Kysa Cronrath's blog

I'm both excited and sad to say that I'm done here at the APL. Just a few more small loose ends to tie up tomorrow and then I'll be heading home to Portland. It has been an incredible summer - one I'll never forget! A few closing thoughts: 

The week is not quite done, but I've caught a bit of a break, so here I am. This marks the end of my 8th week here. This week, I had a bit of an epiphany as to why the data came out strange on the T. weissflogii calibration. Our scale factor turned out to be almost exactly double the scale factor from the WET Labs calibration ten years ago. These instruments don't drift more than 5% or so in that amount of time -- they're built very well. There are two ranges for these sensors: 0.03-75.0 ppm and 0.10-150 ppm. The normal range covers only half of what the high range covers.

Last week marked the end of week 7 for me. My calibration system was designed first and foremost with the ECO Triplet sensors in mind, as those will be the ones taking measurements for CMOP next year. However, because the order hasn't yet come in, I attached another fluorometer from the same manufacturer, WET Labs. There were a few design details and kinks to work out with this other fluorometer, but by Wednesday, I was ready to test for linearity using dye.

This week set the stage for experiments to be run next week. The calibration set up is nearly finished (just one more piece to glue in place). Nick Michel-Hart, the engineer working on the REMUS vehicles, was able to get an o-ring groove put on the top end cap so that it will be sealed but still removable. I want to stress the awesomeness of his feat: typically to get an o-ring groove put in, you submit the work to the machine shop and it takes weeks. Nick was able to submit it to the machine shop and have it done in one day.

This week, I've been transitioning into the building phase of my project. I'm building a calibration facility that we can use to calibrate the ECO Triplets in lab. Here are just a few of the things I have to consider in my design:

-The system cannot leak. Leaks lead to failures and failure of the chamber means no calibration. We also will be dealing with very small, precise (as precise as possible, at least) concentrations in solution, so losing dye, bead, or phytoplankton mass to leaks needs to be avoided.

Hi All,

Hi Everyone! I'm typing this up while I'm waiting to depart on the R/V Jack Robertson, one of the APL's research vessels. We'll be doing a mission on Lake Washington, but there will be more to come on that in the next few days.

Hi everyone! I am the last intern to arrive to the CMOP program this summer, and I'll be the only CMOP intern at the University of Washington! Let me catch you up on how my first two weeks have gone:

WEEK ONE