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Engine Room Tour

This morning we took a tour of the engine room and saw the multitude of important machines that keep the ship running. We learned that the ship uses diesel generators to power electric engines. This sacrifices some efficiency but lets us change direction quickly, which we need for scientific research! We also saw some very large ropes and cables.

MC

The four diesel generators

Green seems to be the color of choice

Checking out the autopilot controllers

A really big rope!

Microstructure profiles

Microstructure profiles from the N/O Pourquoi Pas? are done! This instrument, operated by Francesco Falcieri coming from an Italian Institute based in Venice (CNR-ISMAR), will be moved onto the RV SOCIB during our port call in Almeria on April 3rd.

The profiler free-falls vertically through the water column to measure very small vibrations at scales of centimetres. Scientists used those measurements to infer turbulence activity in the ocean that mixes water irreversibly. But the profiler also measures other variables, such as temperature, conductivity, turbidity and fluorescence. We collected 43 profiles over this first week – with more to come from the RV SOCIB!

-MD

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