Southern Ocean Iron Experiment (SOFeX) Cruise
January 5 - February 26, 2002
Logbook
February 3, 2002: Day 30
R/V Revelle:
Ship @ 2/3/02 05:50Z,-66 5.8392, -172 5.7948
So. Patch In Drifter @ 2/3/02 05:30Z,-66 9.354, -171 41.472
No. Patch In Drifter @ 2/1/02 18:45Z,-54 16.8, -169 59.22
No. Patch Out Drifter @ 2/1/02 18:45Z,-55 23.22, -172 37.32
R/V Revelle Log Entry: Hi, on Super Bowl Eve (Rams - 30 to 13). Im in sort of a football mindset today. Our science is really getting exciting. We can see the patch on almost all of our sensors and the signals seem to increase hourly.REVELLE just crossed the South Patch towing SeaSoar and theres a clear signal of carbon dioxide consumption. Pete Struttons surface CO2 system now shows a drop of almost 20 matm in the patch. It coincides beautifully with the SF6 tracer data and the variable fluorescence signal. And this is just the beginning! But, just as its getting going, well pick up and leave the really neat stuff for MELVILLE to observe. I guess were the linemen and theyre the quarterbacks. Hey, its a team - no linemen, no Super Bowl.
Speaking of the variable fluorescence, heres the map that Sasha Tozzi created of Fv/Fm in the patch. Variable fluorescence is a measure of how well phytoplankton can use the light they absorb for photosynthesis. Higher values mean more of the light is used for photosysnthesis. The variable fluorescence coincides nicely with our map of the SF6 tracer that we showed yesterday. Theres a bunch of happy phytoplankton out there.
But I think people are ready to go home.Leah Bandstra is looking ready to go, although her SeaSoar is sailing across the patch in some pretty dynamic waters.Others in the SeaSoar crew (Burke Hales, Steve Pierce, and Dale Hubbard) are feeling more relaxed.Thats one big winch they have back there!
Well, thats it for today.Last In the Patch Station tomorrow - unless the NSF (the National Science Foundation) wants to give us another week. Hmmm...Hey, you know what? I only mentioned NSF when I was thinking of asking for more days. But they have funded most of this expedition.Thank you, thank you, thank you! No NSF and most of the very interesting basic research done in this country would never happen.
- Ken J.
