Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) proposes to support technical services on four research vessels, all operated as part of the U.S. Academic Fleet which is scheduled by the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS). Ships to be supported include R/V Revelle, R/V Melville, R/V New Horizon and R/V Sproul. As part of their basic operations they will provide one (Sproul, New Horizon) or two (Revelle, Melville) technicians on each seagoing research project to support basic services and they will maintain, calibrate and provide for qualified users items from their pool of shared-use research instrumentation. They also propose to provide several elements of specialized support for investigators, with separate charges. Specialized support proposed for 2012 includes: ? Reference Quality Hydrographic Support ? Multichannel Seismic reflection profiling and related mitigation of impacts on marine mammals. ? Management for HiSeasNet (Internet connectivity at sea for the Academic Fleet ) ? SeaSoar specialized support ? Ship/Shore Internet Management ? HDSS sonar
Broader Impacts The principal impact of the present proposal is under criterion two, providing infrastructure support for scientists to use the vessel and its shared-use instrumentation in support of their NSF-funded oceanographic research projects (which individually undergo separate review by the relevant research program of NSF). The support of 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.
