This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
A request is made to fund additional and back-up instrumentation on the R/V Thomas Thompson, a 274? general purpose Global research vessel operated by the University of Washington as part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) research fleet. The instrumentation proposed will improve the quality and reliability of measurements and provide enhanced operational capabilities to projects that are embarked upon the Thompson. Specifically, the proposal is to obtain and install A) a Kongsberg EM 302 swath multibeam echo sounder system ? an upgrade from their existing EM 300 system; and B) a Bell BGM-3 gravimeter available through the WHOI-managed gravimeter pool.
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.
