The Duke University Marine Laboratory will acquire several items of oceanographic instrumentation to be placed in a pool of shared use equipment. This equipment is maintained for use on or in association with the R/V CAPE HATTERAS, a research vessel owned by the NSF and operated by Duke University. A substantial part of the ship's operating schedule during 1990 is in support of NSF-sponsored research projects. The instrumentation will also increase the capabilities of the ship and of the institution to support research and engineering activities. The instrumentation includes: -Computer and other hardware upgrades for the SAIL shipboard data logging system, -Niskin bottles for collecting discrete samples in the water column, -precision graphic recorder with crystal delay unit for displaying acoustically derived data of seafloor bathymetry and sedimentary profiles, -a fume hood for removing chemical fumes from the ship's laboratory, -10 kHz hydrophone for receiving acoustic signals from deployed instrumentation packages, -Vibration free table to dampen out ship vibrations while doing microscopy work, -Diving air compressor and dive tanks to provide a safe and reliable source of breathable air for scientific diving operations at sea, and -Radio Direction Finder beacons to facilitate locating floating instrumentation at sea. The instrumentation described above will increase the capability of the organization to support NSF-sponsored research and engineering projects.
