Today Don and Joe photographed Sargassum at Station #5 from increasingly higher altitudes, using the red rokkaku kite. The Sargassum windrows are just barely visible in the second photo, but then they are obscured by clouds at the highest altitudes. The device attached to the line in the third-to-last photo is a wind sensor. Expedition log: http://www.schmidtocean.org/story/show/619
Jamie has made several changes to the KAICam Android application, in support of the cruise with MBARI this week. To make the screen space on larger tablets more usable, the layout is now dynamically adjusted to maximize the preview image size.
To help in situations in which the network topology changes frequently, the app now automatically find other instances of itself that inhabit the same network. This way, the remote viewing client can connect to a camera server without being specially configured with the camera’s IP address in advance.
Other improvements include better networking efficiency and stability, and the continuous logging of GPS and air pressure (for altitude) where available.
The two images are screenshots of the app running on […more]
A few weeks ago we did some testing of the kite inflation system with a new motor, electronics, and firmware. Everything has been looking good and we are looking forward to testing it on a boat or lifting kite soon.
In the attached plot, the green line indicates the target pressure, which is changed remotely using the web interface to cause the system to inflate and deflate the kite. The red line shows the measured air pressure. The measurement is somewhat noisier than the actual air pressure because the sensor is attached to the same tube as the in intake and outlet. The improved firmware filters this noise enough to keep the actual pressure within the kite quite stable.
Some more great photos from Don and Joe in the Atlantic Ocean. They used the kytoon and the white and red rokkakus today, using the higher kite to take photos of the lower kite. They also engineered an aerial photo of the research team on the deck. This day they traveled from sample station #3 to sample station #5. Upon arriving, everyone went swimming.
Don and Joe took some great photos of Sargassum at station #3 from the lifting kites and from the collection boat. The fisheye photos were taken from the GoPros–either on the kite or on a handheld pole. The lower-res photos with the black borders are from the Axis cam. Expedition log: http://www.schmidtocean.org/story/show/608
