All Science, All the Time

As our research vessel (the Laurence M. Gould) crossed the Drake Passage to Antarctica, our team of scientists helped researchers from Scripps Intitution of Oceanography collect important information about the Drake's waters.

Our team had a chance to help with the deployment of 63 XBTs (expendable bathythermographs), essentially tiny missile-like objects that collect temperature data as they descend into the water and send the information to a computer onboard through a copper wire.

Team member Dan deploying one of the XBTs off the side of the Gould

We also helped deploy 10 XCDTs (expendable conductivity temperature and depths), in order to measure the salt content throughout the water column.  In addition, water and air samples were collected periodically.

All this information is used to help track currents and bodies of water that are funneling through the Drake Passage.  This data has been collected every year since 1996 by deploying these instruments on research cruises like ours as they cross the Drake Passage.

Real-time data shown on the computer monitor on board from the instruments

Now that we have officially crossed the Drake into Antarctica, we have finished helping to collect this data and are eagerly awaiting the start of our Antacrtic seafloor research due to begin February 19th!