This 3-year award to University of California San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) provides support for technical services during NSF-funded programs on research vessels Revelle, Melville, New Horizon and Sproul. All four vessels are operated by SIO as part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) research fleet. SIO will provide two shipboard technicians on each cruise of Revelle and Melville, and one technician on New Horizon and Sproul, to support seagoing research projects and to maintain, calibrate and provide for qualified users items from their pool of shared-use research instrumentation. In addition, the award supports some specialized services support on both SIO vessels and other UNOLS vessels on which SIO technical staff will provide support. Such services includes multibeam sonar operations, seismic reflection profiling, mitigation of acoustic impacts on marine mammals by seismic sources, biological and undulating oceanographic vehicle support, support for 'reference quality' CTD operations, hydrographic Doppler sonar support, and technician training. The services supported here are expected to significantly enhance the operation of the research vessels via cost-effective and expert support of shared-use oceanographic instrumentation. ***
