In February and March of 1997, I went on a research cruise to the Labrador Sea
on the R/V Knorr, cruise number KN147-V. Bob Pickart was the chief
scientist. We were hoping to see oceanic deep convection, a bottom-to-top
overturning of the water column which occurs only in a few places on Earth, and
only during the deepest winter conditions.
I served as a CTD watchstander. Our job was to deploy, retrieve, and operate the CTD (Conductivity, Temperature, Depth) package. In addition to measuring salinity, temperature, and pressure, this instrument uses a "rosette" of sampler bottles to collect water samples at various depths. Once the package is retrieved, I helped prepare water samples for chemical analysis.
My work on board was an equal mixture of working computers and other instruments in the lab and working outside in arctic conditions. The latter was a far cry from my usual life, and it was both exhausting and exciting.
The biggest mistake I made on this cruise was failing to pack my camera. I
bought a pair of disposable cameras in Halifax before I left; these photos are
selected from those images. As one might imagine, the quality is fairly poor. I have also included some pictures taken by Bob Pickart, chief scientist on this cruise -- these are generally excellent.
However, I wrote home to my friends via the ship's e-mail system, in a sort of open diary. I've kept those messages, and have included them below, cross-referenced and indexed with photos of the places mentioned in the text. I've included sections from these letters in with the pictures, too. If you were on that mailing list, feel free to ignore the text and just look at the pictures.
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| Jason Goodman (Goodmanj@mit.edu) | Up to my home page |