August 25, 2024
The sun is shiny, waves are calm winds are a breeze it is the we return to Newport NOAA facility dock. Everyone was excited to contact their beloved ones or maybe to just get some fresh sushi. As we said hi to the sea lions(Fig 1), we started seeing Newport’s bridge and it came to me that the VISIONS 24 leg 2 has finally ended. We will eventually return to our homes but the memories will stay and I believe that R/V Atlantis would always wait for us until the time comes to reunite again.
Using this blog, I would love to thank the people(will not include all the names as it is too long) who worked 24hrs behind deck making the VISIONS 24 leg possible. We know the only reason that I was able to have a astonishing experience is because of that. So, thank you and as the last movie night Mammamia told us, “Life is short, the world is wide. I want to make memories”.
August 24, 2024
The day started off with my lunch shift between 12:00~4:00 pm. As astonishing and important Jason dives are, sometimes they can be somewhat repetitive. Especially, when the purpose of the dive is to survey and photograph a certain site. Dive J2-1640, compeleting a photomosaic survey at Southern Hydrate Ridge was one of them. The vehicle was taking photos to make into a photomosaic of key seep sites, which require the vehicle to follow a series of straight lines (mow the lawn) and go back and forth on the same site to create a large photograph of that site. Tito Collasius, one of the Jason Expedition Leads offered a chance to the students to drive Jason. When I finally got a chance to drive the vehicle, the first thought I had was fear. Understanding a 5 million dollar robot was in my two hands made my hand sweaty. Especially, the realization of how sensitive Jason was and seeing how the currents effect it a lot, gave me fear I might crash Jason and ruin the whole expedition. However, after 5 minutes I began to get comfortable and started to enjoy the experience. I said hi to a crab, filmed a rockfish and a hag fish. Which became one of the most memorable experiences in the expedition.
Then, I had a chance to tour the brain of Atlantis, the bridge, which is the area where the ship is commanded. When a ship is under way, the bridge acts as a lookout manned by an officer on the watch. During this time, it was Chief Mate Andrew. He explained all the amazing specs that Atlantis had and his motivation to accomplish the expedition successfully. “I believe operating a ship is an act of customer service, we try our best to provide the best conditions for the science team to thrive nothing else”.
After a delicious dinner, I had a chance to help Laura and Anna’s group sample sediment cores. It was an interesting process because the sediment cores contained methane gases inside. As a result, you could actually see bubbles when the sediment cores were uncapped or see gas cracks inside the sediment. This was fallowed by a distinguished odor (smelled like hard boiled eggs) which is why everyone was staying away from the lab 😊. Then, we ended our night with watching the stars twinkling with the moon.
August 22, 2024
On Thursday, we were able to finally meet the heart of Atlantis, the engine room. Atlantis (which I like to call Jr. considering the fact it was named after the first American ship Atlantis (1931~1966) specifically for research), a one and only research vessel in the US specifically, modified to launch and service Alvin (HOV), is part of similar class of Navy-owned research vessel that incldues the R/V Thomas G. Thomson , and R/V Roger Revelle.
Its’ engine room, it is where it generates all our water, electricity and power to successfully accomplish our mission. Setting aside the cool specs of Atlantis, one of the key features of the ship is that it has a bow thruster that can be controlled from the engine room. This allows the Atlantis to maneuver so precisely that it can hold it’s position in an error of 30 cm. Which enhances the accurateness and saltiness of Jason while it’s deployed.
During my night time shift (0000~4:00am), the Jason dive ended and a different deployment was conducted. A CTDcast and Nisikin bottle deployment was completed. The reason I was so happy was because it was a familiar instrument I used onboard the UW research vessel the Rachel Carson.
A CTD is an instrument which measures the conductivity and temperature in the water as the instrument package is lowered to depth. Usually, the instrument is attached to the bottom of a rosette hosting 24 Niskin bottles that are capable of capturing water samples at a specific water depth. Because of this, we were able to catch water samples down at 2900 m.
