A request is made to fund additional and back-up instrumentation on the R/V Roger Revelle, a 273' general purpose Global vessel; the R/V Melville, a 279' general purpose Global vessel; the R/V New Horizon, a 170', general purpose, Intermediate vessel and the R/V Sproul, a 125' general purpose Regional vessel. All four vessels are operated by Scripps Institute of Oceanography as part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System research fleet. One of the requests in this proposal will be funded as a group purchase through another institution and another request already exists in a fleet pool and will be devilvered to the institution. This award includes two items:
1) IXSEA PHINS motion sensor 2) Knudsen 3260 Echosounder (6 systems)
Broader Impacts: The acquisition, maintenance and operation of shared-use instrumentation allows NSF-funded researchers from any US university or lab access to working, calibrated instruments for their research, reducing the cost of that research, and expanding the base of potential researchers. The acquisition of the components for the sonar systemes on the Scripps vessels will allow this important functionality of bottom and sub-bottom tracking to be maintained in this hub institution on the West Coast.
to be installed on UNOLS research ships operated by Scripps Institution of Oceanography, a part of the University of California San Diego, and 3 other institutions. The items were an IxSea PHINS motion reference unit for installation on R/V ROGER REVELLE, and 6 Knudsen model 3260 scientific echosounders forinstallation on ships operated by Scripps, University of Washington, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Sea Education Association. The IxSea motion sensor has been purchased, bench tested at labs on the SIO campus, and installed on R/V ROGER REVELLE in early 2011.It was successfully interfaced with the ship's Kongsberg EM122 multibeam sonar, and is being used as the primary motion sensor in this system. An existing older model of PHINS is being used as the spare motion sensor. The new model of PHINS purchased with funds from thisgrant has expanded the capability of the EM122. The new PHINS has additional output ports and options not available on the older PHINS. In particular, the new PHINS has an ethernet port. This capability is required for use of the chirp mode of the EM122 in deep water, i.e. waterdepths greater than 4500 m. The chirp mode increases the swath width of the EM122, permitting the acquisition of significantly more data in a single pass of the ship over the ocean floor. The 6 Knudsen model 3260 echosounders have been purchased and delivered to the respective institutions. These instruments have replaced aging and obsolete model 320BR echosounders already installed on the research ships. The newer model delivers many benefits over the320BR. It uses a fullspeed USB 2.0 interface vs a SCSI interface as used in the 320BR. The 3260 can operate up to 4 frequency channels asopposed to only 2 in the 320BR. The model 3260 incorporates the latest in digital signal processing technology and specialized chirp and correlation processing algorithms to enhance sub-bottom depth capability. The two echosounders received by Sripps have been installed on R/V ROGER REVELLE and R/V MELVILLE. Both ships use the new echosounders as the primary instrument system for sub-bottom surveys, quick water depth determinations, and surveys for mooring deployments. The department's geophysical engineer has developed a training program and 'cheat sheet' documentation for the operation of the echosounders on SIO ships. The shipboard technicians are cycling through the in-house training and the documentation has been filed on allof the ships. Confirmation of delivery of the other 4 Knudsen model 3260 echosounders has been received from the three institutions. Our department has offered guidance in the installation and configuration of these systems, but has not kept records on their performance. Thus, all funds have been expended as proposed .All instrumetation functions according to manufacturer's specifications.
