A request is made to fund additional and back-up instrumentation on the R/V Roger Revelle, a 273? general purpose Global vessel; the R/V Melville, a 279?general purpose Global vessel; the R/V New Horizon, a 170?, general purpose, Ocean/Intermediate vessel and the R/V Sproul, a 125? general purpose Coastal/Local vessel. All four vessels are operated by Scripps Institution of Oceanography as part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System research fleet.
Both R/V Roger Revelle and R/V Melville are Global vessels and support multidisciplinary oceanographic research in all of the world?s ocean basins. R/V New Horizon focuses primarily on offshore California but has been used for work throughout the Pacific. The primary working area for R/V Sproul has been the continental shelf and coastal environments off Southern California. In 2013, R/V Roger Revelle is scheduled for 247 days with NSF days accounting for 31% of the total sailing schedule; R/V Melville is scheduled for 316 days with NSF days accounting for 44% of the total sailing schedule; and R/V New Horizon is scheduled for 157 days with NSF days accounting for 50% of the total sailing schedule. R/V Sproul, a vessel owned by the State of California, has no NSF days in 2013 and only one day currently funded on the vessel.
Oceanographic Instrumentation requested in this proposal includes
RDI 150 KHz OS ADCP $66,110 H2000 ROV Spares $21,567 H2000 ROV Cable and Modifications $57,081 10m2 MOCNESS Components $46,279 TOTAL $191,037
Broader Impacts The principal impact of the present proposal is under criterion two of the Proposal Guidelines. They provide 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.
STS operates Ocean Explorer H2000 Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) built by Deep Ocean Exploration and Research (DOER). Although designed to work to depths of 2000 meters, as delivered the vehicle was limited to 1000m. Due to budget constraints at the time of order the system had only 1080 meters of umbilical and the pressure case housing the main electronics was rated to 1500 m. The ROV is minimally outfitted, but is designed for ease of expansion. It is equipped with one Sea Mantis five-function manipulator driven by a six-function hydraulic valve pack. The main camera is an INSITE PACIFIC Pegasus with pan, tilt and 18:1 zoom. A pair of Deep Sea Power & Light LED lights provide illumination. A forward looking sonar extends the imaging field beyond the visual range. The ROV was first used in December 2010 in an attempt to recover an Ocean Bottom Seismometer (OBS) that had been stranded on the seafloor off the coast of southern California. Records indicated the water depth at that location was at 1040m. The only chance for recovery of the OBS was to use precise navigation of the ROV to position it as close to as possible. To facilitate this, we borrowed a TrackLink 5000 ultra-short baseline (USBL) acoustic navigation system from the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory (HURL). Although the OBS was not found (it did not respond to acoustic interrogation, and may not be in place any more), the cruise demonstrated the capability of the ROV. The video and sonar worked well in imaging the area forward of the ROV. The manipulator moved freely and as designed. The thrusters provided sufficient power to fly the vehicle to the extent of the cable. This grant funded upgrades to extend the ROV to the working depth of 2000 meters. The underwater vehicle was returned to the manufacturer, where it was almost completely disassembled. All components not meeting pressure rating of greater than 2000 meters were removed. The primary piece being the pressure case for the main electronics subsystem. The ROV was reassembled with a new pressure case and final testing was conducted in the facilities' pool. The remaining upgrade was purchase of a new umbilical cable. The department worked with the manufacturer to develop specifications for a cable of 2400 m length. This included structural components suitable for near bottom operations and a combination of copper and fiber optic conductors sufficient to carry electrical power and digital signals the full length of the cable. Three cable companies were given the specifications for the purpose of designing a new cable. South Bay Cable Corporation was selected based upon their design, delivery schedule and pricing. Meanwhile, department funds were used for remodel of the ROV spooler (winch). The remodel has been completed and the new cable loaded onto the spooler. The ROV has returned from the manufacturer following its upgrade. The system is now being tested and will soon be available for oceanographic research.
