Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Underway Geophysics

Even when we're not at our study site, we're always collecting data at sea on the R/V Langseth. In the old days of Lamont when Maurice Ewing was Director, Lamont ships were required to stop once per day to collect a sediment core and other oceanographic and geophysical data. It was informally called "taking a Ewing," or so I've heard. Today, we only acquire underway data that does not require us to stop during transit. That includes magnetics, gravity, multibeam bathymetry, and 3.5 kHz and 12.0 kHz high-res bathymetric profiles. In addition, each day we take an expendable bathythermograph (XBT) measurement, which provides ocean temperature data down to under 1 km depth. In the image to the left, Chief Acquisition Officer Bern McKiernan and TAMU graduate student Kelly Brooks prepare to drop an XBT off the stern of the R/V Langseth for today's measurement.

No comments:

Post a Comment