My officemate showed me this cool website through NOAA. It is a ship tracker for the Ronald H. Brown. This will be a handy tool to see where we are while on the cruise.
http://shiptracker.noaa.gov/ship.aspx?ship_code=RBSCSACQ&timeframe=cc&mapservice=st_nmao
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Scholastic Stress
I haven't updated in a while since I have been swamped with school work. I am taking 3 courses this semester and auditing another. Last Friday I had my departmental seminar. It is basically a 15 minute intro to my thesis in front of the department and serves as public speaking practice. I got some good feedback and feel satisfied with how everything turned out.
For my other two courses, I am trying to get as much of the work done for the semester as possible. It would be ideal for me not to take an incomplete in either of them, but that might not work out. So basically that means I won't have any real weekends to do anything fun until after I get back. I guess that is just the price I will have to pay to get to go on the trip. But I think it's worth it!
The boat is leaving next week from Charleston, SC. That means we are scrambling to get everything packed up that we will need while on ship. Dr. Yuter is taking a box of my stuff and stowing it on board, so I won't have to worry about taking on the plane. Pretty good deal. I can also leave anything on the boat afterwards, and will be able to get it in January when the boat makes its way back to Charleston.
One non-research thing I am pretty excited about is the Chilean wine. Heard it is phenomenal. I'll be sure to let everyone know if it's true.
That's it for now.
Jake
For my other two courses, I am trying to get as much of the work done for the semester as possible. It would be ideal for me not to take an incomplete in either of them, but that might not work out. So basically that means I won't have any real weekends to do anything fun until after I get back. I guess that is just the price I will have to pay to get to go on the trip. But I think it's worth it!
The boat is leaving next week from Charleston, SC. That means we are scrambling to get everything packed up that we will need while on ship. Dr. Yuter is taking a box of my stuff and stowing it on board, so I won't have to worry about taking on the plane. Pretty good deal. I can also leave anything on the boat afterwards, and will be able to get it in January when the boat makes its way back to Charleston.
One non-research thing I am pretty excited about is the Chilean wine. Heard it is phenomenal. I'll be sure to let everyone know if it's true.
That's it for now.
Jake
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
The trip down
It appears that my travel plans to Arica have been solidified. It will take about 24 hours to get there and about the same to get back.
I leave Raleigh at 7:45pm on November 3rd and 3 layovers (Miami, Santiago, and Inquique) later I arrive in Arica 8:30pm on November 4th.
I will get to spend a few days in Arica before getting on the ship. I am going on the second leg of the trip, so I have to fly down to meet up with the boat. The first leg leaves from Charleston, SC on September 29th and travels through the Panamal Canal into the South Pacific. My officemate Matt is going on this part. The ship will dock in Arica on November 2nd. There is a meeting between legs to discuss issues and scientific ojectives on November 6th. The ship will then leave Arica on November 8th. Matt and I will use this time between legs to go over what worked and what didn't work on his leg and will allow me to get more comfortable with my responsibilities. I will at least have a few days in Arica to explore and get a feel for the region. (I've always wanted to visit South America).
This ship will re-dock in Arica on December 2nd and I leave on the morning of December 4th at 9:30am and will be back in Raleigh at 11:50am on December 5th.
Writing this reminds me that I need to look into getting my absentee ballot for the November election. *Note to self
I am sure this trip will be exhausting. I will be on ship for 24 days, without seeing land. Good thing I don't get sea sick. But the experience is going to be amazing. I have been looking forward to it for a while now and it still hasn't really sunk in that it is approaching.
I leave Raleigh at 7:45pm on November 3rd and 3 layovers (Miami, Santiago, and Inquique) later I arrive in Arica 8:30pm on November 4th.
I will get to spend a few days in Arica before getting on the ship. I am going on the second leg of the trip, so I have to fly down to meet up with the boat. The first leg leaves from Charleston, SC on September 29th and travels through the Panamal Canal into the South Pacific. My officemate Matt is going on this part. The ship will dock in Arica on November 2nd. There is a meeting between legs to discuss issues and scientific ojectives on November 6th. The ship will then leave Arica on November 8th. Matt and I will use this time between legs to go over what worked and what didn't work on his leg and will allow me to get more comfortable with my responsibilities. I will at least have a few days in Arica to explore and get a feel for the region. (I've always wanted to visit South America).
