Funding from this award will greatly improve the National Deep Submergence Facility (NDSF) capability through the introduction and upgrade of the proposed Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), Sentry. Sentry will impact the deep ocean research community by expanding ocean access with a tool that can operate faster, deeper and longer than the current AUV, facilitating greater scientific accomplishments. The vehicle will greatly enhance the scope of scientific projects through improved capabilities such as larger ranges of seafloor surveys, potential for synoptic surveys of dynamic seafloor systems within a given dive, and much longer separations (in both time and space) between the AUV and support ship which are invaluable to ridge-crest, ocean-margin and abyssal-floor research. The vehicle will support myriad science experiments, making it a true multi-disciplinary tool for oceanographic research.
The Project Director, Dana Yoerger is fully qualified to direct this project having had experience with the prototype vehicle ABE and its successor, Sentry. Funding for this project will allow the institution to upgrade Sentry to support diverse deep submergence science research. ***
