Scotscar Log - July 18, 2001

Wednesday, July 18, 2001

A long day, and Caleta was only out on the water for a half-hour. So where did all the time go? We started late this morning, sleeping in till 7:00. Rain. Thunderstorms some places. Slimey Louis made a good call. The bagel shop was even open on the way to work. Better start running again.

First we hit the met buoy. Its pretty much shot. Didn't even make it into the water this year before catastrophically failing. Liz and John really put their hearts into this time. It was really hard to see them work so hard and have another manufacturing mistake short it out when we turned it on. We are considering turning it into a mailbox. Keep an eye on the HyTimes for a "What to do with the Met Buoy" contest.

Spiced up the modelers' life next. Validation was the theme. What are we getting right, what are we getting wrong. Look at the forecasts and the data at the same time, we have plenty of computer screens. Decide what features your eyes pick out as being good or bad, and then develop a mathematical description and compare. Nothing fancy. I hate those comparisons where you just get a list of numbers and you don't know why something is good or bad. We have been tracking this phytoplankton peak in the thermocline or the last couple of days, and we know we have a three-layer system out there. If the model doesn't look like that, what good are all those numbers? For the last couple days, the top and bottom layers have been flowing north, and the center layer in the thermocline has been flowing south, taking the phytoplankton with it. First thing I want to know is does the model have three layers, and is the middle layer in the thermocline flowing south. The entire debate at tonight's briefing was which direction did the big green patch come from? The CODAR has the upper layer coming from the south, but the Caleta sections have the phytoplankton peak coming from the north, but then the fluorometer doesn't give an accurate description of the near surface biomass during the day, and the AC-9 says that there are particles up there, so we got to process the LISST profiles first thing tomorrow. So now we need to figure out which layer has the most biomass. You can bet we'll be hitting it hard tomorrow if it breezes up. Northeaster blowing in tonight. Winds forecast around 20 knots, seas 6-10 ft. A little sloppy, but the Mighty Caleta can surprise you.

Weather guys are looking into what we gain with the 6 km atmospheric forecast over the operational 27 km. Looks like it did a good job at getting a band of total precip going across the state today. They are going to match em up and decide if these forecasts are getting the same features. Like, did they both track the storm we are about the get hit with?

Capt. Mike finished maintenance on the Caleta engine, so we took it out for a spin in the channel and a little minibat towing. It flew like a charm. All we did was put the wings back at the same angle we had been using, something we could tell once we were back on shore. It flew on autopilot right here in the channel. Not bad. It's been a real workhorse for us. We do our best to break it about once a day, and it still goes out again everyday, beaming its data back to shore and up onto the web for the other boats to see. So that's fixed from yesterday.

We also tested the video transmission from Caleta to shore. Works nice. Started a whole lot of radio chatter. The Walford even connected directly to our shore computer so we could beam our video pictures to shore and out to them. Next step is to set up a central computer on shore that broadcasts whatever is on its screen to the web. Then even the world can see what's up on the Mighty Caleta.

Spent a lot of time on node discussions today. Necessary and sometimes difficult stuff, but big progress today.

Ordered up pizza and beer for the station from 5-7 tonight. First chance for us to do something more than just pass in the halls. Great thing was the year-round people cleaned up after we went up for our forecast briefing. We came back out, and everything was done. When you're working long hours, little things like that make a big difference.

Forecast briefing number 3 ran 7-9, as is now usual. They are getting more intense as more people show up and more data comes in. To me it's a big highlight. A chance to review where we are, what's coming up, and what we got to do just 9 hours later. The word tonight --- Oceansat. Twenty minutes before the briefing, Mike ran his new "test filter" on the Indian data. Ever have one of those moments when something happens and it changes everything? Mike popped that image up and we all fell silent, even Bob Chant. Everything was different. This ain't no local upwelling center like 1998. The big green spot we've been looking at is a shelf-wide feature. Paul Bissett called it at the last forecast briefing. Got to give him credit, his wizard score went up big time. The whole debate just switched directions, and everyone was scrambling to figure out how we can use the infantile components of our developing shelf-wide observatory to document this bloom. It's big, and if it comes to shore without mixing during this storm, there goes the oxygen.

Finished rigging the Caleta after the briefing. It's always a good day when you get to do something with a power tool. Tied down the video Mac. Got Sage a captains chair to make the minibat driving easier. If you like electronic devices, it's the boat for you.

Time for a little Springsteen and Beer. Lots of growing pains, but that's why I got the big office Dano. Guess you had to be there. Bobbie probably remembers.