The University of Miami requests funding for additional and back-up instrumentation on the R/V Walton Smith, a 96,? general purpose regional vessel operated by the University of Miami?s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (RSMAS) as part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) research fleet.
The R/V WALTON SMITH conducts a substantial portion of her operations in the near shore waters of South Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, providing scientific information relevant to major environmental initiatives. The operations include oil spill monitoring, water management changes, municipal waste disposal, and storm water discharge among others which are deemed critical to the sustainable development of the South Florida and Gulf economy. In 2011, R/V Walton Smith completed 161 days at sea. NSF funded projects accounted for 29% of the total sailing schedule. In 2012, R/V Walton Smith is scheduled for 145 days with NSF days accounting for 26% of the total sailing schedule.
Oceanographic instrumentation requested in this proposal includes:
1) 600 KHz ACDP $35,392 2) Altimeter for CTD $12,665 3) Integrated Optical Bow Sensor Suite $19,955 4) Fume Hood $6,850 5) Time Server, digital displays $5,685 TOTAL $80,547
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 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 final outcome of the National Science Foundation's award to the University of Miami's Marine Technology Group (MTG) request for 2012 Oceanographic Instrumentation was one of the few requests and subsequent awards for which a major change was required. Funding for three items was deemed most critical by the panel reviewers, and consequently approved. These items are intended to better serve the scientific community utilizing the research vessel, R/V WALTON SMITH and facilities. These included a network time server, a deep water programmable altimeter for near bottom deployments, and a fume hood for chemical preparation and use. The network time server was purchased from Symmetricom. It was installed and has been well received by repeat science users, as well as new science groups. It is very helpful when post processing data from multiple computers and instruments, to ensure time of collection is synchronized. A viable fume hood that was no longer in use was located on one MTG-supported cruise ship, the Explorer of the Seas. The research vessel was visited by the University's Environmental Health and Safety team to ensure the fume hood's viability for the amounts and types of chemicals most frequently in use. It was repurposed for the RV WALTON SMITH, as per safety issues detailed in the proposal. The upgraded altimeter was considered critical, since it was a replacement for older units no longer supported by the manufacturer. Multiple failures of the older style altimeter led to the reason for the request. However, it was not purchased using this award, as is further explained below. Despite these changes during the year, a higher priority arose when the R/V WALTON SMITH's Position and Orientation System for Motor Vessels, or "POSMV" failed. The system is used for high accuracy position and orientation of the vessel, including six degrees of motion (position, heading, pitch, roll, heave, yaw). This system supports other highly specialized equipment, such as ADCP measurements, multibeams and other underwater vehicles. It is heavily relied upon by many shipboard users for their data collection. The remaining funds from the lack of purchase of a fume hood and altimeter was approximately $12,000. The request to utilize the funds for this very critical main component of the POSMV system was approved by the NSF Program Manager. The funds covered about 20% of the cost of the replacement "Inertial Measurement Unit" or IMU. The remaining funds were provided by the University of Miami.
