About this blog
My name is Stephen Griffies. I do research in ocean and climate physics at NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab and teach/mentor students and post-docs at Princeton University. I will be participating on the Royal Research Ship (RRS) James Clark Ross cruise to the Orkney Passage portion of the Scotia Sea. This region is located in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean, just to the east of the Antarctic Peninsula. This blog documents aspects of my experience on this cruise, including the personal and scientific. I hope that is serves as a means to communicate with family, friends, colleagues, indeed for anyone interested in ocean field research at its extremes.
Readers of this blog are likely to have a broad range of interests and expectations. Some may be looking just for the science, whereas others may be more interested in personal reflections on my experiences. This blog will hopefully offer snippets to serve these interests, and perhaps a bit more.
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| Drake Passage region of the Southern Ocean, with the south tip of South America to the north, and northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula to the south. The Orkney Passage is just to the east of the Antarctic Peninsula, and the Weddell Sea is to the south and east of the peninsula. |
Aspects of the cruise
The cruise will depart on or about 10 March 2017 from Punta Arenas, Chile and return to Montevideo, Uruguay around 05 May. The bulk of the time will be spent in the south Scotia Sea region of the Southern Ocean. The mission is part of the DynOPO project (Dynamics of the Orkney Passage Outflow), whose principal scientific investigators are Alberto Naveira-Garabato (Southampton University, UK) and Michael Meredith (British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK). Below is a map of the cruise region, as taken from the proposal that Alberto and Mike wrote to fund the mission.
The cruise aims to measure ocean properties and physical processes related to the flow of seawater that leaves the Antarctic continent and moves northward along the ocean bottom into the South Atlantic. These waters form the densest branch of the deep ocean circulation. Oceanographers term this water the "Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW)". This seawater carries properties (e.g., temperature, salinity, carbon dioxide (CO2), oxygen (O2), etc.) largely formed along the Antarctic continental shelf.
Much of the Antarctic continental shelf is covered by ice shelves year-round, and by seasonal sea ice that extends outward from the shelves during autumn and winter. Hence, properties of the dense seawater are affected by physical processes associated with air-sea, ice-sea, and air-ice processes on the continental shelves. There is evidence that certain of these properties are changing rapidly due to impacts from anthropogenic climate change. For example, the seawater is warming and freshening, with freshening associated with melting ice shelves and the shoreward land ice sheets. This melt in turn plays a major role in contributing to the observed rise in sea level around the planet.
My role on the cruise
During the cruise, I will aim to learn more about the methods and insights of ocean process physicists, as well as to fully experience field research in the Southern Ocean. As I am new to field research (I normally do theory and computer modeling at a desk in Princeton), I will try to fill a niche not unlike a graduate student. Even so, I hope to also offer ideas based on 20+ years studying aspects of the global and Southern Ocean climate.
Besides Alberto and Mike, the cruise will host Kurt Polzin (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), Sonya Legg (Princeton University), and others. Alberto, Mike, Kurt, and Sonya are heros of mine. They successfully combine field oceanography with theoretical and conceptual oceanography. Indeed, it is one of the gifts of earth science that practitioners can meaningfully participate in many different modes of the discipline, so that no one is restricted to sit within a single niche. For example, many theorists go to sea to help collect field data, and many observationalists weave theoretical ideas into their interpretation of field data. Given this suite of top ocean physicists on the cruise, and the prospects of having a hugely impactful personal and scientific experience, I was motivated to join. After consulting with, and getting full support from, family and colleagues, I decided to take the leap and go.
The DyOPO cruise will offer me an opportunity to join a rarefied world of earth scientists who investigate aspects of the Southern Ocean. This is a rarefied world since the Southern Ocean remains the most remote and inhospitable part of the planet. Nonetheless, it is a compelling place to visit as an earth scientist since it is of fundamental importance for understanding the ocean's role within the climate system. As a co-investigator in the SOCCOM Project (Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling) headquartered at Princeton University, I have focused much recent research on aspects of the Southern Ocean. I am thus excited to experience this part of the planet from a ship at sea rather than behind a computer screen in Princeton.
As a teaser, the photo below shows the RRS JC Ross at a rather tranquil location within Ryder Bay along the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula. For another teaser, and a favorite of my son Francisco, check out this video of the JC Ross moving through some seasonal sea ice around Antarctica. Needless to say, my hosts warn me that much of the DynOPO cruise will see much rougher seas than shown in this photo or the video! If I am able, I will be posting photos and videos of during the cruise to offer a glimpse of the experience.
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RRS JC Ross in Ryder Bay, on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula. This photo is taken from the BAS web site.
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Some personal reflections
I now offer some personal thoughts for why I decided to embark on this cruise, which will take me away from family for roughly two months, and which represents a departure from my current research career path.
As a 53-year-old scientist (54 when the cruise starts), I am doing reasonably well using elements of theory and computer modeling to help uncover elements of how the planet works. I have reached a point in my career that is productive, fulfilling, and rewarding, both through research and mentoring/teaching. However, there is something missing. It concerns an intrinsic urge to experience, first-hand, ocean and atmospheric dynamics while at sea, particularly in the high latitudes. High latitude oceanography exposes one to pure and raw earth forces rarely seen elsewhere. I recall first deeply contemplating these forces while sitting on a pristine beach in southern Tasmania, looking south into the vastness of the Southern Ocean and Antarctica beyond. That meditation ignited my deep aspiration to explore the Southern Ocean. I am incredibly fortunate to see that aspiration becoming a reality.
Oceanographers know of the intense beauty and profound mystery of the Southern Ocean. We also understand that changes in the Southern Ocean have potentially huge and significant impacts on the whole planet. Although remote, the ocean and atmosphere in the Southern Ocean are changing in uncertain and nontrivial ways through impacts from anthropogenic climate warming. We are living now in the Anthropocene, with nearly every corner of the planet showing signs of human impact. For example, on a recent visit to Banff, Canada, I was amazed at both the beauty of the Canadian Rockies, and the excessive atmospheric anthropogenic aerosols (i.e., smog) visible upon flying into Calgary in January.
To work as a scientist at sea in the Southern Ocean is a dream (a very good one for me!). The dream originates from a desire to commune with a part of the planet that I have tried to wrap my head around for nearly 25 years, typically while sitting at a desk on dry land. I certainly could continue to study the research papers from others who do the field work, all the while remaining safe at home. But the opportunity to garner a first-hand experience of the Southern Ocean is too compelling for me to resist. Furthermore, at its root, my decision to be on this cruise is not rational. Indeed, there are heaps of reasons not to go! What tips the scale is an intuitive and heartfelt sense that this trip is correct for me as a scientist, teacher, mentor, and human.
I am both excited and nervous about joining this cruise. I am excited about the science and the new lessons I will learn working under the tutelage of some brilliant physical oceanographers. I am also excited about the opportunity to experience the ancient beauty and unmatched power of the Southern Ocean. I am, however, nervous about the rigors of physical and mental stamina needed to survive for nearly two months doing intense work on a ship within the planet's roughest and most relentless ocean. And I am nervous about passing the physical exam needed to gain entry onto the cruise!
I hope that with this blog, you will share a bit of my experiences, the good times as well as the rough times. Furthermore, I will be happy to read your comments and questions, and I will do my best to respond when time allows.
