Daily Logs
Week 3

Date: Sunday, September 16, 2001
Photos: Flying fish and scientists at work
Latitude: 9o 59.2 N
Longitude: 94o 59.2 W
Temperature: 27.5o C
Seas: Sea wave height: 1 foot
Swell wave height: 3-4 feet
Visibility: 8 miles
Cloud cover: 7/8
Water Temp: 29.5oC

Science Log: We will be at this location in the ocean for a total of 18 days. This is the main data-gathering time for everyone on the ship. The operations continue 24 hours a day, and are very repetitive. The pictures you'll see today show you some of the typical activities going on. There are weather balloons deployed by the radar group from Colorado State University 10 times a day. We receive a signal from them for up to 2 hours after being launched, and they reach an altitude of 12 miles before we lose them. There is an incessant beeping in the lab as the computer acknowledges that it is receiving data. The threatened punishment for anyone who gets out of line would be to lock them in this room with the computer volume turned as high as it goes.

Another 'round the clock activity on the ship is the deployment of the MMPs by the University of Washington group. The reel the MMP out, and pull it back in, over and over, 24 hours a day.

Finally, there are CTD casts a couple times during the day and night. The CTD goes to 1000 meters deep (the theoretical limit for scuba divers is 99 meters) to collect water samples that are used by the University of California at Santa Barbara group and by Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.
Travel Log: We had engine problems this morning, which I don't think are a big deal, but it reminds me of a story. Since my students love stories, I thought I'd share it (Kalen- this one's for you!). A year and a half ago my husband and I were on vacation in Fiji doing some scuba diving. The boat reminded me a lot of the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars- a big, clumsy hunk-of-junk. As a third-world country, their boats were maintained about as well as the potholes in Manhattan. There were about 20 passengers on the boat and two crew members, both no older than 18. As we sailed, one of the crew guys drove the boat, while the other banged on equipment in the engine room with large wrenches- literally banged on them non-stop. Well, actually he did stop every few minutes- to pour more transmission fluid into the transmission. We went through gallons of the stuff before our afternoon trip had ended. Unfortunately, the trip didn't end at a dock- it ended when the engine finally died and we were stranded in a murky, olive green river in the jungle. The guy who had been driving the boat was no longer preoccupied with his duties (you can't drive if the boat won't move), so he swam to shore, avoiding any sea serpents that surely lived in the water, walked to the road, hitchhiked to a phone, and called a buddy for help. After several hours of desperately wanting to get off the darn boat and on to something clean and familiar, another boat showed up with a rope, and towed us to shore. I share this story with you because I am so happy to be on a good 'ole American vessel, where I am confident we won't have to swim to shore for help.
Tonight we are having a barbeque on the stern. I'll give you a full report tomorrow.

Question of the day: What is the main function of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)?

Photo Descriptions: Today's photos - Remember when I told you several days ago about the flying fish? Well, one flew right onto the ship and died. Although it is sad to see a dead animal, it seemed like a good time to show you what they look like up close. They actually have wing-like structures that fan out while they fly. The rest of today's pictures show miscellaneous things going on here- a picture of me launching a weather balloon, a picture of Jack Miller from the University of Washington deploying the MMP, a picture of Sergio Pezoa from NOAA ETL risking life and limb to do research (not really), and a picture of John Mickett from the University of Washington as he tows the MMP back to the ship.

Keep in touch,
Jennifer

Date: Monday, September 17, 2001
Photos: Medical Officer Joe and BBQ on stern
Latitude: 9o 58.8 N
Longitude: 95o 00.1 W
Temperature: 29.5oC
Seas: Sea wave height: 2-3 feet
Swell wave height: 3-4 feet
Visibility: 10 miles
Cloud cover: 8/8
Water Temp: 29.5oC

Science Log: I got a chance to look at some weather balloon data from Dr. Rob Cifelli. It's really neat- this particular weather balloon traveled to 16 km altitude, where it probably increased 5 times in size before the air pressure finally popped it. The data I saw showed temperature, pressure, dew point, wind speed and direction for the entire troposphere. It's neat to see the data behaving the way the textbooks say it should. I'll be working on a lesson plan that incorporates these data and graphs so you can see them.

