“it’s so different, and feels otherworldly,” said stephanie gandulla, a diver with the national oceanic and atmospheric administration’s thunder bay marine sanctuary. she has sampled the mats near the sinkholes on the lake’s bottom.

you may have seen a microbial mat before — the green algae on wet rocks at the beach is an example.

algae’s green color comes from chlorophyll — a substance that uses sunlight to turn carbon dioxide into energy. carbon dioxide and oxygen support most of life on earth.

but under special conditions, like those at three sinkholes just two and a half miles east of alpena, primitive forms of microbes called cyanobacteria can survive without either of them.

these are white, not green, and they get energy from chemicals in the water.

“they are everywhere, but they are incredibly hard to find,” said bopaiah biddanda, a biologist with grand valley state university’s annis water resources institute, who has been studying them for 20 years.

such mats are normally found in ocean waters over 32,000 feet deep, but they can be found only 80 feet below the surface of what is known as lake huron’s middle island sinkhole.

the sinkhole’s biologically extreme environment can help simulate sample collection in extraterrestrial worlds where life is based on similar chemicals. a new study by biddanda models scenarios where robots could analyze material beneath the water of other planets. it’s based on the work in lake huron.

the study focuses on two methods: suction devices for soft mats and coring devices for hard mats.

the sinkholes near alpena provide sulfuric, oxygenless groundwater that creates the conditions needed for the mats to grow. filaments of cyanobacteria drift together, creating a wispy white-purple flow.

“it almost looks like a mirage,” gandulla said.

it could be a long time before the experience from sinkholes in lake huron will be used to explore the potential of life on planets elsewhere, but biddanda’s exploration is yielding other finds now.

recently, for example, his team found an explanation for the mats’ mysterious ability to change colors overnight.

the purple and white cyanobacteria travel upwards to capture energy from the top of the mat, according to the study. during the day, microbes with color capture the small amount of sunlight reaching the seafloor with chlorophyll.

as the sun sets, the white microbes move to the surface of the mat to absorb chemicals in the sulfuric water for their energy. this continuous, vertical shift in microbes causes patches of the mat to change between purple and white in a daily cycle.

the microbial mats thrive off a special soup of chemicals in the groundwater, but changes in land use could disrupt it in the future.

the thunder bay sanctuary is constantly combating such threats to coastal ecosystems such as the one near alpena.

“development might choke off the water supply,” biddanda said.

the marine sanctuary offers educational programs and tours to k-12 students and operates a welcome center year-round.

“we work together to protect it as a community,” gandulla said.

the characteristics of middle island sinkhole’s cyanobacteria could hold the key to much more than planetary exploration. they could lead to advances in other scientific fields, such as evolutionary biology and medicine.

“we have a library of pharmaceutical value here,” biddanda said. “this could help us down the road.”

and, he noted that they look cool: “there is something fascinating and mesmerizing about these colorful mats.”

you’re standing on a beach, while gentle waves lap against the sand. if you look into the water, you can see hermit crabs munching away on algae. the smell of seawater wafts through your nose. warm sunlight streams down, filtering through the geometric glass walls and ceiling. outside, you can see the sonoran desert and the santa catalina mountains in the distance. 

you’re not standing at sea level but at an elevation of over 4,000 feet. you’re inside a former space colony experiment that’s now an earth systems research center.

welcome to the biosphere 2 ocean.

the university of arizona’s biosphere 2 is a unique facility where marine biologists, atmospheric scientists, biogeographers and other scientists conduct large-scale experiments. katie morgan, manager of marine systems at biosphere 2, is currently preparing the ocean for some new accessories. morgan points out the $3 million worth of lights to hang over the surface, which she explains will be critical for helping corals grow under glass that blocks out uva and uvb light. 

biosphere 2 has a long history of groundbreaking research in the public eye. the biosphere 2 ocean provides an opportunity for visitors to see marine science in action, no sea legs required. i was fortunate to have the opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes tour from morgan. here are 5 fascinating facts about the biosphere 2 ocean that are sure to amaze:

1. it’s the biggest research tank in the world, morgan said. filled with 2.6 million liters of saltwater, it’s just a tad bigger than an olympic swimming pool. unfortunately, morgan explained that visitors are not allowed to swim in the ocean, so michael phelps will need to find another place to practice. the biosphere 2 ocean mimics the shape of the ocean floor with a beach that drops off until a reef crest rises up to break the waves, followed by a drop down to a deeper ocean beyond. 

