Index to Shipboard Technical Groups

(jump directly to section)

Ocean Technology Group (OTG) / Shipboard Support Facility (SSF)

Inventory of Shared Use Equipment

Hawaii Mapping Research Group (HMRG)

Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP)

Shipboard Support Facility:

The Shipboard Support Facility (SSF) is operated by SOEST at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and at Honolulu Harbor Pier 45, University Marine Center (UMC), 8 miles away.

The Facility exists to support the graduate and research arms of SOEST with state of the art lab equipment, deck equipment, and computer systems that can be used aboard oceanographic research vessels.

The following are management objectives:

* Communicate effectively with Project PIs.

* Provide technical sea-going and shore support for sponsored research.

* Keep NSF shared-use equipment in excellent shape through maintenance, repair, and calibration.

* Update or replace NSF sponsored shared-use equipment as improved equipment becomes available.

* Work with other groups to provide "specialized equipment" support for PIs.

* Continue technician training as equipment and software evolve.

The SSF - OTG mission is to provide the personnel, technical expertise and equipment in support of scientific operations on the research vessels. The maintenance, repair, calibration, and upgrade of the shipboard computers, shared-use equipment, deck equipment, bottom sampling equipment, etc., takes place both at sea and on shore. When at sea, the technicians report to the Chief Scientist with deference to the PI's priorities for equipment operation and repair (barring operational/safety issues of the ship that may require tech support). While on shore, OTG have access to electronics and machine shop facilities at both the UH campus and UMC. Suggestions and improvements to the SSF operation come both from the Ship Operations Advisory Committee and from the seagoing PIs through written or verbal feedback.

Description of Oceanographic Technical Services Provided

SSF/OTG - The University of Hawaii has been involved in Oceanographic Research since the mid 60's. STAG was formalized in the early 80's as the lead technical group working to maintain and improve at-sea data gathering capabilities as well as standardize at sea digital data collection efforts for the visiting scientist. The technicians currently support NSF-sponsored oceanographic research on the AGOR-26 R/V Kilo Moana, the R/V KOK, and have supplied research equipment for use on other UNOLS vessels and by other government agencies, as available when requested.

Pre-cruise service involves the SSF Supervisor in concert with Ship Ops/Scheduling contacting the PI to clarify the cruise objectives and equipment requirements. During this period the practical concerns of the scientist are discussed (equipment availability, deck layout, various services, dockside assistance, shipping, berthing, dates, ports, etc) and planned for. If the equipment identified is not currently in the OTG shared-use pool, other Institutes are contacted to see about borrowing and availability. If such equipment also has broader use by a variety of programs then the equipment may be itemized for future proposals. Offline, the SSF Supervisor also attempts to match the scheduled techs with the experience and training needed for specific PI projects.

The second phase of service involves the technicians coordinating and helping stage (with shore support if needed), checkout, and load both the shared-use equipment and project specific equipment. It also includes the technician assisting in equipment placement/ stowage in the ship laboratories, acting as liaison with the ship's crew, and giving specific orientation to lab space and the shared-use equipment. Responsibilities at sea include safety on deck and safety in "over-the-side" operations. The technicians manage the various shared-use data acquisition systems (CTD, fluorometer, thermosalinograph, R/V KM multibeam, gravity, magnetics, bottom sampling, underway systems, ADCP, etc.), monitor data quality, oversee the data distribution network of fiber/video, train the science users on the shared-use equipment, and troubleshoot or repair failed equipment (ship's or shared-use).

Post-cruise support includes assisting in demobilization, providing quality data (from the data acquisition systems) to the scientist, maintenance of equipment, calibration of sensors, inventory of shared-use equipment, and evaluation/ implementation of improvements (suggested by scientists). The technical team, in concert with the various users and PIs, also monitors developments in data acquisition equipment in general, replacing outdated or inefficient gear with new systems or new software that better match the science community's needs. It may also involve 'outside' tech training to keep the level of support current with regard to science changes. All of the shared-use equipment and staffing costs are included in the Technicians daily rate for both the KOK and KM. Basic multibeam bathymetry instrumentation usage is also covered through this grant. Typical cruises involve 2 technicians, with both techs sharing the oversight of the back deck operations and the data collection/computer aspects of the leg. On cruises with more intensive back deck operations, 3 techs are necessary to provide 24/7 deployment/retrieval coverage plus lab/computer/communications support. All techs are on call 24 hours each day and generally work 12-hour primary shifts. There is budgeted overtime or deployment compensation while at sea. On selected transits, additional techs and/or SOEST staff are included for underway training, software maintenance, new equipment checkout, system testing & handling of backlogged items.

