A sound velocity profile is helpful for calibrating instruments that rely on a ping sent from a source that reflects back to that source’s location. In some cases, it’s enough to assume sound travels through seawater at 1500 meters per second. However, there are many exceptions and an accurate profile of the water column can shift data points from other instruments significantly. … Read More
WIRED tour and unanswered questions
Scripps Ships Operations director Bruce Appelgate gave WIRED magazine a tour of the R/V Sally Ride while it was docked in San Francisco. It was done via Facebook Live, so there were a lot of questions asked in the comments. The videos below cover many of them, and more have been covered already in other blog posts, but I’m going … Read More
SVC2 – testing the ship
The second science verification cruise took place on R/V Sally Ride last week. CalCOFI (California Cooperative Oceanic and Fisheries Investigations) is a collection of scientists from SIO and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), that run transects off the coast of California once per season. Thus there are four research cruises a year, occupying the same stations, and sampling … Read More
Making it Official
The christening ceremony for R/V Sally Ride took place back on August 9, 2014. It’s tradition for a ship to be christened (given its name) as soon as it hits the water for the first time – and that a bottle of champagne is broken across her bow as part of the ceremony. This important role was performed by Dr. … Read More
Deploy, Recover, Repair, Repeat
The first science verification cruise (SVC) took place on R/V Sally Ride earlier this month. If you’ve read the earlier posts, about the project goals and loading of the ship, you know that the objective of the chief scientist, Dr. Bill Hodgkiss of UCSD, was to record acoustic signatures from ships in the Santa Barbara Channel. We departed SIO’s marine facility … Read More
Cup Rack
The cup rack is ready! Present on many of the oceanographic research vessels I’ve sailed on, the cup rack keeps you honest. If there is just a stash of cups, many people leave them behind all over the ship. Make coffee, take it to the lab, set it down, forget about it. Other people don’t want to clean up after … Read More
Loading the ship for science!
The R/V Sally Ride leaves tomorrow morning for its first science verification cruise (SVC)! Click here for the previous blog post with more information about the project. Today was spent loading all the science equipment onboard, and securing it. First, the setup on the fantail had to be changed to accommodate the science plan. Cleats and other items that were … Read More
(Seafloor) Mapping the Way Home
I love maps. When my family drove across the country when I was a kid, I was the navigator, tracking how many miles until the next junction, or Dairy Queen. When my dad asked me what I wanted for my 25th birthday I told him a globe, the kind with sea monsters on it! I love that it’s easy to find … Read More
#WelcomeSallyRide
Second mate Jeff Kirby has plotted our course home to San Diego Bay. But first, the R/V Sally Ride is going to come in close to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Pier in La Jolla. Come wave hello and welcome the ship home on Friday, August 26 at 4pm. The northern end of La Jolla Shores beach, near the pier, … Read More