This award to Oregon State University provides instrumentation to significantly improve the oceanographic research capabilities of the institution and the research vessel Wecoma, an NSF-owned ship operated by OSU as part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System research fleet. The award supports acquisition of 1) a GPS-based heading/attitude system, 2) a rail-based stern deployment/recovery system for the NORCOR piston corer, and 3) electro-optical slip rings for use with the SeaSoar towed undulating vehicle. All of these are shared-use capabilities that are available to all funded users of the R/V Wecoma, or the NORCOR piston corer and SeaSoar systems on any UNOLS vessel. These improvements will be of substantial advantage to marine scientists during 2004 and future years. ***
