Hi! My name is Paige McKay, and I am currently a second-year undergraduate at the University of Washington School of Oceanography. I work as a lab tech at the UW Argo Float Lab and have been building, testing, and shipping Argo and SOCCOM/Go-BGC floats for a year and a half. On the R/V Hesperides, I will be assisting with Argo float deployments and taking water samples at each float deployment site.
Paige McKay will be assisting with Argo float deployments and taking water samples at each float deployment site.
I will be deploying 6 biogeochemical (BGC) adopted floats, which I cannot wait to decorate. These floats were built by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Float Lab, so while I did not work on these specific floats, I am looking forward to finally seeing these instruments in all their stages. At the UW Argo Float Lab, I work on these floats throughout their build-up. I am typically the first person to handle each float, unboxing them as they arrive. While they are in the lab, I test many of the sensors and processes, such as air bladder inflation and satellite communications, to ensure that these floats will function how we want them to once they are deployed. After they have been checked and are ready to go, I get them ready to be shipped. This is usually where my involvement with these floats ends, but this time, I have the incredible opportunity to deploy WHOI’s floats into the ocean.
We depart in a little over a week, on April 9th, and I am so excited for the opportunity to embark on a six-week research cruise, deploy floats, and keep this blog updated along the way!
~Paige McKay
About the Author—Paige McKay is a sophomore at University of Washington School of Oceanography and works in the UW Argo Float Lab.