Learning the Ropes

Students in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography learn how to deploy and operate a rosette sampler during the 2011 Jake Pierson Summer Cruise. The device is a mainstay of oceanographic research, one that can take multiple water samples at various depths and carry other instruments, such as a CTD (conductivity, temperature, depth) profiler, to simultaneously measure water properties beneath the surface. The 10-day cruise in the North Atlantic serves as an introduction for new graduate students to the world of ship-board oceanography and is named in memory the former WHOI staff member who played a crucial role in the formation of the Joint Program.(Photo by Donglai Gong, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)