Bottom Sampling: The OTG group operates and maintains the bottom sampling equipment, which includes dredges (pipe & chain bag), piston cores, multicore and wax (rock) corers. Historically they have also deployed gravity cores, and free-fall grabs. Three techs are proposed for legs that have 24/7 over-the-side sampling activity in 2005.

The standard rock dredge assembly consists of a steel frame dredge, 36"x18" mouth, with a 60"-long chain bag. The bag can be lined, or a small pipe dredge can be included, to collect sediments. At a distance of 10m up the (9/16") cable from the dredge, a 1-ton lead dredge weight may be attached to a fiege fitting on the cable. The fiege fitting can accommodate a weak link. The cable fails at 24,000 lbs. tension. A wide variety of other dredge assemblies can be custom made by the OTG group or machinists at the UHMC with sufficient advance planning. The standard piston core components include a weight stand, trigger arm and trigger weight of corer, core barrel (available in 20ft lengths, 3" I.D. of high-tempered steel), plastic core liner, stainless piston, and a core catcher in the bottom of the core. Deck support for this assembly is typically a rail system mounted on deck or on racks outboard of rails. Piston cores of 20-35 ft have been taken on R/V Kilo Moana.

Inventory of Shared-use Instrumentation and Services Provided (on R/V Kilo Moana unless otherwise specified)

1. General Purpose Data Logging/Processing Computers

Pentium-W2000 PCs (10+), loggers w/Linux OS (10+), Sun SPARC workstations (9);

Backup: Tape (DAT, Exabyte, 1/4" Cartridge, DLT ) & CDROM/DVD Drives

Remote Data displays - desktop PCs, laptop PCs, 3 PC104 PCs, & TV monitors (20+)

Email Comms- Inmarsat B (HSD & 9600) & Mini-M(2400baud); Iridium (2400 baud)

2. General Purpose Navigation Aids

Trimble Tasman GPS PY code receiver (~10 meter accuracy)

Magellan/Ashtech -pitch, roll, yaw (diff. for ~3m accuracy) (ADU5:KM, ADU2:KOK)

RDI ADCP (OS38 kHz on KM; VM150 kHz on KOK)

TSS POS/MV 320 - Integarted Inertial Nav and GPS system

RDI Ocean Surveyor 38kHz ADCP Baseline - Simrad Long & Short

Baseline Nav: HPR418 (transponders to be purchased)

3. General Purpose Peripherals to Navigation Aids & Computers

Hewlett-Packard Model 5061B Cesium frequency standard; Truetime100i GPS NTServer

Clocks: TrueTime 805-306 GPS and Kinemetrics 468-DC GOES, both on KOK

Printers (8 HP color & b/w laserjets), Plotters and Copiers (2)

Houston Instruments Digitizing Tablet TG8036, 24"x36"

4. General Purpose Marine Geology and Geophysics Equipment

Gravity Meter, LaCoste-Romberg Model S-33

Magnetometer, Geometrics Model G-882 Cesium

Seismic Streamer*: 1 -6 channel AMG 37/43mm (inner/outer dia.) with

2 x 25m stretch sections, 3-7m weighted section (30 kg ea),

5 x 50m x 2 channel active section, 200 m lead section

(* Use of the seismic gear on R/V Kilo Moana will require provision of air compressor(s) in van(s) - not installed.)