2. the deeper end of the ocean plunges 7 meters, or just over 21 feet—that’s deep enough to cliff-dive into. a tall cliff rises on the edge of the ocean, allowing a bird’s-eye view of the simulated sea. assistant research professor joost van haren, who has worked at biosphere 2 for decades, shared an anecdote about the lives of the original inhabitants of the facility. when biosphere 2 was created as a prototype habitat for humans on mars, the biospherians who lived inside the experiment between 1991 and 1993 didn’t just do research all day. they were able to cliff-dive safely into the water. talk about a fun lunch break! 

3. so where did those 700,000 gallons of water come from? the original researchers knew that to create a true ocean system, they needed all the features of ocean water. these include minerals and microorganisms that turn saltwater into seawater. rather than trying to replicate true ocean water, morgan explained that the creators of biosphere 2 decided to bring 100,000 gallons of seawater from san diego to the facility, carried in milk trucks across the desert.

4. in the late ’90s, columbia university conducted climate change experiments within biosphere 2. according to morgan, columbia scientists knew that with rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere would come rising acidity in the oceans. they wondered how high acidity would affect a coral reef system, so they raised the acidity of the ocean to mimic a future atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration of 420 ppm. as a result, corals grew less and underwent a bleaching event, losing their colorful symbiotic algae and starving to death. with the data collected, the researchers predicted that future ocean acidification in the real ocean would cause a 40 percent decrease in coral growth between 1880 to 2065. this was one of the first studies on ocean acidification, a defining issue threatening oceans today.

5. morgan is well aware that ocean acidification is not the only threat facing corals. oceans absorb not only carbon dioxide, but also heat. this function is critical for the health of our planet: it is our oceans that keep air temperatures steady and livable. as global temperatures rise, oceans endure the brunt of it. high water temperatures are hard on corals. morgan likened long heat waves in the ocean to human illness: “if you have a 102-degree fever for two days, you recover. if you have a fever for two weeks, you die.” equipped with a heat exchange system, the ocean can simulate these heat waves. water run through the system is heated or cooled, and then returned to the research tank. according to morgan, the entirety of the 700,000-gallon ocean can be moved through the heat exchange system in 24 hours, enabling groundbreaking research on how heat waves affect corals and what humans can do to save them.

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with 50 international partners, the research team at the biosphere 2 ocean will continue doing critical work. keep an eye out in the news for the iconic glass structure because there’s no doubt that biosphere 2 is going to be making headlines again.

cape canaveral, fla. – noaa’s revolutionary weather satellite successfully launched saturday from the kennedy space center at 6:42 p.m. est. the geostationary operational environmental satellite (goes-r) means earlier warnings, expected to save lives from severe weather situations.

goes-r, called goes-16 as soon as it detached from the booster, is the first in a series of next generation satellites for weather monitoring set to replace the current noaa goes network. “it’s going to be like instead of seeing black and white television, hd,” said joe pica, director of the office of operations at the national weather service in a mission briefing at the space center on thursday.

hurricane matthew delayed the weather satellite’s launch twice due to damage to space center facilities and equipment last month, as well as a minor booster issue. but with clear conditions and all units go, the united launch alliance (ula) atlas v rocket finally got the spacecraft off the ground in a noaa and nasa partnership.

the geostationary satellite will be able to monitor a vast swath of the the western hemisphere longitudinally from the east coast of new zealand to the west coast of africa and from latitudinally from canada to chile. with three times more channels than current weather satellites, it will track severe weather with intensified accuracy, giving immediate updates and more reaction time with warnings about hurricanes, typhoons, lightning, wildfires, tornadoes and even rough flight conditions. the imaging resolution will be four times as powerful as what is available now, so advanced that it will be possible to see the waves in the clouds that cause turbulence.

