By Joelle Habib (Laboratoire d’Océanographie Villefranche)

When you go on a scientific cruise, you always think about the instruments you’re going to deploy, the great data you’re going to acquire, or the experiments you’ll conduct. What you almost always forget is the small thing that isn’t actually small at all: food. And how are you going to eat it!

For those not familiar with scientific cruises: once you’re on board, most of your time goes to the science. You don’t really have time for food or food preparation. But there are always hidden heroes preparing your breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and, most importantly, the dessert for the dessert break. Today, instead of shedding light on the science, we’re going to talk about people, starting with the two chefs our lives basically depend on.

Rainer Götze and Peter Wernitz are the chefs of the last METEOR cruise. Rainer has been cooking on this ship for over 23 years, while Peter has been doing it for 13. Together they cook for 60 people on board, seamen and scientists alike. You’re probably wondering, like I was, how they pull it off. I had the chance to talk to them, and here are some of the ship’s secrets.

Let’s start with the planning. They don’t prepare the whole month’s menu before going on board, they plan it day by day. That said, a few dishes are practically law: fish on Tuesday and Friday, stew on Saturday (the stews are good, but it’s still my least favorite food day), and roasted meat on Sunday. Ice cream shows up for dessert on Sunday and Thursday lunches. And no matter the day, there’s always a vegetarian option on the table, nobody on board goes without something to eat.

So, all this cooking, but how many ingredients does it actually take? Let’s start with numbers. Every morning for breakfast there’s a choice of eggs (scrambled, boiled, fried…), pancakes, and more. So how many eggs are on this ship? For a one-month cruise, there are 3,000 eggs in storage, and the cooks go through around 90 of them a day. They also bake fresh bread every single day, about 3kg of flour goes into roughly 60 loaves. Coffee breaks happen all day, every day, there’s about 60kg of coffee on board. And since we’re on a German ship, and Germans do love their potatoes, there are 300kg of potatoes stored in a refrigerated, dark room so they don’t go bad.

You might be wondering why I’m talking so much about potatoes. Well, my dear reader, lunch has plenty of variety, but the one constant is potatoes. We’re on day 20 of the cruise, and I think we’ve worked through most of the varieties by now: fried, baked, soufflé, mashed, boiled and more still to come.

Another question I had was what happens if one of them gets sick. Rainer is a tough seaman who doesn’t get seasick anymore; Peter still does, occasionally. But either way, they’re always there, cooking through good conditions and bad. People generally love the food, though the chefs did tell me the one thing that never goes down well is old-school dishes like veal liver. (I can confirm.)

I think the message I’m trying to convey here is: a scientific cruise wouldn’t really be possible without Peter and Rainer. Science at sea is not only the science, but it’s also the work and effort of everyone on board. Especially the chefs!

30 Days at Sea, 30 Ways to Make Potatoes

By Leonie Jaeger (ICBM Oldenburg)

The ocean is the dominant climate regulator of our Earth. I am on board the RV Meteor to conduct measurements that helps us better understand the critical processes at the interface between the atmosphere and the ocean. The focus of these measurements is heat and freshwater fluxes, two key drivers that both influence and regulate Earth’s climate.

The ocean stores and transports vast amounts of heat across the whole globe. The exchange of heat between the atmosphere and the ocean is controlled by different surface heat fluxes. The sun emits shortwave radiation, which warms the surface ocean, though part of this radiation is reflected at the water surface. At the same time, the ocean emits longwave radiation towards the sky due to its temperature, some of which is reflected and absorbed by water vapor and clouds. To quantify these fluxes, I use radiometers: sets of upward- and downward-looking sensors that measure radiation coming from the sky and from the ocean. Specifically, pyranometers measure shortwave radiation, while pyrgeometers measure longwave radiation.

Over the open ocean, freshwater fluxes result from two processes: evaporation and precipitation. Approximately 80% of the global freshwater flux occurs over the ocean, underscoring the ocean’s dominance in the global water cycle and its influence on climate over land. In a warming climate, evaporation is expected to intensify as temperatures rise and the atmosphere’s capacity to hold moisture increases. That makes is very important to better understand these fluxes. However, high-quality measurements of precipitation and evaporation using remote techniques remain challenging. On this cruise, I am using a disdrometer, an instrument that measures rain in high resolution. It allows us to investigate not only the total amount of rain but also the velocity and size of individual raindrops, enabling a detailed characterization of rain events.  

