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Questions and Answers June 29 2007Perkins School Students asked: What kind of measurements will be you making on the cruise in September?
Amy answered:
Here is a partial list - sea surface temperature
- sea surface salinity
- wind speed and direction
- air temperature and humidity
The
above variables will be collected continuously along the ship track.
Other variables that could be observed at least daily, if not several
times per day are: - Wave height
- Cloud cover.
- Others?
If you think of something, ask me and maybe we can do it. One good project might be a comparison of air and sea temperature. Another might be air temperature and barometric pressure.
Questions and Answers, continued. June 29 2007Perkins School Students asked:Do all the oceans have the same amount of salt?
Amy answered:
If
I may rephrase this question, I might ask, do all the oceans have the
same salt concentration? Or are there some oceans that are saltier than
others? Yes! Each ocean has a different saltiness, or salt
concentration. For example, the Pacific is less salty than the
Atlantic. And the Atlantic is less salty than the Mediterranean. One
big factor that affects saltiness is the balance between precipitation
(rainfall) and evaporation. When it rains on the ocean, that makes the
water less salty. But if evaporation is strong, the ocean gets more
salty. This is because when seawater evaporates, only the H2O
molecules turn to water vapor; the salt molecules stay behind and make
the ocean saltier.
Perkins School Students asked:Why are the oceans salty?
Amy answered:
Most
of the salt in the oceans has come from river run-off. When it rains
over the land, the rain collects in streams and rivers that erode the
rocks. Almost all of the river run-off ends up in the ocean, with its
load of dissolved minerals, many of which are salts. And this
process has been going on as long as there have been continents. Do you
know how long that is?
Questions and Answers Jul 20 2007
Perkins School Students
asked: We
discussed surface currents today. We understand that your floats move up and
down after they are deployed. What is
the range of depths for the floats?
Amy
answered:
Hi All - My floats will go up and down as they drift
with the currents. To go up, they inflate a balloon like device that increases
their volume and makes them more buoyant. To go back down, the balloon is
deflated and the float's volume decreases. Most of the time the floats will
drift at about 300 meters (how many feet is that?). Every few days, they will
sink down to 1000 meters and then go up to the surface to collect temperature
and salinity observations over that depth range. Then they go back to "park" at
300 meters and drift with the currents for a few more days.
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