Rosette

June 23, 2010 Sampling device

Today we began sampling. Oh, let me tell you: medicine is awesome. Although I was drowsy for a while, after taking sea-sickness pills, I felt soooooo good. We were stopped today in a random spot doing practice runs; we are currently en route to our first destination. Actually, as I type this, the internet is down. The satellite is probably blocked or something. This Rosette is used by a few labs. My lab has its own rosette which is supposed to be more metal contaminant-free. The Niskin bottles on the Rosettes capture water and can be fired off individually at different depths by command via a computer on board the ship. My job so far, other than helping with getting the two rigs in and out of the water, has been sampling the sea water for concentrations of a certain compound. Today after taking samples from the large Rosette, I tested all 24 depths. Damn, that took a long time! I don’t mind it though. It was kind of fun.