So...What?

I know, I know. Me? A blog?! Not likely. But yet here I am. A little horrified with myself but nevertheless here it goes. My first post.

I am going to be at sea for 6 weeks onboard the RRS James Clark Ross in Drake Passage and the Scotia Sea. I head off on the 14th March, with a quick stopover in Santiago, then onto the Falkland Islands to catch the ship. I will be back in the UK on the 1st of May (so get out the bunting). I really really hope that I will get to see whales from the ship and I should see some penguins while on the Falklands! Eeep!

So why am I going? My PhD is part of the ongoing DIMES project, (Diapycnal and Isopycnal Mixing Experiment in the Southern Ocean), which aims to observe and measure diapycnal mixing. Diapycnal mixing occurs vertically in the water column, across density surfaces known as isopycnals. Our theory is that diapycnal mixing is enhanced over regions with rough ocean floor, such as Drake Passage. To this end in 2009 78 kg of a chemical tracer (triflouromethyl sulfur pentaflouride, CF3SF5) was released into the ocean on the Pacific side of Drake Passage. Since then its dispersion vertically (diapycnal mixing) and horizontally (isopycnal mixing) has been tracked by cruises such as this one.  Water is collected at different depths along the path towards the Atlantic and its tracer content is measured. So while at sea we will be collecting lots of water samples and running them through a machine to measure the tracer content. This means long shifts in the tracer lab... which is in a cargo container on the deck of the ship. This blog will not be science heavy but if there is anything you want to know just say!

So what is the purpose if this blog? It is simple. I will miss you and want to keep in touch. We all know I am dreadful at keeping in touch beyond the occasional letter or postcard (hard to send from a ship...) so rather than sending out lots of sporadic emails I figure a blog could be a good way to keep y'all updated.

I will be working long shifts in a lab inside a cargo container... so this might not always be the most thrilling of tales! But it is always the possibility that I will go absolutely bloody bonkers and having this contact with you might just stem the tides of madness.