6-24-08

Today I witnessed my first green flash. The green flash happens when the sun sets on a well defined flat horizon. In the last instant on light from the sun the spectrum it usually goes through (oranges and reds) shifts again and the sun momentarily appears green, especially when viewed through binoculars. Unfortunately I had my zoom lens inside so no good pics of the sunset today or the green flash. If it's nice tomorrow I will prepare and try again.

The sunset that led to my first green flash.
The ship's cozy lounge area which received a big screen prior to our departure. As you can tell by the crowd now, there's another Sex and the City Marathon on the TV.
Kathy and Kelly checking the temperatures to confirm the bottles fired at the appropriate depths. The CTD will need to work well without a hitch for the next day especially.

Tomorrow starts our first "diel" where we will be deploying the CTD every hour for sampling during the day and every two at night for 24-28 hours. It's an extremely exhaustive technique but gives some interesting data about cycling of stratified communities we're interested in over a full day's period. I'm assigned to 14 hours of "day shift" and I'll be helping sampling through the night so please excuse my lack of posting for the next 48 hrs. (calculated with recovery time) Next time I'll talk a little about trace metal oceanography we have on board and the "people of the bubble".