On board of the Research Vessel Meteor, we are currently sailing through the western tropical Atlantic. This region is particularly interesting for me, Josephine Herrford, and other oceanographers, as it represents a crossroad for different currents transporting water from all kind of remote regions around the globe. In oceanography, “water masses” are a fundamental, but […]

Water sampling in the TropicsPhoto by Martin Visbeck Being on a research vessel is not always easy. Working on deck can be either too hot, too cold, or even too dangerous. One part of the daily work on the Research Vessel (R/V) Meteor is to collect water samples from the Niskin bottles attached to the […]

I am sitting in a beach chair on the monkey deck and watching the sun going down. I see the pink and orange coloured clouds, the red sun, the continuous moving waves and feel the ceasing winds, the calmness of a sunset. What a wonderful end of the day.  I completely forget how long this […]

German itself can be quite a challenge, and imagine if you have to speak german sailors language… This means using words that are only used at sea. Here, you will see that it is not that difficult with a little help ! The deployment and monitoring of the CTD (stands for Conductivity, Temperature and Depth) […]

The GEOMAR ocean observatory at 10°S is an installation of instruments in the ocean with the goal to obtain long times series of ocean changes. At 10°S off the Brazilian coast the observatory consists of four long moorings that measure currents, temperature and salinity. The array was first installed between 2000 and 2004 and after […]

The first day on a ship is always very exciting. So many new things to see, explore and learn. One of the main instruments that we will be using on the expedition is the CTD. CTD stands for Conductivity, Temperature and Depth and refers to some of the sensors that the CTD-Rosette System carries. At […]

Shortly after leaving port we have to get acquainted with the safety procedures on board of METEOR. We gather in the seminar room and … listen to the officer’s presentation about safety, fire, man-over-board, alarms and many more topics. So much to remember on the first day. But luckily we can browse the same information […]