“we will see features with goes-r that we have never been able to see before,” said steven goodman, goes-r program scientist with noaa.

spectral images of earth will occur every five minutes and can be taken up to every 30 seconds in areas of interest, which is five times faster than the capabilities of current satellites. this frequency in information helps agencies such as fema and noaa better plan for evacuations and quickly get grounds crews where they are needed most. “we are excited for goes-r because it is going to help us do our jobs better,” pica said.

the ability to more accurately map lightning aids the organizations in predicting the behavior of a hurricane, technology goodman said would have greatly assisted the caribbean in preparing for the rapid intensification of matthew just last month. goodman also said the use of the imaging could help the people see “that the risk is real and the storm is coming at them, and they will maybe be more likely to take action. and that is what we need, people to take action to be safe.”

additionally, goes-16’s environmental monitoring programs will aid in documenting the effects of climate change on extreme weather. “right now we don’t know what the [normal] variation for extreme weather is,” goodman said. but the 20 years of data goes-16 will be collecting will extend the 17 years of data from the nasa tropical rainfall measuring mission (trmm), creating a sound climate data set “and we can look for those variations,” goodman said.

goes-16 also will be keeping an eye on the sun. its six instruments are designed to be earth-pointing, in situ-pointing (near environment), or solar-pointing. the solar-pointing instruments will be able to detect solar flares, intense radiation blasts from the sun that can impact telecommunications satellites and electric power on earth. when necessary, the satellite can send out warnings to shut off power grids to protect them from being destroyed from electromagnetic disturbances.

it will take goes-16 nine days from its launch date to position itself in its planned orbital route and about five months before it is fully operational. news and updates on the satellite are available at goes-r.gov.

“accuracy turns into time for us, and the one thing you can’t get back during a response to an emergency is time,” said damon penn, assistant administrator of the response directorate at fema, “our relationship with noaa and the kinds of products noaa provides for us are critical to what it is that we do.”

kennedy space center – duct tape, bubble wrap, aluminum foil, plastic bags, ground stakes, bungee cords, squares of plywood and plastic storage containers. these are just some of the sophisticated tools adapted by journalists and photographers as they set up their remotely activated cameras at the nov. 19 goes-r weather satellite launch site at the kennedy space center.

there is no “standard equipment” when it comes to protecting a camera from the intense exhaust of a space rocket, so each individual must macgyver his or her own unique contraption for the job — that’s where the storage containers come in.

“you get anything out here from a plastic bag to a homemade box. you can’t go down and buy a box. you make it,” said julian leek, a freelance photographer who has been shooting nasa launches since apollo 7 in 1968.

these launch camera contraptions are the products of a unique need met by individual ingenuity. each is a work of art, and like snowflakes, no two are the same. those that survived and successfully triggered during saturday’s launch captured stunning images of the most advanced weather satellite’s last moments on earth.

most launch camera setups involve a box of sorts made of plastic or aluminum that house a camera and a remote device, which activates the shutter by either sound or a timer.

the box is then placed atop a tripod that is either staked into the ground or otherwise attached to surrounding anchors, like nearby rail ties or stationary structures close to the launch pad. the goal is for their cameras to survive the rocket’s blast without damage from debris or being blown over.

in addition to the danger from the rocket, the cameras are also at risk of damage due to any form of precipitation. from the morning dew to florida’s humid climate, the journalists and photographers have developed ways to keep moisture out.

“i’ve had lenses that got waterlogged because of rain — two of them,” said ken kremer from universe today. to prevent this, many wrap their devices in plastic bags or tape their camera containers to be airtight.

leek even developed his own lens heaters to dry up any condensation in his lenses. “it’s a ring that goes around. it’s got velcro on it, it’s got tape on it, it’s got cables on it, it’s got a timer on it, it’s got another battery on it. and you set that timer two hours before the launch and the heater comes on and it heats that lens up … and goes ahead and dries it out.”

after the rocket is well on its way, the journalists and photographers return to the barren launch pad to collect their machinery  or — in some cases, what’s left of it — and anxiously check to see how their contraptions preformed in capturing the event.

“no matter what launch you do, you look at it as an experiment because you never know what’s going to happen. things just happen,” said lane hermann, author and freelance space journalist. “you get what you get, and if you don’t get it, you don’t get it.”

the launch occurred at 6:42 p.m. est and within a few hours nasa’s pam sullivan, the goes-r mission director, confirmed the craft had successfully deployed its solar arrays. however, it will take goes-r, now called goes-16 after deployment, nine days to phase into its planned orbital route and about five months before it is fully operational.

the goes-r launch activities can be viewed on nasa television, and further updates and information can be accessed at goes-r.gov.