Hurricanes, ocean saltiness and me: Rafael Jaume-Catany

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Rafael with Mt. Teide in the background as we departed Tenerife

 How can I start writing about myself and introducing you my research curiosities avoiding being dull and boring. How can I describe you that at the moment I am living the opportunity of my life doing research on board of the historic RSS Discovery. I cannot count how many times I have been looking at this living legend from the canteen of the National Oceanographic Centre (NOC) and imagining one day stepping on board. I was imagining that moment would be like to connect with the history of ocean sciences.

Well, so here we are. I am writing you from the cabin number 27 of the RSS Discovery and wondering how many times scientists have been using this table facing the eye bull (round window in the cabin). Meanwhile Discovery is doing its last journey, me, Rafael E. Jaume-Catany from Sóller a little but proud village in Mallorca (Spain) I am doing my first forty-day cruise along the North Atlantic.

The task of finding my research questions is a work in progress that has been developed through my studies in marine sciences in the University of Vigo. Then in the University of Palmas de Gran Canary (Spain) and in the University of Algarve (Portugal), where I found my passion for using satellites to monitor different parameters of the oceans including ocean color to study global ocean’s productivity, sea surface temperature (SST) and the sea level. But in there my research question was still not clear and I had to cross the line and I had to go to the University of Baja California in Ensenada (Mexico) and start discovering my research interest.  There, I started to look at phytoplankton blooms induced by hurricane motion over the west Pacific. But if you are reading this and you are thinking that this is nothing new for the scientific community, then you are right. So I had to come back to Europe seeking what could be really original, useful for the society in the same time enjoyable for me..

This is how my research interest put me in contact with the satellite group at the NOC where I had the opportunity to work and to complete a master’s programme in the university of Southampton using SMOS and Aquarius, two brand new satellites from a European and American-Argentinean partnership missions. The aim of both missions is to measure the sea surface salinity (SSS) from space. Finally, this journey brought me here. During this Discovery cruise I am processing the temperature and salinity measured at five meters depth along the Discovery track from all along the way from Southampton down to the Canary Island and then to the Bahamas. This cruise is an excellent opportunity for me to see from the first hand how in situ oceanographic data are collected. We are going to deploy very exciting instruments including Argo floats, surface drifters from the SPURS project and a large number of moorings from the Rapid project.

It is an incredible experience and I am glad that my passion for science was strong enough to bring me here.

Rafael