WEBVTT FILE 1 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:15.240 In Newport, Oregon, during the month of October, an 2 00:00:15.240 --> 00:00:18.870 environmental research vessel called the Bold Horizon prepared 3 00:00:18.870 --> 00:00:21.000 to embark on a month long journey as part of a scientific 4 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:22.080 mission called S-MODE. 5 00:00:25.960 --> 00:00:30.010 So S-MODE is one of the NASA Earth venture series 6 00:00:30.070 --> 00:00:33.250 experiments. So it's a big multi-institutional experiment. 7 00:00:33.610 --> 00:00:38.110 We're mostly looking at the upper ocean velocities, how the 8 00:00:38.350 --> 00:00:43.180 upper meters of the ocean move. So we're learning that these 9 00:00:43.180 --> 00:00:46.690 small scales, or small scale currents are more and more 10 00:00:46.690 --> 00:00:51.070 important for our understanding of ventilation or how the upper 11 00:00:51.070 --> 00:00:56.950 ocean is interacting with the atmosphere. So right now, it's 12 00:00:56.950 --> 00:01:00.400 important to— we're unpacking all our packages and installing 13 00:01:00.400 --> 00:01:02.950 instrumentation, making sure everything works and everything 14 00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:07.870 fits. We have just two days, maybe three days just to do it. 15 00:01:07.870 --> 00:01:12.160 And it's a lot of work, a lot of instrumentation go up top very, 16 00:01:12.310 --> 00:01:14.890 to the top of the ship, some go down below. 17 00:01:19.550 --> 00:01:22.910 So we care about the vertical movement of things like heat and 18 00:01:22.910 --> 00:01:25.370 carbon in the ocean, because it's really important for 19 00:01:25.370 --> 00:01:29.450 climate change. So I'm on the biology team. And in terms of 20 00:01:29.450 --> 00:01:32.330 biology, we care about how carbon moves throughout the 21 00:01:32.360 --> 00:01:34.940 ocean, because if that carbon gets deep enough in the ocean, 22 00:01:35.060 --> 00:01:38.990 it stays there, and it's not released to the atmosphere. And 23 00:01:38.990 --> 00:01:40.850 that's really important for what's called the greenhouse 24 00:01:40.850 --> 00:01:44.360 effect. If you have more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, you 25 00:01:44.360 --> 00:01:47.720 have more heating. And then in terms of the physics side, we 26 00:01:47.720 --> 00:01:50.150 care about things like temperature and salinity, 27 00:01:50.600 --> 00:01:53.300 because the ocean moves around heat, and that's how the ocean 28 00:01:53.630 --> 00:01:55.940 controls the world's climate. 29 00:01:55.000 --> 00:02:11.260 This is an Imaging Flow Cytobot, we're going to use it to look at 30 00:02:11.290 --> 00:02:14.410 phytoplankton community composition at the sea surface. 31 00:02:15.430 --> 00:02:19.240 We'll sample from the ship seawater intake over there. When 32 00:02:19.240 --> 00:02:24.790 a cell flows through the system, from the seawater intake, it 33 00:02:24.790 --> 00:02:29.350 will trigger the lasers. And then once that happens, the 34 00:02:30.160 --> 00:02:32.050 camera will take a picture. 35 00:02:33.440 --> 00:02:36.140 Teams of scientists spent the better part of a week 36 00:02:36.140 --> 00:02:39.470 retrofitting the ship for their instruments and data collection. 37 00:02:46.280 --> 00:02:49.550 I'm just testing this float, this float will be deployed in 38 00:02:49.550 --> 00:02:55.280 this S-MODE mission to measure the vertical velocity. And this 39 00:02:55.280 --> 00:02:58.970 is the— this is the spatial characteristics of this float 40 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:03.560 because it can move with the water per se. So it can measure 41 00:03:03.590 --> 00:03:05.570 the W, means the vertical velocity. 