Sun SPARC 10/41 Seismic logging system, Analyx A/D card; DAT & Exabyte tape drives

Electronic: 2-WaveTek Filters mod.452&852; 6-Krohn-Hite Filters Models3700,3750,3100

2 - Bolt 1500C air guns, with 80, 120, 200, 300 cu. in. chambers

2 - Pneumatic water guns Type S-80 Model 01, 80 cu. in. displacement

Standard Piston Coring Equipment**, capable 20 ft cores & 40 ft cores;

Ocean Instruments Multi-core MC400

Pipe & Std Rectangular dredges**, 18" x 48" with a 60" chain link bag

Rock Saw, Model 80BQ Sowers Cut-Off Saw

** Needs advanced planning - contact STAG.

5. General Purpose Oceanographic Instrumentation

Sippican MK-21/PC Based XBT system including hand held launcher

Argos Receiver Model GONIO 400

3 - Sea-Bird Thermosalin. (SBE21) w/Remote Temp Sensors, bow intake (1ea vessel)

Fluorometer, Turner10-AU-005 (Continuous sea water flow-Benchtop model)

CTD: 2 SeaBird CTD 9/11+,-recording system; cond, temp, oxygen sensors (SBE43)

WetLabs LS6000 Light Scattering Sensor, SeaPoint Fluorometers, Benthos Altimeter Model 2110-2,

Benthos Altimeter PSA 900-D

2 - Rosettes, 1-SIO-24 bottle (9 liter), 1-G.O. 12 bottle (mix of 10/12 liter)

Benthos Acoustic Transducer & Deck Box, DS-7000-1; EdgeTech 8011AT Deckbox

MET suite: RMYoung, 4-5106 anemometers, 3-RTD, 3-Precipitation, 3-Rotronic

Vaisala Atmospheric Pressure Gauge (Digital)

Humidity MP101A-C5, 3-Eppley Radiometers: 2 PSP (visible) and 1 PIR (Infared)

Radiostope van and Packard Bioscience Tri-Carb 2900TR liquid scintillation counter

Barnstead Millipure Deionized Water System

Brooke-Ocean Technology Moving Vessel Profiler Model 300 with 3400 m cable

6. Additional Acoustic Equipment ( R/V Kilo Moana)

Multibeam - Simrad EM1002: 95 kHz swath mapping, 10-800 m depth range

Multibeam - Simrad EM120: 12 kHz swath mapping, 300-11,000 m depth range

Sub-Bottom Profiler - Simrad EA500 Echo Sounder (12kHz, 38kHz, 200kHz)

4 kHz Sub-Bottom Profiler - Knudsen 320B/R deck box + array of 16 Massa transducers

7. Additional General Purpose Equipment

2-EPC Model 9800 Digital 19"(Thermal)

1 - Benthos 2216 12kHz Pinger

2 - OAR VHF radio Beacons;

2 - OAR High Intensity Strobe Flashers

Misc analog & digital scopes and function generators, winches, tuggers, spoolers, & carts

Additional access information is available at: http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/STAG/

Notes: Thermosalinograph (thsl) & CTD - Scientists can request additional calibrations of the CTD or thsl sensors (more frequently than the once/year/instrument funded within this proposal) at cost. Each vessel has a thsl system installed, but the newer thsl on the KM interfaces with the new external temperature sensor differently and so is not an exact swap for the older thsl on KOK. Therefore, the older spare thsl/ext temp pair is predominately a spare for the KOK thsl system.

HMRG (Seafloor Mapping)

The Hawaii Mapping Research Group (HMRG) within SOEST is an organization of scientists, engineers, and graduate students involved in all aspects of seafloor mapping, including 1) the design, construction and operation of seafloor mapping instruments; 2) the development and maintenance of data acquisition and processing software for swath bathymetry and sidescan sonar systems; and 3) data processing to produce near real-time shipboard and enhanced post-cruise chart products for science users. Mapping instruments owned and operated by HMRG include:

