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Hello readers,

It’s hard to believe that I have been on the Sikuliaq for 72 days. Going into this internship, I knew there was a possibility that I would not like the work or that I would be unsuccessful. Now, I can enthusiastically say that I was able to positively contribute to the tech team and that I have been hooked by this industry. The people aboard the Sikuliaq are amazing, passionate about what they do, and so kind. I feel lucky to have been able to work alongside them for this short period of time and to call some of them friends. 

In the last week, the calibration cruise came to an end with all the tasks completed. We had to come into Newport early due to weather but we were still able to get everything done. I did some smaller tasks such as install the 3D printed PAR mount onto the CTD, mount a new TV in the baltic room, complete my internship tasks, apply for jobs, start to learn Python, and build some networking skills by interfacing with a Raspberry Pi over the network. 

Spotting a seep with the echosounders. It’s almost 400m tall! 

Driving under the Newport bridge

CAD assembly of PAR mount. A cool technique that I learned during this internship was to combine hardware and 3D printed parts. Printing threads is tricky so instead one can incorporate nuts into the design to provide the means of threading in a bolt. In this design, the nuts were press-fit into the print and aligned with the bolts. Now, what would be the weakest point of the design, printed threads, is no longer an issue.

Mounted PAR sensor

Thank you for reading!

Sarah

Once we left Seattle, we headed out to perform calibrations on the new 304 sonar array and the 710 sonar array. We originally were going to do all our calibrations on the open ocean but we were able to get permits for Canadian waters last minute so our first few days were smooth sailing (thank goodness, I could’ve kissed the messenger). Calibrating the sonar arrays involves driving the ship over the same stretches of ocean repetitively, recording sonar data as you go. A software package then uses the data to correct for heading, pitch, and backscatter. Some days, data collection was tricky due to windy conditions. During conditions with lots of wind and the boat starts to crab, bubbles can be driven under the ship which interfere with the sonar readings. Bubbles cause disruptions to the data due to their difference in density from water and prevent the sonar beams from traveling through the water column to the seafloor. One of the exciting new things I’ve been able to learn is how to deploy a CTD. The process involves communicating with the winch operator which depth to bring the CTD to, cocking/firing Niskin bottles, guiding the CTD in/out of the baltic room, and sending the thermosalinity profile to the sonars. However, there is some downtime but I have kept busy by doing small 3D printing projects such as creating a new CTD mount for the PAR sensor and a table stand for our Black Box monitor. I also started to plan my next steps as I only have one more week on board:( Our SUNA sensor is also having problems so I got to help troubleshoot the problem.

CTD monitor

CTD ready to be picked up and boomed out

Thanks for reading,

Sarah

During this past week, I was able to became familiar with the website Coriolix, weight test winch booms, weight test CTD cable connections, design a MouseTrap, replace an ADCP, and explore Seattle.

Coriolix is a website that allows scientists on shore to monitor the sensors aboard multiple research vessels and also gather data from them. It was also a great tool for me to get an understanding of what sensors are aboard the Sikuliaq. 

I mentioned in an earlier post that the winch boom had it’s cable sheave replaced. Once that was complete, the boom needed to be weight tested. We used water bags for the weights and tested the boom at fully extended and partially extended. The fully extended boom was tested at 7,500lbs and the partially extended was 11,000lbs.

Water bag in yellow

A-Frame testing with full water bags

CTD cable splice. The cable was first electrically connected to a pigtail that would be plugged into the CTD and then mechanically connected.

ADCP dunk test. During the cruise over to Seattle, two of the ADCP’s beams broke and it needed to be taken out in order to be troubleshot. 

MouseTrap version 1, a 3d printed device for preventing the computer mice from flying off the desks.

Final installed version of the MouseTrap. 

Biking to the Fremont Troll

Thanks for reading,

Sarah 

After the ship was floated, we needed to get the ship ready for the voyage to Seattle on the 14th. This meant finishing closing up the eighteen! opened Roxblox and installing a temperature sensor. The temperature sensor is located in the bow thruster room on the inlet pipe of our seawater system. The intake pipe is located about six meters below the waterline on the hull of the ship to the bow of the ship. This location is important because the seawater taken in from this pipe feeds an array of scientific equipment called the wet wall and its important that the collected seawater isn’t contaminated by the ship. Having the temperature sensor at the beginning of the intake pipe is also important for getting accurate data because as soon as the water enters the ship, it gets warmed. Some things that the ship constantly monitors through the wet wall of sensors is pH, oxygen, and salinity. Another sensor that we installed was the Met4ay which measures barometric pressure, humidity, and temperature. This install was located on top of the foremast. 

Inside passage and foremast. The Met4ay is hanging off the top left of the ledge.

Wet wall. These instruments are fed by the intake pipe.

The centerboard is a three thousand ton feature of the ship that runs vertically through the whole ship and is moved up and down by ropes. At the bottom of the centerboard is an array of sensors such as temperature and pH but also ADCPs. ADCP stands for Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler and it measures ocean currents. It does this by measuring the speed of tiny particles suspended in the water using sound and exploiting the Doppler Effect. Another thing that exists in the water column besides particles is bubbles. Bubbles “look” the same to the ADCP as particles but dont give accurate current data. The centerboard allows the ship to lower the ADCP instruments below the hull of the ship to avoid the bubbles that the ship creates as she moves through the water. The centerboard has a locking feature that allows the centerboard to be moved into the exact same position every time it’s deployed. This feature was broken and I was tasked with helping fixing it. This meant jumping into the centerboard well, climbing on the centerboard itself (it likes to move in the well), and shimmying into a tiny crack next to the three ton beast. Unfortunately, the task proved impossible and we were unsuccessful in fixing the locking mechanism:/

Exiting the centerboard well

The next two days were spend at the mercy of the Gulf of Alaska. It’s safe to say that I get seasick and that bacon does not taste as good coming up as going in haha. Luckily, there are some very good drugs out there and I was back in fighting shape the next day. 

Rockin, rollin, and hurlin

The other day, I was able to install my IRT design! Once it has been properly calibrated, this will allow us to measure the skin sea surface temperature. As I mentioned before, the ship takes in water at about six meters below the surface. In areas such as the Arctic, there could be high stratification in the water column so the ocean temperature at six meters down could be radically different than on the surface. Eventually, this will also allow the ship to validate satellite sea surface temperature data. Satellites experience barriers such as clouds and so their data could be compromised. By comparing data taken right above the sea surface to the satellite data, we can know how accurate the satellite data is. I’m really grateful to my mentor for giving me this project, and collaborating with me on it’s design and fabrication. During the fabrication process, I used SOLIDWORKS to CAD the design, a 3D printer to create the dial parts with a nylon/carbon fiber blend, and drill press. 

Desktop assembly

Installed! The sensor on the foreground is measuring the sky radiation and the other sensor is measuring the sea surface radiation.

🙂

Bonus content:

Ethan working on installing the CTD winch boom bearing

CTD and winch boom. The CTD, structure with the gray bottles, is lowered into the ocean using the winch. The bottles (in gray withitn the cage) allows scientists to take water samples at different depths. The depth at which samples are taken is controlled in the computer lab by marine technicians.

A nice day

Thanks for reading,

Sarah