The recovered ocean samples were analyzed using the Whicker’s oxygen titration method to determin the oxygen concentration in that water sample. These data will be compareed to the CTD data on the Regional Cabled Array to verify the data and correct for drift during the year-long deployments.
August 21st, 2024
As a VISIONS 24 student, our main objective is to support the Jason dives as a Video logger or a sea logger. However, as a 24-hour operation research vessel, Atlantis has enormous opportunities you can find if you just ask the right person. On the 4th day of the cruise, we were able to rig/derig an instrument called MOSQUITO. A Multi orifice sampler and quantitative injection tracer observer, which is capable of measuring fluid flow rates and solute fluxes at multiple depths below the seafloor. The beauty inside this instrument is that it is an instrument purely based on science. There is no fancy sensors or expensive technology bound to it. It is made from materials that you can find in your nearest Home Depot. Hence, it is surprisingly cheaper compare to other expensive instruments in the market.
This lab experience and meeting the Mosquito recalled a memory when I was taking ocean 261/361 class at University of Washington. In this class, the goal was to build your own ocean instrument and collect data with it. At that time, I was building a turbidity sensor using a light sensor and measuring the percentage decrease of light intensity to figure out the turbidity inside a fluid. However, at that time, it did not proceed as I hoped as the light change was minimal to detect and measurements were insignificant which led me to think it was not easy to create a low cost but accurate sensor. However, after meeting the Mosquito and seeing how scientist actually uses it in real research cruises, it kind of gave me motivation and ideas to start working back on the turbidity sensor as who knows? It might be used on the next VISIONS cruise.
As fast as the Atlantis sails, time also flew. Of our 8 days at sea, only 4 are left. An unwelcomed moment is coming where we have to end this journey and everyone has to disembark from the ship and return to their daily life. However, I think we all agree that those little motivation and experience we get from the cruise enhances our daily life and widens our view. So thank you VISIONS, and excited to see what comes next.
August 20th, 2024
The alarm went off and I woke up at 11:00 pm. Changed my clothes and got ready for my 12:00am~4:00am ROV Jason shift. As I walked toward the Jason control van, I saw a complete full moon shining at us as if it was blessing for our successfully journey (Fig 1). However, when I entered the room, the atmosphere was quite different. Under our cabled array, there was a massive wooden (undetermined) log on top of it, pressing it down. It was a major problem as it prevented us from maneuvering the cable for maintenance and it had a possibility to damage a highly expensive cable. It was when it required high precision and teamwork from the Jason team. After a few-long attempts followed by productive discussion we were successful to free the cable from the log(Fig 2).
This reminded me how working in deep water is such a different environment then surface water as doing such a simple task such as freeing a cable could take several hours (Which is why only 10~25% of the bottom of the ocean is explored). Furthermore, it is teamwork and productive discussions among scientist like us that achieve science in a complex dynamic world.
August 19th, 2024
Boo Boop 12:30, with a loud horn the R/V Atlantis started to move. The waves were calm, followed by a breeze that let us feel the confidence, excitement and the sense of reality that we actually are off land. It was also the time where my official shift for control van- a van that controls ROV Jason and monitors Jason’s status across several different panels- where I would be spending a total of 8 hours each day for the rest of the expedition.
At the start of the shift, my shift mates (Elena and Jose) and I were able to meet a BEP (benthic experiment platform). Where it is a platform that allows to connect multiple sensors/instruments on a hazard-resistant frame attached to a single j-box with a unified node. In the BEP, we helped calibrate a optical attenuation and absorption sensor which detects the sediment concentration in a water column using light. Hence, we’ve used a water pump, a multimeter that acts as a temperature sensor, and a computer software to verify that the optical sensor was acting properly.
Then, it was our very first shift/dive for Jason. As a sea logger, my objective was to record and log each important incident Jason went into. This includes reporting each maneuvers that Jason does on deck/water, reporting issues during the deployment and also cool organisms that Jason meets during the dive.
By the time we finished our shift, we were tired, we were feeling awake and maybe a little uncomfortable. But, we could’ve all agreed that we were enjoying the atmosphere and felt pride as a member of VISIONS’24 expedition.