sat at anchor in Nome for two days to transfer scientists and pick up one Washington Post photographer. There has been a notable pace adjustment and I still catch myself needlessly looking over to our map display from time to time to see when the ETA to the next station is.

In just over two weeks of 24-hour science operations, we did 144 CTD casts, 143 van Veen grabs, 56 Bongo net tows, 46 mooring recoveries and deployments, 18 XCTD launches, 12 HAPS cores, 7 Methot net tows, and about 75 miscellaneous drifter deployments as well as small boat launches for saildrone configuration and ice floe samples. Quite a feat, no?

The last couple of days involved a lot of deep cleaning and helping the science party move and secure their various instrumentation for offloading or for storage. The CTD had, unfortunately, come up through several schools of jellyfish and so the bottles, lanyards, and framing needed scrubbing to remove the various remains. We even managed to suck in a few jellies while the pumps were running.

In preparation for the upcoming cruises, we have created a list of maintenance tasks for ourselves to complete during the transit and our upcoming port calls in Dutch Harbor and Seward. This includes stopping during our transit to do a test cast to 100-200 meters for the original CTD that Mike and I had to pull off the rosette due to faulty pressure/depth readings. We are also planning on launching several XBT probes en route to ensure that we are getting good data from each of our 3 deck units as well as our primary and backup launcher/cable assembly. In Dutch Harbor, we will also open both of our saltwater manifolds to clean and exercise the PVC valves and do a thorough cleaning of the various chambers and sensors.

Holding all of these actions and preparations together is documentation. There is a lot of documentation associated with an operation of this magnitude. This not only includes official weekly reports, but also various SOP updates, coordination emails, running event logs, web-based task tickets, and handover notes. Much like merchant vessel logs, you want to make sure that any operational changes or events are recorded and passed along to the next people coming up on shift. This can be incredibly time consuming but is essential for communication and efficiency.

Amidst all these tasks, I was able to take the afternoon off yesterday and wonder around downtown Nome. It was nice to be on solid ground after 25 days out at sea, and I look forward to stretching the legs again tomorrow night in Dutch Harbor.

More soon!

– Emily

1230 Local time

Greetings from the icy North! (and land of very limited internets – hence, just the one image this week)

Apologies for reaching out to all of you a day late, but I worked straight through the evening yesterday on a couple of troubleshooting projects. More on that later.

We just hit the two-week mark for this mission and our science operations have taken us above 72° N where sea ice and walrus sightings abound. Being an icebreaker, the Healy is at home up here and she has no problem getting through the various patches of sea ice we have come across. It’s a stunning site and quite impressive to experience the roll and hear the crunch as we plow through to the next station.  A couple of our scientists were even taken out on the small boat this week to collect ice samples and to service this incredibly advanced piece of technology from NOAA called a saildrone. Here is a link with more information from a fellow blogger on this cruise.

This is easily the most diverse mission I have been on during this internship. We have 39 scientists (and one Washington Post reporter) representing 14 different research groups each utilizing their own lab equipment and over the side nets, moorings, corers, and drifters. This has kept the STARC team incredibly busy both in the labs and out on deck. Through all the operations also comes an established routine to ensure continued data quality and efficient operations. Our daily maintenance regime includes maintaining science seawater flow rate and header pressure to our sensor manifolds, pCO2 flow rate and gas bottle pressure management, imputing new waypoints into our navigation software display (160 stations and counting!), converting and displaying updated satellite ice imagery, providing Milli-Q water, taking Gravimeter readings, performing tests and adjusting resolution and sound speed velocity profiles for the two echosounders, and some serious CTD TLC. Unfortunately, we are having some issues with jelly fish and one even found its way into our pump intake during one cast. Our Chief Scientist is relying on the quality of the CTD cast data and so I flush and fresh water rinse sensors and bottles between stations though some of the stations are only 15 minutes apart from one another.

With this sort of manic schedule in sub-zero temperatures, you can imagine that the crew and science party can feel quite tired and stretched thin. As a reminder of why we are here, the science party have taken turns giving lectures on Thursday and Monday nights to present their work and how this cruise is benefiting their particular line of study from fossil records of bivalves to ocean acidification. It’s been really cool to see this hard won data collection at work. Additionally, as a bit of a breather, every Saturday night is the morale meal. Each department takes a turn making dinner for the rest of the ship. This past Saturday was Operations turn and I just so happened to be in the galley when brownies needed making. I leant a hand and two massive trays resulted. I have never had to measure out 7.5 cups of sugar before and mix it in with 3.5 cups of butter but am glad for the experience.

