The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) requests funding for R/V Knorr operations in 2005 in support of scientific research funded by the National Science Foundation. The KNORR has a 206 day schedule in 2005, and all are in support of NSF funded research programs. This is a five year cooperative agreement, and funding for each year of the agreement will be negotiated and is dependent on the number of days at sea in support of NSF-funded research.
Intellectual Merit The ship support requested in this proposal is required for the at-sea fieldwork for NSF research projects. These projects have been rigorously evaluated for scientific and intellectual merit. The highly competitive nature of the award granting process ensures a very high level of intellectual merit. The knowledge gained and the discoveries made by the research programs scheduled for Knorr in 2005 will enhance our understanding of the oceans and address a broad range of important scientific questions. The Knorr will provide researchers with the equipment, and skilled shipboard personnel, required to safely and productively pursue their scientific endeavors at sea.
Broad Impact Statement The research programs supported by Knorr will be important in understanding the Earth's climate and how it changes over time, in ontrasting earthquake rupture processes between oceanic and continental fault systems, determining the processes that control water mass formation in the Southern Ocean and phytoplankton growth in the equatorial Pacific, and in understanding the formation of oceanic crust at sea floor spreading centers. These intellectual endeavors will continue to broaden our understanding of the oceans, spur new questions, and confirm scientific theory for years to come, benefiting society at large.
An oceanographic expedition is in many respects an extension of the University classroom. Knorr legs are typically staffed by a diverse mix of senior and junior scientists, post-doctoral investigators, engineers, technicians and graduate and undergraduate students. These cruises are an extraordinary educational experience that expose all of these participants to new ideas, teach fundamental scientific principles through observation and practice, and inevitably raise questions that stimulate new thinking about how the oceans work.
Over the past several years an increased awareness of collective responsibility to bring this science into the classroom and to the general public has resulted in the development of new avenues to share these scientific findings. The cruise web site concept has been very effective in reaching the classroom with real-time images, data and two-way communication between scientists and students in schools across the country. This effectively extends the sea-going experience from the handful of participants on a single leg to hundreds or even thousands of students in classrooms across the country, as well as to the general public. Several cruises are planning to use this tool to present their data through web-based approaches either at their home institution or through web sites maintained by community organizations (e.g. RIDGE2000). The WHOI web site (www.whoi.edu) has pioneered efforts to present the results of research expeditions and sea-going projects to the general public (e.g. the Dive and Discover web site: http://science.whoi.edu/DiveDiscover), and they are continuing to develop new ways of using the WHOI web site to convey the excitement and importance of sea-going research to a larger audience.
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE Project Outcome and Findings Addressing Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts: This grant provided the funds to operate R/V Knorr for all NSF sponsored ship time from 2005 through 2012. R/V Knorr averaged approximately 10 voyages per year with an average of 268 days of operation during this period. R/V Knorr contributed many special advances in oceanographic explorations of the world’s oceans between 2005 and 2012. Unique contributions to science were made from Knorr because it is the only ship in the world modified to deploy the 150 foot long core system, developed with NSF funding at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, to sea. Among several voyages in the Atlantic, the system was also used off Knorr in the Pacific. The deep cores that Drs. D’Hondt and Herbert collected in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific off Galapagos, Costa Rica, and Peru addressed key questions of tropical and global change. America’s first US GEOTRACES trace metal inter-calibration cruise for Dr. Cutter was supported on R/V Knorr in the Atlantic Ocean near Bermuda. The over-boarding system for the GEOTRACES Trace metal collection system was designed and refined on R/V Knorr. Knorr went on to support two more of these voyages, one in the Atlantic, the other in the Pacific during this Cooperative Agreement. Many of the expeditions of Drs. Lee and Pickart, in challenging sea conditions, to the Davis and Denmark Straits off Greenland and Iceland were supported from R/V Knorr during this period. These voyages helped science understand the variability of fluxes connecting the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans and the dynamics of shelf-basin exchange and the deep western boundary current in the Irminger Sea. Noteworthy contributions included R/V Knorr operations above 80 degrees latitude supporting the Atlantic polar air sampling program, Icealot. Knorr also participated in the Bering Sea Ecosystem Study (BEST) program. This work examined the impacts of sea-ice on the hydrographic structure and nutrients over the eastern Bering Sea shelf. Two 50+ day voyages near 62°S; 103°W for the Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) were executed off R/V Knorr in extremely rough sea conditions. This effort characterized the processes responsible for the formation of Antarctic intermediate water. The research findings that are published from the cruises will advance understanding of the world’s oceans and this ecosystem. Real-time images and live conversations were broadcasted from these voyages into classrooms of the USA. Knowledge gained and the discoveries made by the research programs supported by R/V Knorr enhanced the understanding of the oceans and addressed a broad range of important questions in all the scientific disciplines. These broader impacts were achieved through the operational support funding provided from this grant. These intellectual endeavors broaden the understanding of the oceans, spur new questions, and confirm scientific theory, benefiting society at large.
