Bridget Seegers (616/MSU) recently contributed the blog post, "Twenty-one Hours a Day on a 30-Foot Floating Science Lab," to Notes from the Field for the PACE-PAX field campaign.
In San Diego, California, Dr. Seegers and fellow scientist Gordon Ackland recently spent five days on the sailboat-turned-research vessel RV Blissfully, collecting ocean water samples and instrument readings in order to compare data with that of the PACE satellite. On a daily basis, "The destination, 12 miles (20 kilometers) south, is an oil rig that is home to additional research instruments whose data will be combined with RV Blissfully’s data for a more complete picture of conditions in the atmosphere and ocean. The location is also a flyover target for the ER-2 and Twin Otter research planes, allowing for even more data sets for PACE validation." Dr. Seegers provides an engaging perspective of research out at sea, and she adds, "Accomplishing PACE-PAX research on RV Blissfully made the sailing for science dream a reality."