42 00:03:10.550 --> 00:03:14.240 So we have like these two primary disciplines that are 43 00:03:14.240 --> 00:03:16.610 going to be on one boat together, and that's going to be 44 00:03:16.700 --> 00:03:19.190 the biology folks that are trying to understand how the 45 00:03:19.190 --> 00:03:22.400 biology of the ocean is interacting with the physics. So 46 00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:24.770 then we also have a lot of physical oceanographers on the 47 00:03:24.770 --> 00:03:27.500 boat. And it's kind of bringing us together that we can piece 48 00:03:27.500 --> 00:03:30.860 together this larger story of submesoscale features, what's 49 00:03:30.860 --> 00:03:33.230 happening on these smaller scales that are not are not 50 00:03:33.230 --> 00:03:35.900 currently captured by existing models and measurements. 51 00:03:37.940 --> 00:03:41.180 In addition to the scientific fields on board, the Bold 52 00:03:41.180 --> 00:03:43.820 Horizon isn't the only component of the mission. 53 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:48.550 The excitement of this project is that a lot of this is cutting 54 00:03:48.550 --> 00:03:53.530 edge. So the interaction of these multiple platforms is the 55 00:03:53.530 --> 00:03:57.040 biggest challenge. So we have three aircraft flying overhead. 56 00:03:57.370 --> 00:04:01.240 We have multiple vehicles on the surface have multiple vehicles 57 00:04:01.270 --> 00:04:05.590 underwater, but we will need to navigate our way through this 58 00:04:05.590 --> 00:04:09.790 constellation of instruments. The other thing is that we are 59 00:04:09.850 --> 00:04:14.230 chasing these really fast ocean features. They change really 60 00:04:14.230 --> 00:04:18.850 fast and matter of hours. That's why having eyes in the sky is a 61 00:04:18.880 --> 00:04:21.880 great asset. So they will be able to direct us to just the 62 00:04:21.880 --> 00:04:25.720 right spots and we will try to move all our surface assets, 63 00:04:25.720 --> 00:04:30.970 move our ship to where the action is and be there right in 64 00:04:30.970 --> 00:04:31.450 time. 65 00:04:38.050 --> 00:04:41.890 For these, we're watching radio science to measure atmospheric— 66 00:04:43.090 --> 00:04:46.240 weather in the atmosphere. So temperature, pressure, humidity 67 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:50.500 and winds. And the reason we're doing this as part of our field 68 00:04:50.500 --> 00:04:55.960 experiment, is because that we know from other past evidence 69 00:04:55.960 --> 00:04:59.560 that the ocean can affect the weather. And one thing that 70 00:04:59.560 --> 00:05:03.370 we're really interested in is seeing how big of a change in 71 00:05:03.370 --> 00:05:06.100 ocean temperature or ocean currents can affect the weather. 72 00:05:07.270 --> 00:05:10.210 Part of the low cost of the system is it's just a Styrofoam 73 00:05:10.240 --> 00:05:13.420 cup, really, and the electronics are really the star of the show 74 00:05:13.420 --> 00:05:13.780 here. 75 00:05:24.490 --> 00:05:29.080 The most exciting thing about this line of work is that you 76 00:05:29.080 --> 00:05:32.290 never know what to expect. So this this sense of discovery 77 00:05:32.320 --> 00:05:36.820 that I think drives most people that go out to sea. We know 78 00:05:36.820 --> 00:05:40.390 there will be new exciting features waiting for us there. 79 00:05:40.630 --> 00:05:43.270 We don't know what they are. We don't know where they are, but 80 00:05:43.270 --> 00:05:46.810 we'll be chasing them. We know we will find something that will 81 00:05:46.810 --> 00:05:49.720 motivate us and really got us excited that keeps us you know, 82 00:05:49.720 --> 00:05:52.930 working through the nights to actually understand what it is 83 00:05:53.020 --> 00:05:54.820 happening how the ocean works.