Women sails to deepest point in Atlantic

Forest Hills native Jessica Sharoff has always wondered what life is like at sea, and for two weeks, the 22-year-old science assistant will get to see firsthand.
Sharoff and fellow Joint Oceanographic Institutions (JOI) researcher Karinna Sjo-Gaber will set sail with a team of oceanographers to gather meteorological and oceanographic data from the western tropical Atlantic Ocean, particularly the Puerto Rican Trench.
Scientists believe that the trench contains the deepest point in the Atlantic Ocean, the Milwaukee Deep, which has a maximum depth of 8,400 meters - about 5.2 miles.
The expedition will run from Saturday, April 14 until Saturday, April 28, beginning in San Juan, Puerto Rico and ending in Bridgetown, Barbados.
Scientists will gather quality-controlled data where strong sea surface temperature anomalies are found and where the temperatures and conditions of the air and sea significantly impact each other. Later, scientists will look at the data for climate and global-warming implications.
To run the project, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Climate Observation provided funding to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) researcher, Al Plueddeman, who will lead the expedition.
In addition, both Sharoff and Sjo-Gaber will upload their findings, daily blogs and photos to a website created by the project - MISSION 15 51 at www.joiscience.org/mission1551.
The goal of their daily online postings will be to communicate with kids, whose classes have signed up to check the website. Each day, teachers - like Sharoff’s brother Daniel, an earth science instructor at Richmond Hill High School - will log on with their students to see what scientists’ have found.
“Scientists are generally asked to perform education and outreach to reach certain goals - inform the general public and educate school children … But there often is a lot lost in translation when scientists are asked to communicate with public directly,” Sharoff said.
Later on, once the researchers return to their office base in Washington, D.C., Sharoff will upload videos of the trip to the expedition website.
“Right now, climate variations and global warming are very big issues. To be able to be part of that research and to be able to communicate and get others excited about it is really interesting to me,” Sharoff said.