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Posts tagged as “Fahrt-SO248”

24 hour station and Neptune’s visit

Ein langer Tag geht zu Ende, mitten auf dem Pazifik ...
End of a long day, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean ...

This morning at 6 a.m. we ended our 24-hour sampling at this station, and continued our journey north. Neptune, of course, noticed that we had passed the equator without permission; he visited us in person.

With the sunrise came our last samples – some of us had worked for 24 hours without pause, other teams had divided the work into shifts. In any case, at breakfast the mess hall (the cafeteria) was quite empty. And in the labs, many of which otherwise are extremely busy the whole day, the lights were out until late morning.

Equator station: between North and South, yesterday and today

Wo sind wir eigentlich? Bild vom Bordcomputer, das in allen Laboren live verfolgt werden kann. Der rote Punkt markiert die aktuelle Position von SONNE. Foto von Rohan Henkel (AG Sensorsysteme ICBM, Wilhemshaven; hier an Bord gehört er zum “Bio-optics” Team).
Where are we? Screenshot of the bord computer display that can be followed in all laboratories. The red dot marks the current position of Sonne. Photo by Rohan Henkel (Marine Sensor Systems ICBM, Wilhemshaven; on board member of the “bio-optics” team).

We have finally reached the equator – the boundary between the northern and southern hemispheres at 0 N and 0 South. But we aren’t just anywhere on the equator: we are exactly at the point at which one step in the right direction can turn today into yesterday, and visa versa. Our station is exactly on the international date line between 180 W and 180 E.