Travel Log: Today I met with Joe, the ship's doctor. He's a super nice guy and we talked for hours about life as a medical officer at sea, a medical officer at a federal prison, and the state of medical affairs in the U.S. today. Of course, the part of that discussion that you would be most interested in is the "at sea" part. I was surprised to learn that only 2 of NOAA's 16 ships have a medical officer on board. The others have EMTs, but no formal medical facilities. The primary reason for this is that the Ronald H. Brown travels all over the world, primarily beyond reach of U.S. Coast Guard helicopters. Since the helicopters typically have a range of approximately 200 miles, ships that spend most of their time beyond this distance (such as the Ronald H. Brown) have a medical officer. Most NOAA ships hug the coasts, so in case of emergency a helicopter could come rescue the patient and fly them to appropriate medical facilities on land.

The first thing I wanted to know was what would happen if there were a medical emergency on this ship? Well, the clinic on the Ronald H. Brown was designed right from the start to be a clinic, rather than being a converted broom closet, so we are pretty lucky to have all the necessary life-saving equipment that we would need. Joe has all the equipment necessary to stabilize a heart attack patient- EKG, oxygen, defibrillator, IV, medication, etc. All NOAA ships have access to the Medical Advisory System (MAS) which allows communication 24 hours a day with a doctor who has all the necessary references to walk you through any medical procedure. Once the patient is stabilized, the ship would sail to the closest port and the patient would be transported to the nearest U.S. medical facility.

I was afraid to ask Joe about the worst medical emergency he's encountered on the ship, but relieved to hear it was just a fish hook stuck in someone's hand. It was a really big hook, and it was really deep in the hand, but the patient was OK. During the first couple days of each cruise Joe sees a lot of seasick patients, but that's pretty easy to treat. Several years ago, on a different ship with a different medical officer, a group of people were swimming in the ocean and a woman's leg was bit off by a shark. She is alive today, but swimming is now prohibited on all NOAA ships.

In addition to being the ship's medical officer, Joe does sanitation inspections of the ship's kitchen, handles all workplace safety issues, and ensures that the ship is complying with all environmental federal and international maritime agreements. Being at sea would be a pretty miserable place to get food poisoning, so I'm glad to hear that it's not a real concern. As for maritime agreements, there are lots of regulations about what can be disposed of at sea (i.e. sewage and human waste, incinerated paper products), and what types of waste must remain on the ship until we reach port (plastics, recyclables, etc.). The best part about getting sick at sea? Joe makes house calls.

Question of the day: How many shark attacks were reported last year in the world?

Photo Descriptions: Today photos - you'll see two pictures of the ship's Medical Officer, Joe, in the clinic. I'm also sending some pictures of the BBQ served out on the stern last night, showing Dr. Dave Winkel, the kitchen stewards at the smoky grill, and tables of crew and scientists enjoying the feast. Wonderful place for a picnic, don't you think?

Keep in touch,
Jennifer

Date: Tuesday, September 18, 2001
Photos: CTD testing and birds
Latitude: 9o 55.0 N
Longitude: 95o 1.2 W
Temperature: 28.1o C
Seas: Sea wave height: 1-2 feet
Swell wave height: 3-4 feet
Visibility: 8-10 miles
Cloud cover: 8/8
Water Temp: 29.4oC

Science Log: Today I caught up once again with Dr. Carter Ohlmann and Mr. Dave Menzies from the University of California at Santa Barbara. They have been doing CTD casts every day to obtain water samples to 1000 meters deep. Once the CTD returns to the surface, they fill their bottles with the water and filter out the chlorophyll. They add acetone to the filters which now contain the chlorophyll, and freeze them overnight to dissolve the filter paper and release the chlorophyll into suspension. Tomorrow, they will measure the amount of green and blue wavelengths reflected from the samples, to determine the approximate amount of chlorophyll present.

Travel Log: There are so many things about being on this ship that have become very normal, and I have to remind myself that to people who aren't on the ship, these things are unique and potentially interesting. An example of that is the light situation at night. A few times I have gone out on deck at night to hang out, but it is completely pitch dark, and kind of creepy. I mean, here you are on a moving object, but you can hardly see your hand in front of your face. The little that you do see is moving, and you're constantly wondering if you passed a little fog, or if that was a shadow of a nearby person. Am I standing next to someone and have no idea? On any other moving object (car, train, plane) there are some form of lights projected from the ship to illuminate the surrounding area (car headlights, for example). On a ship it's almost the exact opposite- they keep the ship as dark as possible at night so that the bridge can get good night vision.

