Patriot is in the water! - by isa R.

Patriot before its deployment (ph. by Mike Kovatch)

On April 18, at 23:39 UTC Patriot, the float adopted by the Kings Mountain Middle School of North Carolina, has started its journey in the cooooold waters (-0.6 C or 30.92 F at the sea surface) of the Southern Ocean, at 65.5 degrees South, 30 degrees East!

A very smooth deployment (ph. by Mike K.)

Patriot is part of the fleet of floats that the Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling project (or SOCCOM for short) is deploying in the Southern Ocean, an incredibly rough and extremely difficult place to visit and study (especially in cold months, when storms are more frequent and sea ice is at its maximum). Being deployed so far south, Patriot will likely "disappear" under sea ice at some point in winter. But no panic! These floats are equipped with a software that allows them to just keep drifting and profiling the water column every 10 days, and will then resurface once the sea ice disappears from their trajectory. And at that moment, they will send all of the data that they had collected since they went under ice.

In the water the float goes! (ph. by Mike K.)

Let's the art begin!

My students and I had a lot of fun decorating the float with the school logo. I love working with them, seeing their care, curiosity, and engagement with every task I propose, even the ones that might look more boring (like writing labels).

We are a team, and in an environment like this one, team work is one of the most important things: "Team work doesn't seem work" (marine tech on the R/V Melville). For small or big tasks, we all need to do our part to make this micro society a functional, safe, happy and healthy environment. Like when during the CTD cast, someone shouts "Push-up!" and we all gather together on the floor to give our best (well, all of us except the CTD driver and the lazy ones ;-) ).

Every day activity at the computer lab. Models are the M&M&M (Max, Mike and Manuel)

To follow Patriot's journey, use the ID #12878 on the SOCCOM website, at www.mbari.org/science/upper-ocean-systems/chemical-sensor-group/soccomviz

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Update of February 26, 05:30AM: as we are hiding from a nasty storm, waiting on weather patterns for few hours (basically we just ran away somewhere safer), we have cheese parties, movies.. and some catch up with work to do.. but we keep smiling and enjoy our time living and working together on this floating house.

All from me now :-)

Hi! from Susan B., me and Andrew C.