• HAWAII MR1 sonar is a portable shallow-towed phase difference sidescan bathymetry system that simultaneously acquires digital bathymetry (swath width = 3.4 times water depth) and acoustic imagery (swath width up to 7.5 times water depth). The system's 12 kHz sonar transducers are housed in a 16 foot long, 3500 pound vehicle that is towed beneath the surface mixed layer (80 to 120m). The MR1 is towed at speeds of 8 to 10 knots, and is best suited for regional surveys where chart scales of 1:100,000 and greater are desired.
• IMI-30 kHz sonar is a portable deep-towed (to 6500 m) phase difference sidescan bathymetry system with a maximum swath width of 6000 m and towing speed of 2 knots (up to 8 knots in shallow water). Towed at altitudes of 250-500 m above the seafloor, IMI-30 fills a niche in the U.S. academic seafloor mapping community, producing intermediate resolution data that bridge the gap between high-resolution near-bottom systems and sonars that acquire regional data from the ocean surface.

In addition to HMRG's own sonars, the group also supports the acquisition, processing, charting and archiving of sonar data collected using other seafloor mapping systems:

DSL-120 kHz sonar, a portable deep-towed phase difference sidescan bathymetry system operated by WHOI/DSOG. HMRG designed and built the sonar electronics, data acquisition software, and data processing software for this system, and has provided operational support for field programs since 2001. "

Kilo Moana multibeam sonars: Simrad EM120 and EM1002 systems (see below)

HMRG Shipboard staff. MR1 and IMI-30 surveys are staffed using 4 HMRG personnel: a party chief responsible for overall operations, data quality assurance and control, chart production, and communications with the chief scientist; an engineer responsible for the installation and maintenance of all mechanical, computer, and electronic systems; and two data processors who conduct near-real time data processing. IMI-30 operations require 24/7 watches to fly the deep-towed vehicle ~500 m above the seafloor.

HMRG Data Products. Sidescan acoustic imagery and bathymetry mosaics for HMR1 and IMI-30 are generated in near-real time at sea, and are displayed on computer monitors, output to printers, and exported as digital data that can be imported into other display programs (such as the Generic Mapping Tools) or geographic information systems. HMRG processing and charting software is freely available to all NSF users, and the shipboard scientific party is encouraged to learn and participate in data processing at sea, and to install and use HMRG processing software at their research institutions. At the end of each survey, the chief scientist is provided all raw acoustic digital data, hardcopies of all bathymetry and sidescan charts, bathymetry soundings and sidescan amplitudes in GMT netCDF grd format and/or ASCII XYZ format, and chart data in several digital formats (PostScript, JPEG, PDF and/or HP-RTL plus others as mutually agreed). HMRG maintains a sonar data archive of all raw and processed data. The archive includes an online web site that contains all cruise reports, charts and data processing documentation, with password protection for surveys considered proprietary.

Multibeam

Kilo Moana is outfitted with two multibeam bathymetry systems, a Simrad EM120 sonar for deep water (300 - 11000 meters) mapping, and a Simrad EM1002 for shallow water mapping (10 - 800m). Her deep draft (26') and SWATH hull form exclude bubble sweep down beneath the transducers and result in high quality data even in high sea states.

EM120 operates at 12 kHz (± 0.75 kHz) using independent frequency coded sectors that are actively steered at transmit to compensate for vessel pitch, roll and yaw, resulting in transmit beams oriented perpendicular to the survey line. Swath widths up to 150° (7.46 times water depth) are theoretically possible, although in practice a swath width of ~6 times water depth is expected in shallow water (200 to 2000 m), and a maximum swath width of 22 kilometers in deeper water. The transmit beamwidth is 1° in the fore/aft direction, and individual receive beams are 2° in the athwart ships direction. The system uses phase and amplitude bottom detection, with an accuracy of less than 0.2% of water depth across the entire swath. In addition to bathymetry, the EM120 acquires backscatter amplitude data that are used to produce seafloor acoustic imagery.

