We are now aboard the R/V Palmer and on our way to East Antarctica. Due to two storms in our direct way we are heading west first to go around the storms and we’ll then head south on their backside. After passing the 200 mile zone off of Australia we turned some of the instruments on that collect data constantly while ship is under way. These instruments measure properties including surface water temperature, water depth, gravity, and weather data. In addition to their specific scientific missions research ships like the Palmer are also floating observatories that collect important data from remote areas of the world.
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