Greg Brusseau, a research scientist in the University of Washington’s School of Oceanography, joined the Fall 2013 voyage shipboard community during our trans-Atlantic crossing from Cape Town to Buenos Aires. Brusseau hitched a ride with the MV Explorer to conduct research on climate change and other ocean properties for the Univ. of Washington and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He called his temporary home a “vessel of opportunity” because the MV Explorer sails in waters that many research vessels do not. While aboard, Brusseau deployed temperature, salinity, nitrate, and pH-level probes into the ocean. Data from similar probes has been used in 1,100 scientific peer-reviewed papers and is open to the public. Such information is vital to constructing climate models, learning about sea storms and hurricanes, and monitoring the ocean’s recent dip in pH levels. This isn’t the first time the MV Explorer has hosted probe research, having accommodated NOAA in past years. In this podcast, Brusseau talks about his work aboard our vessel of opportunity.
Fellow SAS student, Mia Wetmore, contributed to the editing and production of this podcast.
