Hello from sunny Santa Barbara, California, where the ship operations for the PACE-PAX campaign are underway!
The PACE satellite went into orbit in February 2024. Its mission is to help us better understand how the ocean and atmosphere exchange carbon dioxide, as well as how aerosols can fuel phytoplankton blooms and help us track harmful algal blooms around the planet.
PACE-PAX stands for Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem – Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment (see why we made it shorter?) We are using two airplanes and three ships, among other free-sailing instruments, to gather data that will tell us how well our shiny new satellite, PACE, is doing. We compare our planet-side data with the space-side data so we can make sure we are providing the very best information about the health of the world’s oceans.
Our planes are the ER-2, which is a super high-flying plane that hangs out right near the edge of space, and the Twin Otter, which holds a variety of instruments that are vital to the aerosols part of the mission.
Our ships are the R/V Shearwater, the R/V Blissfully, and the small fleet of R/V Fish boats. The R/V Shearwater is the main ship for this campaign. She holds a science team from multiple organizations and a wide variety of instruments. These include some that stare at the Sun, some that go in the water, and some that stay on deck.
The R/V Blissfully is a sailboat located in Long Beach, California, that is taking an important subset of measurements to complement the Shearwater. She has a crew of just two people, so they are extra busy!
Finally, the R/V Fish are our rapid response vessels. They can move around much faster than the other two and can get to specific locations quickly to take critical measurements.
My job is to collect water samples and filter or store them for analysis back in the lab, all the way back in Maryland. The samples I collect will be analyzed with at least five different instruments, which cannot be brought out to sea. There’s not enough space, and some of the instruments have dangerous elements that are not worth the risk of using while on a boat. There is also the issue of space. You can only bring so much to sea, so we take and preserve samples that can wait for analysis.
PACE-PAX is unique in that our cruises are day cruises. Usually, we get on a boat and don’t get off until the campaign is over. That can be days to weeks to even months living on a ship! This time we get to go back to a hotel in the evenings, which feels very odd in comparison. It can be hard to get your sea legs when you aren’t given time to get used to the motion. I have been relying on medication, ginger, and very salty snacks to get me used to the motion in the ocean.
I hope you enjoy learning more about this campaign in future Notes!