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Noble Undertaking

March 11, 2013

MIT-WHOI Joint Program student Cara Manning collects a water sample for noble gas analysis aboard the R/V Tioga in December 2012. Cara and her advisor, Rachel Stanley, installed a portable noble gas mass spectrometer onboard to collect continuous data whenever the ship is away from the dock. Data from the instrument will help quantify gas exchange rates between the ocean and atmosphere in coastal environments. Gas exchange can be used to determine the rate at which atmospheric carbon dioxide is taken up by the ocean, as well as rates of photosynthesis by phytoplankton.

(Photo by Rachel Stanley, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)