Journals 2004/2005

Catherine Roberts
Western Branch Middle School, Chesapeake, VA

"Study of frontal zones in the vicinity of Cape Hatteras" R/V Cape Henelopen July 31 - August 14, 2004

Journal Index: July 28/31 August 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9           10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14

0800. We left Cape Charles. Hurricane Alex winds are 90-110 mph off the coast of Wilmington, NC. Teresa made more tests with the OS 200 to get a drop rate of 1m/10 sec. We also made a test cast of the CTD. The CTD is an instrument capable of measuring temperature, salinity, and depth as it is lowered in the water column. A cable then sends the information electronically to a computer which converts the data into a graph. The graph shows haloclines (salinity changes), picnoclines (density changes), and thermoclines (temperature changes). The CTD also has water collection bottles that can be triggered to close and collect water samples at different depths.

After all our trial tests it's back to the dock at Cape Charles because Hurricane Alex is still raging off the coast of North Carolina.