Of course we have a few lights on the ship to make us visible to other vessels, but there is a whole routine we go through at night to keep things dark. All the portholes are closed, so that interior lights don't escape to the outside. On the top level of the ship, where my stateroom is, the interior hall lights are changed to red. All computer screens in the bridge have red filters placed on top. If you go out on deck with even the smallest flashlight, it ruins the night vision for anyone in the bridge. Everything has to be as dark as possible so that the crew in the bridge can see as far as possible into the darkness and identify any objects that could be crash hazards- small boats, buoys, etc. Of course, the nice side affect of all this is that you get an amazing view of the stars. If we weren't sitting on a moving and rocking object, this would be a fantastic place to bring a telescope.

Question of the day: Why are red lights used in darkrooms and for night vision? Why not blue, yellow, or some other color?

Photo Descriptions: Today's pictures show the group from the University of California at Santa Barbara- Dr. Carter Ohlmann and Dave Menzies- as they collect and process samples from the CTD. In addition, you'll see one of the land birds that has somehow made its way to the ship (cute, eh?).

Keep in touch,
Jennifer

Date: Wednesday, September 19, 2001
Photos: MMP, pilot whales, and Jane Temoshok's science class
Latitude: 9o 55.8 N
Longitude: 95o 0.7 W
Temperature: 29.9o C
Seas: Sea wave height: 2-3 feet
Swell wave height: 3-4 feet
Visibility: 8-10 miles
Cloud cover: 5/8
Water Temp: 29.4oC

Science Log: Today I checked in with the University of Washington group. They have been deploying their MMP 24 hours a day, with each person working 12 hour shifts. I've been told that in a few days they should have enough data to start doing some analysis. At this stage, they are still checking the data for validity. I'll be sure to let you know what kinds of results they are getting.

Travel Log: Today was the first live web feed from the ship. We had a number of schools participating from around the country, as well as several NOAA offices and my husband looking on. Thank you to all the teachers who have been enthusiastically following this trip and for making the live feed a success.

Here is the list of the live video broadcast participants:

• My classes at Guajome Park Academy in Vista, CA
• Jane Temoshok's class at Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy in Alexandria, VA
• Susan Carty's class at Stetson Middle School in PA
• Laurie Bricker's classes at Sligo Middle School in MD
• Carl Hazen's class at Bedminster School in NJ
• Gay Byer's class at Northley Middle School in PA
• Mike Stern's class at Westhoff Independent School District in TX
• Plainfield Elementary School in New Hampshire
• Science Center in Fort Wayne, IN
• NOAA's Office of Global Programs
• Admiral Fields at NOAA's Office of Marine and Aviation Operations
• NOAA Research Public Relation Offices
• National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Atmospheric Sciences

We'll be doing this twice more over the next couple weeks, and I promise next time I will model the gumby survival suit for you!

I had a very interesting conversation today with Captain Dreves about water sources on the ship. We get water 3 ways while at sea. If there was a fire on the ship, we would pump ocean water into the hydrants to fight it. Drinking water is manufactured on the ship using two different methods- an evaporation plant and reverse osmosis- both methods separate the salt and particulates out of salt water. The ship can generate 4500 gallons per day using these methods, which is quite astounding to me. Why do we have such a water problem in California if water can be desalinated so easily?

Well, you need engine power to run the evaporator and reverse osmosis systems, which works well for us since we have the engine running 24/7. And since we are always moving, the salt and particulate waste is evenly distributed in the ocean behind us. If we were a stationary land facility, there would be significant impacts on the coastal environment.

Question of the day: If you wanted to be a Mate on a ship, what organization would issue you a "Mate's License?"

Photo Descriptions: Today I am sending more MMP pictures. If you recall, the MMP is the key piece of equipment being used by the University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory. In one picture, you'll see me standing next to one of the MMPs in its crate. You'll also see a picture of Jack Miller and Paul Aguilar working to deploy it. I also thought you might enjoy some whale pictures.

