Photo of the Day

Iceberg near Antarctica (Photo by Marco Pedulli)

Our First Sampling Station

Today, January 7 at 22:32 UTC we reached our first station. This is the first of many stations lined up to be occupied and sampled thoroughly by the PRISM group. So far we have been gathering along- track data and and doing some occasional tows for chlorophyll, plankton, etc.  The next station (Station #2) will be within the sea-ice and the final and third one, before we set off close to the Ross Ice Shelf, will be onshore of the sea-ice.

Dan Powers manning the CTD/Rosette. Photo by Scott  McCormick

Antarctica Megafauna

Emperor Penguin (Photo courtesy of Scott McCormick)

Antarctic iceberg - slowly drifting away from the continent  (Photo by Scott McCormick)

Seal (Photo by Scott McCormick)

Photo of the Day

Seal perched on a floating sea ice (Photo: by Marco Pedulli)

Broader impacts of the PRISM –RS Project

The broader impacts of this project address three main categories of NSF’s Merit Review Broader Impacts Criterion:

1)  “Advance discovery and understanding while promoting teaching, training and learning”,

2)   “Enhance infrastructure for research and education”, and

3) “Broad dissemination to enhance scientific and technological understanding”.

In order to promote teaching and training, the approaches and results from these studies will be incorporated into a graduate course in physical/biological interactions co-taught by Dennis McGillicuddy (WHOI) in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program. Eileen Hofmann (ODU) will incorporate results into courses she teaches at ODU on ecosystem modeling and ecosystem analysis. This collaborative effort will also provide new opportunities to the graduate and undergraduate students participating in the research, with direct support for Ph.D. students in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program, VIMS, and ODU.

As part of the outreach program our cruise (PRISM-RS) will officially host a blog (http://www.steminaction.org/blog/) for anyone to follow during and possibly after the duration of the cruise (Dec 24, 2011 – February 07, 2012). The blog is prepared and maintained by Stephanie Hathcock (email: stephanie.hathcock.guest@nbp.usap.gov - only during the length of the cruise). If you have any questions or would like to read more about a particular aspect of the cruise, please direct your questions to Stephanie.

On the science front, after a day of hiatus we continued with our slightly queasy PRISM seminars. Today’s seminar featured Dennis McGillicuddy (WHOI) who gave some preliminary results from the VPR (video Plankton Recorder) which his team deployed on January 1^st. The second part of the talk featured Joshua Eaton (WHOI) who talked about the engineering aspect of VPR.

Dennis McGillicuddy (WHOI) presenting some preliminary results from the VPR (Video Plankton Recorder). Photo by Marco Pedulli

Photo of the Day

Iceberg on the way to Antarctica (Photo by Marco Pedulli)

Marco Pedulli playing guitar near his work desk

Domain of the Antarctic

A letter from King Neptune

Today the NBP newbies received a somewhat "threatening" letter form King Neptune and it reads as follows:

“It has been duly noted by the Supreme Ruler of the Southern Depths that her Royale vessel, the NB Palmer, has entered the sacred domain of King Neptune filled with vile, treacherous and unclean neophytes who has not shown due respect to the King and his court. As such, they are all charged with various crimes against the august beings of the Royale Ocean. You are hereby commanded and ordered to appear at 1300 hours in the galley of the Palmer to answer to such charges. Be prepared for a thorough cleansing, as King Neptune and his court are rumoured to be deeply distressed by the unsanitary condition of the polywogs. And cleansed you shall be!! Be advised that leniency is shown to those that are contrite and who repent and quake in front of the Court! You should entertain the Court with amusing interludes designed to lighten the Court's sour demeanor, or face the full wrath of King Neptune, his wife and his Royale Baby (who, it might be added, is a Royale Pain). You should dress accordingly to fill the Court with lenient thoughts, and hope for the best. Be on time, and be prepared to be cleansed!

His Royale Scribe, Ino Itall “

On the science front, we successfully deployed a CTD/rosette cast to 300m depth and filled the 24bottles on the rosette shown in the picture below from 12 discrete depths (with repetitions) and sampled for oxygen, nutrients (silicate, nitrate, nitrite, ammonium and phosphate), salts, chlorophyll and proteins.  

Dan Powers (MT, RPSC) looks over the CTD rosette (Photo by Stephanie Hathcock)

Joshua Eaton (left, WHOI) and Robert Hagg (WHOI) checking on their VPR (Video Plankton Recorder) while Dan Powers (Marine Technician, RPSC) walks by. Photo by Marco Pedulli

Highlights from the New Year Celebrations!

Sunset at midnight (somewhere in the Southern Ocean)

Amy Schaub (MT- RPSC) and Diane Hutt (MT-RPSC) – pirates of the Ross Sea

“Science is more fun than drinking” says, Pete Sedwick (ODU). Tom Bibby (Southampton University) wears a “Happy New Year” orange hat. Anna Mosby (VIMS) peaking through the door! 

Sebastian  Paoni (captain, NBP) firing a flare from outside the bridge!

 Photos: Courtesy of Julian Race.

List of acronyms

ODU – Old Dominion University

VIMS – Virginia Institute of Marine Science

MT-RPSC – Marine Technician – Raytheon Polar Science Center