By Seth Travis and Natalie Freeman
We are currently in transit to our first station (scheduled
to be near the Antarctic ice edge). You can find us playing cribbage, sleeping
(and others NOT sleeping!), reading, working, attempting to use the internet,
snacking, listening to or sharing stories, etc. During this time, we often
wonder what the weather will be like over the next few days (i.e., how sick we’ll
feel). So, Alison and Phil download updated wind and wave forecast images (.png
files) every day, showing forecasted wind speed and direction and wave height
and direction over the next several days. Additionally, in order to get a sense
of where we are and where we’re heading relative to any possible storms, we (Seth
and Natalie) have worked out a way to recreate these forecasted images with our current
path/position and our expected track overlain.
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Smooth and
successful coding + snacks and tea = smiling, happy scientists! (Photo courtesy
of Joseph Gum)
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Through the wonder and magic of Matlab, the forecast images/maps
are converted into a format where a latitude/longitude grid is projected onto
the image. We then use this conversion to pinpoint and plot our current and
future cruise track.
When can we expect bad weather? Do we need to adjust our
station locations or sampling/transit times? The ability to quickly and
efficiently produce updated tracked forecast images every day will be extremely
useful, when planning future stations and sampling. Current forecasts are
suggesting that things are going to whip up over the next day or so, with winds
up to 40 knots! Hopefully these forecasts prove wrong! Still, in these rough
seas, it’s better to not be caught unprepared!
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