Can We Keep It?

WHOI/MIT Joint Program student Alec Bogdanoff (holding line) and Pete Liarikos, bosun on research vessel Knorr, tested a glider named “Boomer” (after a character from the television show Battlestar Galactica) during a September cruise measuring salinity in the so-called salinity maximum of the Atlantic Ocean. The glider, which measures turbulance, is one of several shallow-diving gliders operated by WHOI scientist Louis St. Laurent and engineer Ken Decoteau. To test Boomer’s ballast, researchers had the glider perform a few initial dives with a buoy attached. Boomer proved to be stable, so the line was removed and the glider sent on the first of two one-week missions. (Photo courtesy of Ken Decoteau, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)