XBT Class

Learning how to launch an expendable probe to measure temperature profiles from a moving ship aboard the RV Roger Revelle

Joint Program students and cruise watch leaders, Elena Perez (center right) and Lilli Enders (center left), begin their adaptive sampling through a Gulf Stream shingle by learning from RV Roger Revelle’s Brent De Vris (left) how an eXpendable BathyThermograph (XBT) can be used to provide a vertical profile of temperature without slowing the ship.  They developed the sampling plan with RR2407 co-chief scientist, Glen Gawarkiewicz, who is researching how shingles influence squid movements across the continental slope and whether a recent shingle contributed to a widespread scallop mortality event across the entire Mid Atlantic Bight shelf. Also pictured is Snehal Prabhu (right) of WHOI Operational Scientific Services, who works with Rolling Deck to Repository (R2R), the group that ensures that underway datasets from the academic research fleet are preserved and accessible. Snehal is also a member of Science Research on Commercial Ships (Science RoCS), a group that aims to increase scientists’ access to in situ observations by partnering with commercial vessels to collect underway measurements for science. Photo credit: Magdalena Andres.