The group from the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, University at Albany, State University of New York, is deploying a whitecap camera on the R/V Thompson during the Punta Arenas-to-Seattle leg of the cruise to supplement our air-sea gas exchange measurements.  The camera is being used to take images of the sea surface to determine whitecap fraction.  Knowing whitecap fraction is important because it is a contributing factor in enhancing air-sea gas exchange, especially in high-wind conditions.  After experimenting with some different positions with camera placement, we mounted the camera on the O2 deck on the port side (Figure 1).

Shortly after leaving Punta Arenas, we encountered a storm with 50-kt winds and plenty of high seas, great whitecap conditions!  We obtained good images for the first few hours of the storm (Figure 2), at least until the high winds blew the camera mount upward, turning our whitecap cam into a sky cam!

The camera takes images once a minute which are then downloaded to a card.  The images from the card are then run through a processing algorithm that separates between light and dark areas using a threshold (automatically determined or user-specified).  A major challenge we are fighting in obtaining high-quality images for analysis is to keep the amount of sun glare in the photos as low as possible. Mounting the camera as high as possible on the ship can help, as well as moving camera position throughout the day and using filters to reduce glare.  We are in the process of working on these factors to obtain more suitable images for analysis for longer portions of the day.

- Matt Czikowsky (April 10 2010)