Picking up from Part 2 (because I forgot to paste in the text for the whole story)..

The monitoring float heard very clear signals from two of the three sound sources, and a hint of the third one too. The latter sound source is rather far away from where the floats were deployed, and on the other side of the mid-Atlantic ridge (an underwater mountain chain), so there are some reasons why it might not come in as strongly as the other two. Later in the cruise, we will be deploying more monitoring floats nearer to this far-away source so we will have another chance to listen for it. Oddly, the monitoring float heard a fourth “mystery source” very clearly. We have only deployed three, so we are scratching our heads about where this mystery signal is coming from. We have an idea that it might be an old sound source left over from a previous float study we did east of Newfoundland, which is not that far from where the monitoring floats were released. We are digging through some old reports to see if we can solve this mystery. Stand by for more.

University of Miami technician Robert Salom tries on his survival suit in a pre-cruise safety drill.

Right after leaving port this morning, we had a routine safety meeting and drill. As part of this, we were shown how to use short-term oxygen systems (with just enough air to get out of your cabin in the event of a fire). I couldn’t see the demonstration, so I just asked if I could “look” at the apparatus with my hands. No problem. Then came the gymnastics part of the safety drill – donning one of the immersion suits, also called survival suits, or more apropos, gumby suits. These are over sized orange body suits that you would get into if you had to abandon ship, especially in cold water. It’s hard to get into, although I suppose if you were motivated by water rising around your ankles, you could get it on pretty quickly. When it’s completely on, only your eyes and nose are exposed. Everyone had to try getting it on. Luckily it was a fairly tactile exercise, so I didn’t have any more trouble than anyone else. I feel like I’m getting just a little better at making my way around the ship. The more I repeat the same routes, the fewer bumps I get. We were all assigned a number today, that corresponds to our coffee mug in the galley. I’m #2. There is a numeral 2 on my mug, but I can’t see that. So I put some rubber bands on the handle so I can find it easily without help. The same trick is working for the doorknob of my cabin.

This brings me to the first good news for the OSNAP float program. The first three of the 10 OSNAP sound sources were deployed from the Knorr as it made its way from Woods Hole to Reykjavik. At the same time, two “monitoring” RAFOS floats were released with a shortened mission. Their purpose was just to pop up today and let us know if the three sound sources were functioning properly. And the envelope please…

Gang plank pulled, door being secured while motoring out of port.

We finally left Reykjavik today at 0900 as scheduled, under sunny skies. Temps are still chilly – around 50F. But we are steaming downwind so the ship has a rather gentle roll – good for getting those sea legs. We are heading more or less to our first moorings site, which will take about two days to get to. On the way, we will stop to do some instrument testing. First we will lower the CTD (which stands for conductivity-temperature-depth) package to make sure it is working properly.I’ll talk more about it in a future post, but basically it measures salinity (from the amount of electricity conducted by the seawater) and temperature as it is lowered on a wire over the side of the ship. The data is transmitted up the wire to a PC where we see it plotted on the screen in real time.

Sounds Source resonator tubes for OSNAP Legs 2 and 3. One source has been prepped to deploy.

This morning the OSNAP float group got some good news. Before I reveal the good news, I need to explain how floats are being used in OSNAP. Freely drifting, neutrally buoyant floats will be released from the ship and sink down to near the sea floor. There they will drift with the deepest currents in the North Atlantic for two years. They are called RAFOS floats, which is the backwards spelling of the word SOFAR, which stands for Sound Fixing and Ranging. Sound underlies how the floats are tracked. While underwater, they will listen for signals from 10 “sound sources” (see photo of sound source tubes on the deck of the Knorr) that we are anchoring to the sea floor throughout this area. Sound can travel for 1000s of kilometers in the ocean—that is one reason whales can communicate with each other over long distances. Knowing the time of arrival of the sound signals from at least two sound sources, and the speed of sound in water, we can determine the float’s position every day. Well, this is all done after the fact, since the float just stores the times it hears the sound sources in its mini-computer inside, and only sends the data to us via satellite after it comes back to the sea surface in two years. Then we reconstruct the “trajectory” or path of the float for the past two years. During the OSNAP project, we will be deploying 120 floats and they will be listening to 10 sources throughout the northern North Atlantic. So the sound sources are critical to our measurement of the deep currents in the ocean.

Even though Iceland doesn’t have a team competing for the World Cup, the residents are just as crazy about soccer as most of the rest of the world. Last night we caught the end of the Brazil-Columbia game at a local English bar with huge TV screens all around. And the place was packed with yelling and screaming fans. When Columbia scored their one goal, a woman standing next to us started crying! Read More→

Work continued around the Knorr today as the various groups from the U.S., U.K. and the Netherlands loaded their oceanographic instruments on board and began assembling the deep-sea moorings. The moorings typically consist of several very long pieces (called “shots”) of wire rope that are shackled together to make one long string that might be 1-2 miles long. Then instruments that measure temperature, salinity and current speed are attached to the wire as the wire is let out over the stern of the ship. At the very end, an extremely heavy anchor is attached, and the anchor is slid off the stern (back end) of the ship. Read More→

R/V Knorr at the dock in Reykjavic, July 5th.

So this is Iceland. And the name fits the weather, especially compared to the weather we had in Woods Hole just before leaving for this research cruise. It’s about 50F, very windy and scattered rain showers and rizzle. Not so unusual for an island in the middle of the northern part of the North Atlantic.

After a few ours of good sleep at the hotel, chief scientist Bill Johns (from the University of Miami . ) picked Heather and me up and drove us and our luggage the very short distance to the docks in one of the two main ports in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. Our home for the next 28 days, the R/V (for research vessel) Knorr is tied up neatly among many other ships, including cargo vessels, cruise ships, naval vessels, and even another oceanographic research vessel from Germany. We’ve heard that the weather out at sea is extremely snotty due to high winds—so bad that the German research ship has delayed its departure for 2 days. I’m glad that we aren’t leaving for sea until Sunday!

As I predicted, the Knorr’s main lab is a mess of open cargo boxes, chairs , benches and odds and ends. A navigational nightmare for a cane user. But I’m just using the bump and adjust method and weaving my way through the “debris”, as one of my Scottish colleagues calls it.

PI row shapes up.

This evening the ship’s crew and scientists were invited to a July 4^th celebration sponsored by the U.S. Embassey here in Iceland, held at one of the art museums. American flags were hanging everywhere from the large function hall, and a singer with a lovely tenor voice sang the Icelandic and American national anthems. Free beer, wine and chili were served while we listened to a few speeches about the long friendship between the U.S. and Iceland. Turns out it’s the 70^th anniversary of Iceland’s independence this year. Who knew!

I made my first trip to the galley, where all the meals are served and Heather showed me where yogurt and other snacks are stored. I was happy to see that hot water for tea is available from a simple spigot and lever—no need to pour from a hot kettle. I brought my little liquid level device that hangs on the side of a glass or mug and buzzes when the liquid is near the top. A handy low-tech device. I also learned that each scientist has his or her own coffee mug assignment – the mugs sit on a shelf and each one is numbered. I guess eventually I’ll have a number assigned, but I plan to put a rubber band on the handle of mine so I can distinguish it from the collection of 30+ mugs that are otherwise identical.

This is going to be a great cruise! We are traveling to Iceland tomorrow to join the R/V Knorr.