AMT Blog

One of the key parts of AMT is that scientists from many institutions, from all over the world, have contributed to this important programme to help us understand a little more about the health of the Atlantic Ocean. With so many different researchers taking part it ensures that the science carried out on board Discovery is as diverse as possible. This gives us the best possible insight into the health of this vast ocean, and it ensures AMT is a vital resource for many different scientific fields. Our next guest blogger is Joe Snow, he is a PhD student at the National Oceanographic Centre (Southampton) and he is going to explain a little about what he does whilst on board.

As a scientist I have always wondered what it would have been like to experience the very early days of what is really modern day exploration. Whilst it’s easy to sit in the comfort of my own air conditioned cabin, listening to my music, dreaming up an idealistic view of scientific endeavour in the 17th, 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, I’m well aware that the reality of these journeys are far from the rosy pictures I conjure up. Yet, this doesn’t stop me wondering!

So just when is it decided that it’s sunny? I thought that if you can see the sun, it’s sunny, but apparently not! I know I’m British, and this means I’m less qualified than most to decide (in the UK it’s sunny if you’re not wearing a coat!), but surely sun is sun!

For this member of the AMT team, activity concentrates around two contrasting times of the day: in the dark hours before dawn, when the zooplankton nets are deployed; and at or around local solar noon, when optical profiles of the water column are made.

Recovering the optical profiler on a sunny Sunday