#langmuircirculation becoming visible through the foam stripes in the convergence zones. Except over the sandbank, where it is too shallow for the cells to develop and also waves are bent towards the middle from both sides, creating interference. So cool!

After work “I would really like to swim but there is absolutely no water here today so I lay flat on my belly in the water for a minute and then find sand everywhere for the rest of the day” moment

Summer came back, and with it the water

Sunrise from above & below

I’m so into the split photography thing right now. How cool is it that the very same interface looks so different from above and below, and that it separates completely different worlds???

Thanks for another lovely walk, L! Looks like the rain stayed in Lomma (as it should!)

Floaty bio stuff under water, pretty waves on the interface, and a dirty lens. Perfect after work swim!

How can anyone not want to jump in? Water is the best

I’m writing my teaching portfolio on a rainy train and was so focussed that I almost missed some really nice wave watching! Luckily only almost… What we see is that there is a) a lot of energy in the sea, visible in the long waves, and b) a sandbank (or something else shallow) a little bit offshore, hence all the wave breaking there. It does get a bit deeper landwards from there, because otherwise the waves would continue to break until they have dissipated/run up all the way to the beach. But that’s not what we observe

#SlowTravel. This is my third trip from Lund, Sweden, to Bergen, Norway — by train, this year. Yesterday I booked the fourth one this year. When I am not lucky to get a spot on the night train between Oslo and Bergen (which cuts travel time down to just below 24 hours), this trip takes two days and a night in Oslo. Compare this to a 1.5 hour flight, leaving from an airport that is only a 40min train ride away… This is something that I have to WANT to do. And yesterday I really did not want to book yet another such journey, because it takes me away from what is my new home, where I am just starting to make friends, but where I hardly ever spend any substantial time exploring or bonding, because of my part-time job in a different country and my family in a third. But after a couple of days of feeling very sorry for myself, this is why taking the train is the right choice for me:
– My main motivation is obviously the much lower carbon emissions of a train trip as compared to flying. But what it gives me in addition:
– Arriving in Gothenburg, I have already 3 productive hours of work under my belt today. I can very easily get in “the zone” on a train and just do what needs to be done (to the point of almost entirely missing the awesome wave watching, see previous post
– Here in Gothenburg, I had a nice stroll outside the train station, looked at pretty flowers and (more importantly) a lock and weir.
– If @stina.biologista wasn’t such an exemplary PhD student, I might have had the chance to catch up with her here (but maybe on my way back?). Instead, I’m sitting in a coffee shop, writing this and then doing some more work for a couple of hours (my next train only leaves in about 4)
– Before I arrive in Oslo tonight, I will have some more productive time on the train
– In Oslo, I will meet the lovely @iEarth.no crew: @mattias.lundmark, @kristianbbb, and many others
– Tomorrow, before I meet up with @kjersti.daae on the other side of the mountains, I will have had 5+ hours of productive train work before we have lunch and launch into more discussions (very much looking forward to that!) So in total, while it prevents me from connecting with new people in my new home (and that aspect I really feel as a huge downside right now), slow travel allows me to see lovely old friends all along the way, to explore places that I would probably not have visited otherwise (like those locks that have the distinct advantage of very close proximity to the train station, but might otherwise not necessarily have ended up on my must-see list), work efficiently (there is really something about sitting on a train that makes me focus!). And I feel like I am doing the right thing for me, but also for the world beyond me. So yeah. That’s why I am spending two days on trains. But I am still very much looking forward to the next Bergen trip being a little quicker thanks to the night train! #UnderTheSkyWeMake

So I was curious about how “fresh air” mixes with “used air” when hook-breathing in #freediving (because aren’t the lungs like sponges; lots of small pores and not one big volume where mixing would be easy? Aren’t we then just pushing the same volume in and out without affecting anything beyond the tidal zone?), so I just spent my lunch break reading physiology articles on hook breathing specifically (definitely good practice, but only real effect after extreme dives or in people with lung conditions), and on the importance of the heart beat for mixing of air in lungs during respiratory pauses, studied in mice using synchrotron imaging. Who would have thought that a PhD on oceanic mixing processes in oxygen minimum zones would come in so handy years and years later, and that here is yet another topic that I’m totally fascinated by, but from my very specific oceanography-focussed perception of the world

Great seat, lots of space & power outlets & table, done with work for today, great weather, great view. Unfortunately no chance of good wave watching pics with the sun directly on that window (but then I can’t remember the last time I cleaned a window, so maybe I shouldn’t complain too much). But almost done with trains for today, it’s going to be nice to get off!

More dirty train windows and great water views. Can’t believe it’s fall already!

This is what my friend’s son Iver (8) predicts I will look like when we go see waterfalls on our hike later. He knows me well!

Absolutely dreamy weekend recharging, with waterfall views from our cabin and with the best people

Morning mountain swim. Gorgeous water but not very warm… And I had to go in twice because I forgot my camera the first time and I was pretty sure that my facial expression on pictures that others took of me might not be quite as relaxed as I would like to post on social media ;) And if I don’t have pictures, did it even happen? So here is a split shot for you. Note the nice flat stones on the ground! Most of them might or might not have been a little further up the beach before we arrived…

We started out with just skipping pebbles over the water, but quickly escalated to bigger stones & cooler waves. #dropphotography kinda

Myrull

As always, shocking working conditions in Norway

Back at this super awesome river, and fascinated as always by how fast and clear and deep and green it is, and by how whether you can look in or not depends so much on the angle & what’s reflected there

Pretty boundary layers and eddy trains starting at all protruding edges! So cool how the surface roughness is so different inside & outside of the boundary layer, and how that influences how well we can see into the water!

Pretty eddy train becomes visible because the deformed surface reflects in different ways from where it is mostly flat

I don’t know if anyone here actually ever looks at them, but it’s kinda cool to see my coffee oceanography stuff all over the geophysical institute :)

I had planned out this morning perfectly: first a virtual meeting from my hotel, then a walk through the city center so I would get pretty sunny wave pics, then meetings at the institute for the rest of the day. Turns out I had looked at the weather forecast for Bjärred, not Bergen, so this is as pretty and sunny as it gets, but at least with the cool bybonden plants…