Weather Forecasting by WXchick7

Sorry that I haven't posted anything in awhile; school got pretty busy.  I just got back Saturday from my research cruise aboard the R/V Weatherbird II.  We left Wednesday afternoon from St. Pete and docked on Saturday afternoon in Key West.  So, yay, my first trip south of Lake Okeechobee!

Here is the Weatherbird, my home for four days:

We did lots of science and yet still had to have ENORMOUS amounts of free time, and were often bored.  The major activities we had while on board were:

- Continuous weather monitoring
- Buoy/ADCP deployment (see link below)
- CTD deployment
- Water testing using the YSI
- Use of the side-scan sonar
- Using the Aanderaa to measure currents
- SST measurements using the "dipstick"
- Precipitation measurements

The most tedious thing to do was the continuous weather monitoring, which we measured every 30 minutes.  We also didn't set up a very organized shift schedule, so every night we had to scramble to make sure we would have 2 people up to do the weather and that everyone else would be up to take care of their respective tasks.

Our basic route was this:

We left out of St. Pete; went parallel to the coast; dropped the buoy somewhere between St. Pete and Venice; continued south and did CTD casts near Sanibel Island; then headed west to 84W longitude, stopping every half longitude (82.5, 83, 83.5, 84) to do a CTD cast as well as look for oil (which we didn't see); then we headed south towards the Dry Tortugas, also doing CTD casts every longitude line again; then we went swimming and snorkeling in the Dry Tortugas, as well as touring Fort Jefferson National Park; then we headed east to Key West, stopping every two hours to do a CTD cast. 

Because of the whole oil spill thing, we got publicity for potentially doing work concerning the spill (we were going to deploy drifters to detect oil if we were able to reach a high-probability area, but did not get far enough west for the captain's preference).  So the buoy deployment was big news in Tampa, and they had a piece on tv and such.  Here is the link: http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=133388&catid=8

Overall, it was quite a fun experience and I could write pages, upon pages about all the occurences on the cruise.  So if you have any questions/comments or want to know more, shoot me an email, or message me on Facebook.  Have a great day.

Today was the first REAL day of summer field projects (EFP) today, for me anyway.  I have "class" Tuesday - Thursday, with a mandatory 8am meeting every Monday morning.  The days are scheduled from 8am - 5pm each day, and how much of that time is used is determined by the professor in charge.

My schedule is as follows:
     Tuesday -- Mr. Splitt -- Precipitation
     Wednesday -- Dr. Lazarus -- Dune Meteorology
     Thursday -- Dr. Irlandi -- Beach Renourishment Effects

So today, we started out at 9am and had a one-hour brainstorming session.  We were broken up into two groups, one to design a horizontal rain gauge and the second (my group) to design a sand-transport gauge, which basically collects sand as the wind blows to determine the general movement and transport of the surface sands at the beach.  We came up with designs and headed to Home Depot, where, two and a half hours later, we came away with the necessary items to build our devices.  (Though our design had changed DRASTICALLY.) 

We then headed back to school, took a lunch break, and began building after lunch.  I'll make sure to take pictures of our finished design tomorrow and in the days to come, as we need to make some adjustments to it.  We are taking it out for a trial run tomorrow.

Here is the collection part of the apparatus.  They are made out of a plastic section of rain gutter, with an adapter in one end, and the other end ducktaped closed, in order to hold the sand.  Unfortunately, they are also fun to play with...

They will be held in place in the four cardinal directions on a 2ft x 2ft wooden board.  We sent it downstairs to get the necessary holes drilled into it, and it managed to take several hours because of a couple of screwups, such as needing new blades for the jigsaw cutter...  So with nothing to do for a long period of time, Splitt gave us something to do- calibrating the rain gauges that the school owns.

First, we had to do a calculation to determine how much an inch of water would be in the rain gauge, then put water in and determine the actual amount and compare it to our calculated value. 

The following picture shows Skyler pouring water in the 8inch diameter gauge to calibrate it.

So, all-in-all, today was actually really fun.  Hands-on research and work is fun, and so far I'm really enjoying it, even though I like to complain because its often times boring, takes a long time, and the end result isn't always what you were hoping for.  I just hope the rest of the summer is as enjoyable as today was.

Anywho, Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals tonight; I BELIEVE IN MAGIC!!!  Have a great day.

Hello All,

So I've never really blogged before, but I decided to do it as entertainment this summer since I'm going to be bored a lot, well at least in the next few weeks.  And anyone who chooses to follow this, can keep up with me a little bit.

Yesterday I moved into my summer residence...and well, its not very appealing, pretty, exciting, or clean.  I have at least one roommate as far as I know (I think one moved out last night, but I have NO IDEA.)  I'm also the closest to being completely on my own as I was when I started at Florida Tech.  Oh, and there's no cable.  Which means Sarah can't watch sports, or any tv for that matter.  Oh, and the Eastern Conference Finals are happening right now (GO MAGIC!).  So it's fun...not.

My room is still a work in progress, though I'm not sure that I'm going to really unpack anything else, unless I need something in particular. 

Here's a couple of pics:

To sum up the basis of this post:  I'm bored and lonely.  I desperately miss my friends and family who aren't in Melbourne.  One in particular who is going through some trying times, and I worry that I'm bothering on the rare occasion I get to talk to him.  But, as the saying goes, I must "press on regardless."

Expect sports, music, and weather analysis to come!  Have a great day.