This award to University of Miami in Florida provides support for the acquisition of a C-band satellite communications antenna, related modems and transceivers, to provide full time Internet connectivity to R/V Seward Johnson while underway conducting research. The system shares bandwidth leased The instrumentation will be operated by the ship's personnel, using a ground station at the University of California San Diego, through a system called HiSeasNet. R/V Seward Johnson is operated by Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution as part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) research fleet. University of Miami provides shipboard technical staffing under a Memorandum of Agreement between the two institutions. This acquisition should provide a substantial improvement in the communications capability available to marine scientists using the research vessels during 2006 and future years. ***