Keep in touch,
Jennifer

Date: Thursday, September 20, 2001
Photos: Engine Room
Latitude: 9o 56.1 N
Longitude: 95o 0.1 W
Temperature: 26.9o C
Seas: Sea wave height: 2-3 feet
Swell wave height: 3-4 feet
Visibility: 8-10 miles
Cloud cover: 6/8
Water Temp: 29.5oC

Science Log: Today I saw some of the data plots being created by the University of Washington scientists. While they haven't discovered any "ah ha!!" data, they gave me some plots of data that follow a textbook-type pattern of temperature, salinity and density to 1000 meters deep in the ocean. There is not a significant amount of ocean layer mixing showing up in the data, primarily due to the calm weather we have been experiencing. The bridge got a weather report today indicating that we may hit a severe storm in the next 24 hours. If so, it will be interesting to compare the stratification data during a storm event to the data collected under calm conditions.

Travel Log: Well, I just learned that some of the crew have been laughing at me behind my back, and I must take this opportunity to print a retraction to something I wrote previously. When I referred to the engine (singular), I should have referred to engines (multiple). "Do you really think this entire ship is powered by a single engine?" they asked me. Duh, I don't know. So today I asked the lead engineer, Mike Gowan, for a tour of the engine room (while crew nearby taunted me by saying "why, so you can see THE engine?" snicker snicker). So here I am, ready to redeem myself for my previous error, which I fear will not soon be forgotten.
First thing you see when you enter the engine room are two rows of huge burly men with tattered shirts and big oars in their hands, rowing as fast as they can.

Just kidding.

It takes 7 people to operate and maintain the equipment in the engine room- that's over one-third of the crew. The Ronald H. Brown operates off of 6 diesel generator engines (yes 6, not 1!).

• Three engines are V8 1000 horsepower, and they are primarily used for ship services- lights, computer power, research equipment power, etc. If needed, these three engines can also be used for ship propulsion.
• There are three V16 2000 horsepower engines, which are used only for propulsion.

There are two buses that distribute power from the engines. The "ship service bus " distributes power to the ship's services, and the "propulsion bus" distributes propulsion power.

The ship does not use a rudder for steering. Instead, it uses two Z-drive propulsion motors (stern thrusters), and a bow thruster. The Z-drive motors operate 360 degrees, allowing thrust in all directions. If you recall one of the basic laws of physics says that "any action must create in an equal and opposite reaction." If you push or thrust water away from the ship on the left side, the ship will move to the right. If you push water forward from the bow, the ship will move backwards. By controlling the amount of force being thrusted, and the exact angle at which it is thrusted (remember, the Z-drive motors operate in a full 360 degrees circle), you can precisely control where the ship moves. This is not a common feature on ships, but it allows us to maintain an exact position in the ocean, like a helicopter maintaining an exact position in the sky. Cool, huh?

The engine room is really loud and really hot. I was only there for 15-20 minutes, but I was pretty uncomfortable by the end of the tour. Even with ear protection, it was still very loud, and impossible to talk to anyone. Can you imagine working all day in an environment like that?

The most unexpected part about my tour was the computer automated controls. There was a whole room with nothing but buttons. lights, and computer screens. It makes complete sense that they would be computer controlled, but I guess on the ship I expected something more old-fashioned. The computers can control most every aspect of the engines. If you want, you can set them on automatic settings so that engines will start and stop automatically, based on the power requirements from whoever is driving ship from the bridge. Mr. Gowan doesn't use these auto functions, so that he can keep an eye on what the engines are doing and control them most appropriately.

While touring the engine room I also got to check out the evaporator and the reverse osmosis systems, used to generate desalinated water. Check yesterday's log for more information about these systems.

Question of the day: How many documented cases of ocean piracy were reported last year?

Photo Descriptions: Today's photos: Today I am showing you pictures of the engine room. One picture shows Mike Gowan at the computer controls. In another picture, you see the large yellow propulsion engines. There is also a picture of the smaller ship service engine. One picture shows large silver round things- that is the evaporator. Finally, a picture of the bow thruster. You can see that it is round at the bottom, reminding you that it works in a full 360 degree circle.

Keep in touch,
Jennifer

Date: Friday, September 21, 2001
Photos: CTD testing and Spanish class
Latitude: 9o 55.0 N
Longitude: 95o 0.8 W
Temperature: 26.3o C
Seas: Sea wave height: 1-2 feet
Swell wave height: 3-4 feet
Visibility: 8-10 miles
Cloud cover: 8/8
Water Temp: 29.3oC

Science Log: I have been making the rounds among the science groups and asking if any significant discoveries have been made on this cruise yet, or at least if there have been any "oh, wow!!" moments as they review their data. Unfortunately, science is not a very fast process, and they have all said that it will probably be years before the data is fully analyzed and interpreted. So, will the scientific research on this cruise revolutionize the climate forecasting models? Possibly. Will it happen during the next couple weeks? Probably not, but I promise you'll be the first to know.