EM1002 operates at frequencies near 95kHz, with the transmit beam divided into three independent sectors using different frequencies to mitigate the effects of acoustic multiples in the outer part of the swath. Swath widths up to 150° (7.46 times water depth) are theoretically possible, although in practice a swath width of ~6 times water depth is expected in shallow water (10 to 300 m), and a maximum swath width of 1800 meters in deeper water (300 to 800 m). The transmit beamwidth is 2° in the fore/aft direction, and individual receive beams are 2° in the athwartships direction. The system uses phase and amplitude bottom detection, with an accuracy of 0.2% of water depth over all but the outer beams of the swath. In addition to bathymetry, the EM1002 acquires backscatter amplitude data that are used to produce seafloor acoustic imagery.

Each of the multibeam sonars is interfaced to a common TSS POS/MV 320 motion sensor to provide position/pitch/roll/yaw/heave data, plus 1 Hz system clock. Continuous sound velocity measurements of surface water are acquired using an Applied Micro Systems Smart SV mounted in an insulated tank. Sound speed profiles of the water column can be acquired in four different ways by using: 1) an Applied Microsystems Smart SV&P system; 2) a SeaBird CTD system, 3) XBTs and/or 4) an AML Smart Micro-CTD deployed on the Moving Vessel Profiler. Data from these systems are incorporated by the multibeam sonars to correct for ray bending and thereby to correctly position the bathymetry and acoustic imagery data.

Hardware, software and data processing support for the multibeam systems is provided by the Hawaii Mapping Research Group (HMRG). The multibeam systems include software and computer hardware for survey planning and underway operations, as well as real-time gridding and display of bathymetry and acoustic imagery in the main computer lab. Sonar data acquisition is conducted on UNIX workstations using Simrad software. Sonar processing software includes Simrad's Neptune (bathymetry processing) and Poseidon (sonar imagery processing) packages, as well as HMRG sonar tools (bathymetry and backscatter processing and charting), the MB-System (bathymetry processing and charting), SAIC Saber (survey planning and area based bathymetry editing), Caris HIPS/SIPS (bathymetry and sidescan editing), ArcInfo (GIS and charting), and the Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) package for image manipulation and charting. These systems run on UNIX, linux and PC workstations devoted to multibeam processing and charting.

Like other multibeam-equipped vessels in the UNOLS fleet, Kilo Moana collects swath bathymetry data every day at sea. HMRG, in conjunction with the STAG group, supports the multibeam hardware, software, and data acquisition/QA-QC/archiving. HMRG conducts shipboard training of SSF technicians who operate the multibeams on a regular basis. Scientists may also request additional Specialized Services for an HMRG mapping specialist to sail on their leg when swath bathymetry/imagery is critical to their cruise objectives and real-time decision making. In such cases, additional sound velocity profiling, shipboard data processing, seafloor imaging and charting will be available customized to their specifications.

ADCP (Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler)

The Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) group at SOEST/UH is under the direction of Dr. Eric Firing. It performs the acquisition, archiving, and analysis of ADCP data for much of UNOLS, along with some NOAA, and Coast Guard vessels. This group is also involved in, or acts as consultant on, the development and testing of new ADCP systems. This group helped test and evaluate the RDI OS-75 (verses the older standard RDI NB-150) on the R/V Endeavor and is continuing to improve a general purpose Data Acquisition System (DAS) for the RDI OS-38 kHz instruments installed on R/V Kilo Moana, N.B. Palmer and L.M. Gould. Routine ADCP data collection efforts on the R/V KOK and R/V KM are included in the standard technician daily rate.

The first routinely-operated shipboard ADCP was installed on the UH's R/V Moana Wave in late 1984. Since then, UH has been a leader in providing software for processing shipboard ADCP data (http://currents.soest.hawaii.edu/pub/codas3), and in processing and archiving shipboard ADCP data from the R/V Moana Wave and from other ships (http://currents.soest.hawaii.edu, http://ilikai.soest.hawaii.edu/sadcp/ ). UH personnel (Julia Hummon and Eric Firing) recently evaluated the shipboard ADCP systems on the new USCG research icebreaker HEALY (http://currents.soest.hawaii.edu/reports/healy_report/ ) and compared the RDI OS-78 to the RDI NB VM-150, using instruments installed on the R/V Endeavor (http://currents.soest.hawaii.edu/papers/os_eval_jtech.pdf ; Hummon and Firing, 2002).