Image Courtesy of Matthew Miller

From: Matthew Miller
NOAA RV Ronald H. Brown, October 31, 2008

Halloween on the Brown

Happy Halloween, everyone! We here on the Ronald Brown are getting into the Halloween spirit. The PMEL and LIDAR research groups have disappeared and pirates have taken their place. The shrill battle cry of "Arrrgh!" echoed across the mess deck during lunch. The ship's lounge has been decorated with spider webs and pumpkins and I'm even told that there will be trick-or-treat candy available if you knock on the doors of some of the research containers on weather decks of the Ronald Brown.

The cheerful Halloween spirit of the scientists and crew even managed to work into the atmospheric observations. The balloon for one of today's upper-air measurements was replaced with the Great Pumpkin to spread Halloween cheer. In the picture that goes with this post card you can see Lelia Hawkins in her pirate costume and Dan Wolfe inflating the pumpkin balloon. Lelia drew the pumpkin design on the balloon while it was uninflated, and the balloon drew a large audience. The radiosonde attached to the pumpkin balloon reached a maximum height of 23,464 meters at 31.7 millibars, which was an above average performance for the balloon soundings to date for the VOCALS campaign.

Postcards from the Field: Climate Science from the Southeast Pacific

You might also be interested in:

Traveling Nitrogen Classroom Activity Kit

Check out our online store - minerals, fossils, books, activities, jewelry, and household items!...more

Lelia Hawkins

I am starting my fourth year of graduate school at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, studying atmospheric chemistry and climate science. I love earth science and have always wanted to do something...more

What is VOCALS?

What if you wanted to learn more about the climate system of a very large area such as the Southeast Pacific Ocean? What would be involved in studying how the oceans, land, and atmosphere interact? You...more

Rhea George

Many students in atmospheric science were motivated to enter the field by some fascinating extreme weather event experienced as a child. This was not the case with me. When I was an undergraduate I was...more

Dr. Boris Dewitte

I'm a physical oceanographer interested in climate variability and especially the El Niño phenomenon. Other than the annual cyle of the seasons, El Niño is the largest pulsation of the climate. I'm interested...more

Dr. Paquita Zuidema

Hola! I am originally from the Netherlands and thereafter spent 3 years as a child in the Peruvian Andes, but I have lived most of my life in the United States. I received my bachelor's degree in physics...more

Dr. Jeff Snider

I am a university professor involved in studies of the concentration and type of particles contained within clouds. It is important to know these things in order to say how often clouds produce precipitation...more

Dr. Chris Zappa

I am a specialist in ocean-atmosphere interactions. My interests include wave dynamics and wave breaking, the effect of near-surface turbulence on heat, gas, and momentum transport, airborne infrared...more

Windows to the Universe, a project of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, is sponsored in part is sponsored in part through grants from federal agencies (NASA and NOAA), and partnerships with affiliated organizations, including the American Geophysical Union, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Earth System Information Partnership, the American Meteorological Society, the National Center for Science Education, and TERC. The American Geophysical Union and the American Geosciences Institute are Windows to the Universe Founding Partners. NESTA welcomes new Institutional Affiliates in support of our ongoing programs, as well as collaborations on new projects. Contact NESTA for more information. NASA ESIP NCSE HHMI AGU AGI AMS NOAA