Meanwhile, we are still on station at 10N, 95W and the 24-hour operations continue. Today's pictures focus on the CTD deployments. The CTD is a series of bottles in a circular pattern that are lowered into the ocean. For our purposes, the CTD is lowered to 300 meters, but they can go as far as the ocean floor (approximately 3800 meters at this location). A large winch lowers the cable to 300 meters, and as it lifts the CTD up to the surface, it pauses at designated intervals to capture a water sample. Dr. Carter Ohlmann sits at a computer, reading the depth of the CTD, and at the right times, he pushes a button to close one of the bottles on the CTD. When the instrument reaches the surface, each bottle contains water from different depths, and both Dr. Ohlmann (University of California) and Dr. Martinez (Mexico) use the samples for their research.

Travel Log: Dr. Amporo Martinez, one of the scientists on the ship, is from Mexico. One of the crew members asked her to teach him a little Spanish, and of course she said yes. When another crew member heard about this, he asked if he could be included. Again, she said yes without hesitation. Then, those two guys made a flyer and posted it in the mess - "Spanish Classes Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7:30 in the library." At this point, Amparo was getting a little nervous about what she's gotten herself into, and sure enough, there were about 15 people in class. That's one-third of the ship! So we are all hoping to learn a little bit of Spanish to help us when we get to the Galapagos Islands. Yo soy gringa.

Question of the day: What is the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)?

Photo Descriptions: Today's photos: Today I am sending several pictures of the CTD as it is lowered into the ocean, and one artsy-looking picture of it actually under water. Once the water samples are obtained, they are almost immediately filtered to separate the water from the chlorophyll and particulates, so I've included a picture of the various samples being filtered. There's also a picture of Dr. Martinez teaching us some Spanish.

Keep in touch,
Jennifer

Date: Saturday, September 22, 2001
Photos: Storm brewing and diagram
Latitude: 9o 54.2 N
Longitude: 95o 1.2 W
Temperature: 26.8o C
Seas: Sea wave height: 2-3 feet
Swell wave height: 3-4 feet
Visibility: 6-8 miles
Cloud cover: 7/8
Water Temp: 29.3oC

Science Log: I met with the radar group from Colorado State University to see what kind of results they have obtained from their data so far. Apparently, it was pretty good timing, because they had just finished creating a movie file that shows an animated version of the data they've collected over the last week. The data is collected by the radar 24 hours a day, so over the course of a week there is quite a lot of data generated. Of course, one week of data isn't enough to make remarkable discoveries with, but it's a start.

One of the things Dr. Rob Cifelli, Dr. Walt Petersen, and Dr. Dennis Boccippio are looking at is the lightening potential in the area, and how it compares with other parts of the world. We have had some spectacular lightening shows during the trip, and the data collected by this team has shown that the clouds in this area are more electrified than clouds in the western Pacific Ocean.

What is an "electrified" cloud? It's a cloud that is ready to produce lightening. Let's look at cloud growth and dynamics to understand how a cloud becomes electrified.

As air moves in updrafts and rises into the sky, what happens to the air temperature? It decreases, of course. The warm tropical air, full of water vapor, rises to the point where condensation occurs and a cloud is formed. If the drafts are strong enough, the air will eventually cool to the freezing point and colder. In this part of the world (10N, 95W) the altitude where the air temperature reaches 0 degrees Celsius is approximately 5 kilometers. Beyond this point the air temperature continues to decrease. When the moisture in the air hits the freezing point, it doesn't all instantaneously turn into ice crystals. There are complex physics that keep some of the water in liquid form, and some of it turns into ice. As the liquid water at this altitude bumps into existing ice crystals, the water freezes to the ice, forming a coating of rime. As the ice grows by this riming process, it can eventually produce particles called graupel (baby hail).

