15 May, 2003

Continuing with yesterday's tour of the lab/tech facility at Scripps, I had the pleasure of meeting several of the "tech" guys that are responsible for all of the equipment that will be used on the Palmer this summer.

Scott was busy constructing a control box for Sue's nutrient analyzer which involved soldering a lot of circuits that I couldn't begin to describe here as well as providing a very informative summary of how they solve problems and build things for each new technology challenge demanded by every project. And Karl, who oversees the lab, was doing much of the same.

John and Rob, who will both be on the cruise, were occupied with a CTD (Conductivity/Temperature/Depth) device that is attached to the rosette sampler which holds the 24 water bottles that will collect the thousands of samples that will be measured and analyzed.

Our last stop was to take a look at the rosette sampler which contains all the CTD gear as well as other technology that I'll describe during our voyage. It seems to me, however, that everything that we will do this summer depends on the successful deployment of the rosette array. So I'm glad that it's not my responsibility for lowering and retrieving the rosette at each station as there would be a lot of unhappy scientists if all of the equipment were to be lost in the ice.

Close up of a CTD device.

The rosette sampler holding 24 water bottles.

John at work on his "tech" table.