Our cruise track crosses the Atlantic Ocean from South to North, passing the equator. This transect will provide a valuable dataset. Importantly, we will cross the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), a region near the equator characterized by heavy rain and thunderstorms. These storms originate from warm, moist air that rises continuously. As the air rises, it cools and condenses, forming thick clouds and intense precipitation. Because the ITCZ is driven by the convergence of trade winds from both hemispheres, it maintains persistent bands of convection. In this zone, these convective systems can trigger even more convection in the atmosphere driving the tropical climate. Together with warm surface temperatures, these high-energy processes can lead to the genesis of tropical cyclones. Thus, the atmosphere influences the ocean, and the ocean influences the atmosphere. Direct measurements at their interface are essential to better understand these processes shaping our climate. My responsibilities include installing and maintaining the measurements systems, as well as data validation and data storage. Maintaining sensors close to the ocean requires frequent cleaning, because sea spray leaves salt deposits everywhere, leading to corrosion. Together with ship-based measurements such as air temperature, wind speed and humidity, and oceanographic underway measurements including continuous observation of the water temperature, salinity, turbidity and chlorophyll, our data will provide a comprehensive dataset to study fresh and heat water fluxes between the ocean and the atmosphere.

Where the sky meets the ocean

Welcome to the M219 ocean blog!

Here, we will share updates and stories about the scientific work taking place during this research expedition. We also hope to offer a glimpse into daily life and work at sea.

For many members of the scientific party, this is their first time aboard METEOR. It will also be their last, as METEOR is embarking on its final voyage before retiring from service as a German research vessel after more than 40 years at sea. Over the course of its distinguished career, METEOR has travelled more than 1.7 million nautical miles, which is equivalent to more than 8 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. Throughout those decades the vessel has supported countless scientific discoveries and generations of marine scientists. We are very grateful and honored to be part of the final chapter of this remarkable ship’s history and to accompany her on the last few thousand miles of her legendary journey.

The scientific program of this cruise focuses on long-term observations of ocean currents off the coast of Brazil and at the equator, as well as interdisciplinary measurements near the Cape Verde Islands. At all these sites, GEOMAR has maintained observational programs for the past 10 to 20 years. Over the next four weeks, we will introduce these regions and the measurements carried out there in more detail. But first, let’s look at what happened in Brazil before the cruise began.

On Thursday, May 28, many of the scientists and students left the hotel early in the morning to attend a seminar at the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE), celebrating the long-standing scientific collaboration between Brazil and Germany.

The seminar was opened by Prof. Dr. Marius Müller, a former student at GEOMAR and now a professor for biological oceanography at UFPE. These meetings have become a valued tradition, having been organized for more than 20 years by now. This year marked the 9th edition of the seminar since its inception over 20 years ago.

A total of 8 scientists and students from Brazil, Germany, and the U.S. presented their research on various aspects of the tropical Atlantic Ocean. We would like to thank Marius Müller, Doris Veleda and all the Brazilian scientists and students who helped organize the seminar and provided such a warm welcome. We greatly enjoyed the exchange of ideas and look forward to celebrating the 10^th seminar in the years to come.

After the seminar we returned to the hotel, but there was little time to rest. Later that same day, the captain of METEOR and the German Consul General in Recife hosted a reception aboard METEOR in the Port of Recife.

The event brought together members of the scientific party, representatives of local institutions, and guests from the Brazilian and German scientific communities. It provided an excellent opportunity to celebrate the long-standing partnership between the two countries.

On Friday, May 29, the scientific party finally boarded METEOR. There was little time to settle into our cabins and workspaces, as preparations for departure were already in full swing. We left the Port of Recife as soon as possible and at around 1pm METEOR set sail and began the final voyage of her remarkable career.

About 12 hours after leaving port, we arrived at our first station. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of technical and scientific teams, all instruments had been installed and prepared in time for the start of operations. This station marked the beginning of our observational program off the coast of Brazil, which includes the deployment and recovery of tall moorings as well as CTD measurements. An intensive first week lies ahead, with a demanding schedule of measurements and mooring operations. After months of planning and preparation, everyone is excited to finally begin the scientific work and make the most of the final weeks aboard METEOR.

METEOR Sets Sail on Its Final Voyage