The part of the atmosphere where the temperature is between the freezing point and -40 degrees Celsius is called the "mixed phase" layer. Below -40 degrees any liquid water will spontaneously freeze. The air in the mixed phase layer contains both water and ice. This is the region of the cloud where electric charge is separated and lightening is produced. To have an active mixed phase layer, the cloud updrafts have to life raindrops above the freezing level high enough and fast enough so the drops don't all freeze right away and they can interact with ice crystals that are already there. After raindrops are lofted into the mixed phase region and interact with ice particles to form graupel. As the graupel falls it bumps into small ice crystals which are either moving up or moving down slower than the graupel. Most atmospheric scientists think that the collisions of graupel with small ice crystals in the presence of liquid water separates charge and produces cloud electrification. An electrified cloud is one that contains an active mixed phase layer (lots of collisions between ice and liquid water above the freezing level).

How do you measure the amount of ice crystals in the clouds, so that you know whether a mixed phase layer is present? That's where the radar technicalities come into play. The radar sends out a certain amount of energy, and receives a fraction of that energy back. Water reflects more of the radar signal than ice. When your power return is greater than 30 dBZ above the freezing level, you can be pretty sure you are detecting large ice (graupel) in the cloud. By measuring the amount of time it took for the signal to bounce off the cloud and return to the radar, you can determine how far away that part of the cloud is.

From the data collected on this research cruise so far, the CSU team has been able to infer that the clouds in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean have a more active mixed phase process, meaning there is more liquid water lifted above the freezing level and it's there long enough to interact with ice before freezing. This, in turn, allows the charge to separate, and voilá! lightening is produced.

Is this information anything new and exciting? Well, yes! Satellite images have been used for a while to view the tops of clouds, and observers on the ground can view the bottoms of clouds, but you have to know the internal structure of the cloud to understand what type of weather it will produce. If you don't know the temperature and phase of the water in the cloud, you can't expect to accurately predict how it formed, how it dissipates, and how it is interacting with the rest of the atmosphere. Answers to all of these questions are necessary for climate modeling. Most atmospheric scientists believe that electrified clouds produce a different response on the surrounding atmosphere compared to non-electrical clouds.

So, to summarize the discovery (based on preliminary data)... the clouds in this area appear to be more electrified than clouds in the western Pacific Ocean.
Ready for the quiz?

What temperature range contains water in both the liquid and solid form (mixed phase)?

• Answer: 0oC to approximately -40oC

A cloud is electrified when it contains what phase(s) of water?

• Answer: solid (ice) and liquid (water)

True or False. The greater the amount of water and ice in the cloud above the freezing level, the more lightening it can produce.

• Answer: True
  

Travel Log: This was our 11th day on station at 10N, 95W. All the research activities are taking place here, and we have 7 more days before we continue our journey to the Galapagos. I sense some boredom in a lot of people- the exact same work just repeats over and over, 24 hours a day, with little break. Some of us are looking ahead to our arrival at the town of Puerto Ayora, on the island of Santa Cruz, in the Galapagos Islands. There's definitely a lot of excitement about seeing unique wildlife, volcanic landforms, and exploring new territory.

Question of the day: How many statute miles is it from Quito, Ecuador (where most of us will be flying through to get home) to Puerto Ayora, Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands (where the ship will be docked)?

Photo Descriptions: Today's photos: Today I am sending a picture of me with a storm brewing in the background, and one of me on the stern deck. There are also a couple pictures of a warbler that made its way to the ship a few days ago.
Today is a special day- not only am I sending photographs of ship and research stuff, but I am also including a diagram created by Dr. Walt Petersen from Colorado State University that shows the internal structure of a cloud in this area. The diagram uses cloud data obtained over the last few weeks on this cruise. You can see from the legend on the right that everything colored yellow or red is returning at least 30 dBZ Below approximately 5 kilometers these values mean large raindrops (especially the red areas). Above approximately 5 kilometers these values suggest the presence of large ice (graupel). The higher the 30 dBZ line extends above the cloud level, the stronger the cloud updrafts and the more vigorous the storm.

Keep in touch,
Jennifer

Read Week 4 Daily Logs

Note for educators: Although Jennifer and Jane's reseearch cruise ended, the EPIC research continues. Please use this web site, Jennifer and Jane's lesson plans, daily logs, the videos, and the photos to educate your students about climate, El Niño, and scientific research in general.

Consider this web site, as well as the TAO web site, a resource for teaching your students.

Many organizations and countries are involved in funding the EPIC Experiment. Primary U. S. funding is provided by The National Science Foundation and The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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