Ocean Station Obama

Ocean Station Obama, ship crew and scientists (photo courtesy of Andrew McDonnell)

While everyone at home was celebrating the inauguration of President Obama, we were having are own kind of celebration down here in the Southern Ocean. Soon after we dropped the birders off on Avian Island, the rest of the group began working in an area we designated Ocean Station Obama. This was one of our “process stations” where we spent a few days doing “real science.” This means we weren’t just monitoring the ocean with our various measurements at each station, but we were also conducting real time experiments. The focus for our 3 process stations this year was partical flux. Flux is the movement of particles from the surface to the bottom of the ocean. This also happens to be a core part of Alex’s thesis work. Andrew and Ken from WHOI (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute) deployed a sediment trap that drifted around Ocean Station Obama for 3 days. We then deployed the glider to follow the drifting sediment trap, taking temp, salinity, chl, backscatter, and depth measurements. I selflessly sacrificed my Obama 08 sticker from my laptop, so that RU (Rutgers University) Obama, could proudly display its Obama pride while swimming in the Southern Ocean. 

Deploying the glider (RU Obama) at Ocean Station Obama

The glider with the Gould in the background

I’ve already talked about the glider in previous posts, but I’ll do a little review for those of you that are interested. The glider is an AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle) that was created by Douglas C. Webb at Webb Research. Rutgers University’s COOL (Coastal Oceanographic Laboratory) group owns about 35 of these gliders and fly them all over the world. We have 2 of the original RU fleet of gliders down here at Palmer Station. Earlier in the season, as many of you may remember, I posted about the glider deployment here at Palmer Station. The mission for the glider was to follow penguin foraging tracks from the local penguin breeding colonies on Torgersen and Humble Islands. The originial mission for RU Obama was to follow the drifting sediment traps that Ken & Andrew had deployed, and survey the water column which was feeding particles into the sediment traps. As the sediment trap drifted, it sent back argos transmissions that gave us its position. This data was also being communicated to Rutgers so the scientists and technicians back home could give instructions to the glider on where to go next. When the glider comes to the surface its tail, which houses an iridium antenna, calls home to New Jersey to transmit the data and await further instructions. Essentially, once the glider is in the water all communication comes from Rutgers.

One of the sediment traps deployed by Andrew McDonnell

The buoy on the sediment traps that drifts along the surface

Oscar using our satellite phone to talk with people back in NJ

Megan & I pretending we are an important part of glider ops

After following the drifting sediment traps for the 3 days we were positioned at Ocean Station Obama, the glider was given a new mission. Alex plotted a course for the glider based on waypoints that the Gould has previously followed. It was retasked to fly a transect of the the Adelie penguin foraging grounds south of Avian and Adelaide Islands, into Margueritte Bay and on to Rothera Station (the British Antarctic Survey Station on Adelaide Island). This path would take the glider through some fairly shallow water and into the bay where it was not unlikely to encounter ice. One of the riskier mission that the glider has been sent on.

The gliders path from Ocean Station Obama to the British Base Rothera

Following Ocean Station Obama, we paid a visit to our British friends at Rothera. While there, Oscar spoke with their science leader and base commander about picking up RU Obama for us while we continued our cruise further south. Our story has a happy ending with RU Obama successfully arriving at Rothera, where it surfaced just 1000 meters off their runway, and 2 zodiacs promptly went out to retrieve it. 

Photos courtesy of John Loins.

A few days later, we were heading north again after a successful month long science cruise, and we made one more stop at Rothera to pick up the glider. Using one of the cranes on the Gould, we lifted RU Obama from the British zodiac and brought the glider home. 

Lifting the glider from the British zodiac onto the deck of the Gould

The whole event was an excellent demonstration of collaboration between scientists. Alex & Oscar are already talking about sharing a glider with the British station and flying transects of the Western Antarctic Peninsula between the stations through the summer season. Each station would simply need extra batteries to change them out after each one-way journey. Its looking more and more like gliders will have a huge impact on the future of science. 

For those of you interested in reading more about Ocean Station Obama, the following is a description of Process Study Ocean Station Obama that was written by the principal investigators on the cruise. They are Doug Martinson (Lamont-Doherty), Hugh Ducklow (Marine Biological Lab, Woods Hole), Oscar Schofield (Rutgers University), Debbie Steinberg (Virginia Institute of Marine Science) and guest investigator Ken Buesseler (Woods Hole). Some of our home institutions sent this out as a press release and it was picked up by a few publications, including the Washington Post.

Process Study Ocean Station Obama
Scientists and students in the Palmer, Antarctica Long Term Ecological Research Project (PAL-LTER) aboard the Antarctic Research and Supply Vessel (ARSV) Laurence M Gould are moving into their oceanographic process study region in Marguerite Bay immediately south of Adelaide Island, in the eastern Bellingshausen Sea (~67 deg 46 S, 68 deg 51 W). The 3-day process study in this area will take place 19-21 January. In celebration of the US Presidential Inauguration, the science team has named the site Ocean Station Obama.
The 3-day study is part of the 17th annual PAL-LTER 7-week oceanographic expedition. Since 1993, these cruises in the Austral summer have surveyed a 200 x 500 km study region along the western Antarctic Peninsula. Their overall objective is understanding the geophysical and ecological relations among climate, sea ice and the marine pelagic ecosystem in the region. The western Antarctic Peninsula has warmed in winter by 6ºC since 1950, causing a 90-day reduction in sea ice cover since 1978. The marine ecosystem is responding at all levels of the food chain from phytoplankton to penguins and seals.
Individual locations where samples are conducted are referred to as oceanographic stations. Oceanographers name such stations to facilitate future identification. During Ocean Station Obama, PAL-LTER will be conducting a special process study with 2 objectives: 1) to characterize physical/biological processes related to Adelie penguin foraging in the area, and 2) to investigate processes resulting in storage of atmospheric CO2 in the water column as organic carbon produced through marine biological activity (the Biological Pump).
Over 3 days scientists will conduct repeated sampling with electronic water samplers, zooplankton nets, submersible pumps and optical sensors. The ship will follow a freely-drifting array that collects particles settling through the water column. They will also deploy an undersea glider equipped with oceanographic sensors to profile the study region in greater detail.
The study area is in the southern part of the PAL-LTER survey region and has been the focus of repeated studies since the mid-1990’s. In particular, the Adelie penguin colony on Avian Island has been studied for comparison with the one near Palmer Station that has declined by 80% since 1975 in response to climate warming. PAL scientists hypothesize from comparison of their north (Palmer Station) and south (Avian Island) sites that the regional climate warming is migrating from north to south along the Peninsula.
Members of the 2009 PAL Expedition are excited to celebrate the Inauguration of President Obama and in doing so, bringing ocean sciences and climate change research to the public’s attention. The setting our study, 10,000 miles from Washington DC, in an area of rapidly changing climate and ecology is an appropriate spot and moment in our history to dedicate this sampling station to the events taking place on Tuesday. PAL-LTER is part of the US Long Term Ecological Research Network. The PAL-LTER and ARSV LM GOULD are supported by grants from the Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems Program, National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs. Logistics support is provided by Raytheon Polar Services Corp. The LM GOULD is owned and operated by Edison Chouest Offshore.