Research Voyages

Lindsay MacDonald tests the VideoRay underwater camera off the wharf at CSIRO’s Hobart marine laboratories.

Voyage manager Pamela Brodie (right) monitors data flow in the operations room.

Pamela Brodie has seen some wonderful sights at sea. She took this photo of the Kavachi volcano from the RV Franklin in May 2000. The ship was on a CSIRO investigation of volcanic-hydrothermal systems near Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

Pamela Brodie and Lindsay MacDonald will share the technical support role on the Southern Surveyor voyage.

It’s their job to ensure valid data is acquired from all the scientific instruments both on and deployed from the vessel, 24 hours a day.

"The ship supports a comprehensive array of sensors and our work involves designing and maintaining the software and electronics systems that control them," Ms Brodie says.

"A differential GPS (global positioning system) ensures all our measurements are referenced with precise times and accurate, geo-referenced position.

"Meteorological instruments mounted on the vessel’s mast measure wind speed, direction, air temperature, pressure and humidity.

"On the ship’s hull are various acoustic transducers for collecting bathymetry data, seafloor mapping and current profiling.

"A thermosalinograph plumbed with a continuous supply of surface water is used to measure temperature and salinity and a fluorometer measures the chlorophyll concentration.

"All these instruments operate while the ship is under way, sending a stream of data to be logged by the data-acquisition computers in the operations room."

Biological, water and bottom-sampling devices, and video and image capturing systems deployed from the vessel also are monitored for controlling and maximising data quality.

"We must to be able to measure and plot the length of wire out and the velocity and tension on all winches on the vessel to enable control of the instruments deployed from the ship," Mr MacDonald says.

Mr MacDonald’s prime responsibility is to maintain the vessel’s scientific electronics. This will be roughly his 40th voyage, but he says each one brings a new challenge. He is working on extending the winch-monitoring system, and is investigating the use of a wireless system to link some of the instruments and computers.

On this voyage, he’ll also be getting acquainted with a remote-operated video camera called the MiniROV-Explorer. The MiniROV is controlled via a joystick from the ship, and relays video images of the seafloor. It’s one task for which there may be some competition.

Ms Brodie’s expertise is in marine-related software engineering, and on this trip she’s also the voyage manager. She liaises with the chief scientist and ship’s master to ensure the scientific objectives of the voyage are achieved, helps to settle people and their computers on the ship, deals with health and safety issues, and communicates with the outside world.

She enjoys this work at sea. "I’ve spent about two years of my life aboard research vessels," she says. "A dozen voyages with CSIRO, and a year in the Southern Ocean on voyages of the RV Aurora Australis.

"You sail with scientists and crew expert in their fields. There is always exciting science and on deck there are lovely sights: whales, dolphin, sea birds and seals. Sea ice is fascinating and I like watching the weather too: you really see the elements at their best."

She says her most memorable experience was seeing the seawater boiling at her feet near the Solomon Islands during the eruption of Kavachi volcano, which she says was "one of the most wonderful days at sea".

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Updated: 29/03/07