This ship will re-dock in Arica on December 2nd and I leave on the morning of December 4th at 9:30am and will be back in Raleigh at 11:50am on December 5th.
Writing this reminds me that I need to look into getting my absentee ballot for the November election. *Note to self
I am sure this trip will be exhausting. I will be on ship for 24 days, without seeing land. Good thing I don't get sea sick. But the experience is going to be amazing. I have been looking forward to it for a while now and it still hasn't really sunk in that it is approaching.
VOCALS-Rex Overview
Hello blogsphere,
I started this blog to keep my friends, family, and colleagues updated on what is going on in my life as pertains to a field study I will be taking part in later this year. I will leave November 3rd and return to the U.S. December 5th. The study, VOCALS-Rex, will be looking at ocean-atmosphere interactions in the South Pacific off the coast of Chile. The name VOCALS is a nested acronym, but illustrates well what we are actually looking at. VOCALS-Rex stands for VAMOS Ocean Cloud Atmosphere Land Study - Regional Experiment, while VAMOS stands for Variability in the American Monsoon System. A mouthful, I know. The aspects that my research group is most interested in are the clouds. We will be looking at the marine stratocumulus which form over the region and produce drizzle. These clouds are poorly represented in present global climate models, and better understanding of these clouds will aid in better model parameterizations in the future. Also, having these intense observations of the clouds will allow us to investigate how processes within clouds lead to the formation of precipitation size droplets.
I will be operating the C-Band radar which mounted atop our ship the NOAA Ronald H. Brown (see link below). I will be monitoring any shifts in calibration, so we can correct for these in post-processing. I will be releasing weather balloons every 4 hours. This will give us a better picture of the vertical properties of the atmosphere. I hope I can find someone on board to take at least one of these off my hands each day. Just so I get enough sleep. My last task will be taking cloud photos every hour there is sunlight.
That is it for now. I just wanted to give everyone somewhat of an overview of what I’ll be doing while on this trip. I will be providing personal and professional reflections while preparing for VOCALS, while I’m on ship, and of course, on my journey there.
Our ship: http://www.moc.noaa.gov/rb/
A good overview: http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/vocals/vocals_intro.html&edu=high&portal=vocals
-Jake
I started this blog to keep my friends, family, and colleagues updated on what is going on in my life as pertains to a field study I will be taking part in later this year. I will leave November 3rd and return to the U.S. December 5th. The study, VOCALS-Rex, will be looking at ocean-atmosphere interactions in the South Pacific off the coast of Chile. The name VOCALS is a nested acronym, but illustrates well what we are actually looking at. VOCALS-Rex stands for VAMOS Ocean Cloud Atmosphere Land Study - Regional Experiment, while VAMOS stands for Variability in the American Monsoon System. A mouthful, I know. The aspects that my research group is most interested in are the clouds. We will be looking at the marine stratocumulus which form over the region and produce drizzle. These clouds are poorly represented in present global climate models, and better understanding of these clouds will aid in better model parameterizations in the future. Also, having these intense observations of the clouds will allow us to investigate how processes within clouds lead to the formation of precipitation size droplets.
I will be operating the C-Band radar which mounted atop our ship the NOAA Ronald H. Brown (see link below). I will be monitoring any shifts in calibration, so we can correct for these in post-processing. I will be releasing weather balloons every 4 hours. This will give us a better picture of the vertical properties of the atmosphere. I hope I can find someone on board to take at least one of these off my hands each day. Just so I get enough sleep. My last task will be taking cloud photos every hour there is sunlight.
That is it for now. I just wanted to give everyone somewhat of an overview of what I’ll be doing while on this trip. I will be providing personal and professional reflections while preparing for VOCALS, while I’m on ship, and of course, on my journey there.
Our ship: http://www.moc.noaa.gov/rb/
A good overview: http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/vocals/vocals_intro.html&edu=high&portal=vocals
-Jake
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