Yesterday, we had a last minute change to our planned station route. The Chief Scientist wanted to survey a couple of additional lines using expendable probes (XCTD). We got all lined up on station after lunch only to have a couple of them fail to transmit clean data. As these probes are $$$, we started troubleshooting each inch of the serial cable run from the probe launcher all the way up to our server. We made several improvements and ran each wire through multiple continuity and insulation tests. We tested various probes, cleaned contacts, changed grounding straps and were still experiencing intermittent loss in data transmission. We are now planning on redoing the entire cable run after science departs. I think it will be a very useful transit project and have already learned a lot about this system from having opened up the launcher mechanism.

While that was happening, we were also called down by the deck crew to investigate the 0.322 CTD cable. After inspection, we realized that a couple of strands of the outer wraps of steel wire were starting to jump the lay of the cable. This is a concern as the integrity of the wire is in jeopardy and could lead to salt water intrusion and a full twist and snap (as you may recall from my pictures on the last Sally Ride cruise). We consulted with the Bridge and with the Chief Scientist and took the CTD out of commission to do a complete retermination. From start to finish including getting the original termination unsecured, the outer and inner armor layers unwrapped and cut, splicing, soldering, and water-proofing the cables, testing the new connections, doing a pull-test on the new Guy Grips, and then reattaching everything to the frame took 3 hours and we were done before the ship reached the originally intended water sampling station. Woo!

– Emily

1900 Local time

Hiya!

We are currently on Day 6 of an impressively varied and productive science cruise. This morning we crossed to 71º North heralded by an air temperature drop to 30ºF and the promise of sea ice on the horizon. So far, the science operations are going well since picking up the science party in Nome this past Tuesday. That morning the deck crew lowered the port gangway and landing platform alongside and a small boat made the trip back and forth to shore three times to get everyone and some of their gear on board. With no time to waste, we pulled anchor that same afternoon and started steaming to our first station.

I went ahead and took an 0500 to 1830 work day in order to get the chance to work with both STARC technicians and also provide some meal relief during this 24-hour operation. It’s great because I get to work with all the USCG rotations in the winch shack and on deck and also get to see multiple science shifts come and go. Early on in our operations we were getting faulty pressure/depth readings on our CTD. After some troubleshooting in the water and on deck, we decided to pull the unit and swap it for our spare. This was a great learning experience for me because I got to test the readings on each sensor, swap them over, and secure them to the new fish and then on to the frame. Thankfully, the spare was working just great and we were able to resume CTD casts within 2 hours.

A fun and new operation component for me is recovering and deploying acoustic moorings with a variety of release mechanisms and instrumentation packages. For the Healy, these operations first involve using a mooring release transceiver to send enable, range, and release codes to the underwater mooring release mechanism via the hull-mounted transducer. Simultaneously, the fast rescue boat is launched to retrieve the float once it breaks surface. They drive over and hook it to the winch cable to the float at which point the deck crew brings the entire thing on board.

It’s been an interesting cruise so far and is about to get a lot more exciting with the introduction of sea ice, sail drones, and more processing stations and moorings. Stay tuned!

– Emily

2030 Local Time

Hi there!

It’s a chilly and foggy Sunday at sea and winds and swells are starting to pick up as we head north along the Alaskan coast toward Nome. We will be anchoring instead of tying up to a dock, which means that the scientists will need to take a small boat out to the Healy on Tuesday and then be ready to go 8 hours later when we reach the first station.

Having 41 scientists board and settle in with such a short turnaround time is probably going to make for a very busy day so we are prepping as much as we can in advance. There are 28 mooring deployments and so we found and tested the acoustic release deck box, which will send and receive messages to each mooring via unique transmission pulses to figure out the exact location and to also trigger the release when we are ready to bring them back on board. Additionally, we also researched terminal connections for the SBE-49 FastCAT, which will be attached to the cable towing the large bongo nets. We found the necessary pigtails, terminated the 0.322 cable, and set up the deck box in the control station. Earlier today, we also warmed up the AutoSal and did a trial water sampling run including testing known standards with very precise salinity. The machine requires quite a bit of fine-tuning, but STARC technician Kristin and I were both glad for the experience in running a sample set through it.

In addition to assembling and prepping equipment and instrumentation, I also took on a project to make XBT launches a bit smoother and faster. This involved first cutting then splicing and soldered the launch cable to a male 4-pin wet bulkhead connector instead of the 4 spade terminals it had previously. The impetus for this is so the cable can be easily unplugged and switched between our primary and back up deck box and server connections. I did some testing and rewiring and then fitted both junction boxes with a female wet pluggable connection. We completed a test cast and a real cast with both systems and it worked great!

I also had a chance this week to brush up on some old familiar skills and pick up a new one. Mike, one of the STARC technicians, brought a handful of breadboards and circuit components with the hope of creating a 1PPS signal generator, similar to what a GPS unit or oscillator outputs. He sketched out a rough circuit diagram and I learned a new web-based diagram creation program called Lucidchart in order to make a cleaned-up digital version then put it together. It was quite fun.

I love projects like these, though I had to put a hold on them for the last two days as I voluntarily took place in the Arctic Circle Line Crossing Ceremony on board the Healy. We had about 35 people participate and I am sworn to secrecy as to the various activities we completed. I will say that I got the chance to meet and work with a lot of new people and really appreciate the time and effort that the seasoned Blue Nose crewmembers put in to this. Two whole days worth! It was really impressive and, as of 0600 this morning, I have now graduated from humble ice worm to the rank of the noble Polar Bear.

Until next time! Thank you for reading 🙂

– Emily

Greetings from the damp and green shores of Kodiak, Alaska! We arrived yesterday midday and are tied up pretty close to downtown, which makes exploring a breeze. There are a lot of outdoor shops and the whole area seems like an ideal jumping-off platform for anything from surfing to hunting to backpacking up impressive craggy cliffs.

Overall, the transit up from Seattle was a pretty good one and it really gave me a chance to get a better idea as to where various labs, staging bays, and equipment are located around the ship and what the startup and shut down procedures are for each cruise. Our first day out we got to wake up all the underway systems and echosounders that the STARC technicians are responsible for maintaining.

Getting the science seawater system (SSW) going involves calling down to the engine control room so the engineers can get the positive displacement pumps on line and up to the required speed using a VFD to convert percent load requested to pump speed. There are 4 pumps in the line and they can run multiple pumps in parallel. There is also a centrifugal chamber that the water can be pumped through which can remove chunks of ice that may have been sucked in through the seachest. This is quite handy as we are headed into ice territory, after all!
 

Once the SSW was up and running, we let the water drain out into the sink at each station until it started smelling less fishy. We then adjusted flow to various instruments via a series of manifolds until our flow meter was in range (2-3LPM). Unfortunately, it was quite a struggle to maintain this flow so we started isolating parts of the system and found a blockage in the form of a mini seafood buffet in the barbed fittings entering the equilibrator tank. Once all the critters were removed, we reassembled the fittings and the flow was good to go.

Another important aspect of being on the Healy is, of course, the USCG crew members and subsequent operations (like the pyro testing below), routines, and rules. The senior officers, including the Captain and XO, are incredibly personable and I was able to sit in on several evening planning meetings with them during the transit. They have also visited the Computer Lab to say hello and ask how things are going, which is definitely above and beyond the interaction I expected.

During the transit, we launched an XBT and I was on the radio as “Aft Con” communicating with the enlisted MST officers who run all deck deployments. I quite enjoyed it and am looking forward to navigating all of the rather dense and complicated 24-hour science operations we have coming up (CTD casts, net tows, benthic grabs, sonobuoy and mooring deployments).

We will be leaving Kodiak tomorrow morning and heading up to Nome to pick up the science party and any additional equipment that has not already been loaded. On the way up, the Healy is providing support to NOAA while they board fishing vessels in the area and is also conducting flight operations training with ARISTA Kodiak. Lastly, we will be crossing in to the Domain of the Polar Bear and there may be some voluntary ceremonial participation involved.

– Emily