Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution / R/V Armstrong, R/V Atlantis: Oceanographic Instrumentation

This Oceanographic Instrumentation (OI) at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) supports the operation of R/V Atlantis, a 274’ multidisciplinary vessel that supports all DSV Alvin operations, and R/V Armstrong, a 238’ multidisciplinary vessel, as well as other sea-going use. The vessels are operated by WHOI as part of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet which is scheduled by the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS). The vessels are owned by the U.S. Navy and support all disciplines of oceanographic research globally, supporting science funded primarily by U.S government agencies. This request will replace the cracked windows on the ADCP mounts on the R/V Armstrong with a full set of new Zelux W windows and provide a spare set for future replacement in the event of further damage. It will acquire a Through Hull Sound Velocity Sensor and a spare for the currently installed sound velocity sensor. Data provided by these sensors are needed for quality multibeam and EK80 sonar acoustic data and the current sensor installed on the R/V Armstrong is subject to entanglement and damage from marine debris. A new McLane large volume pump will be added to the WHOI-maintained fleet pump pool as an important that shared-use instrumentation resource allows any NSF-funded researchers access to working instruments for their research. The current pool was recently reduced by the loss of several pumps and this acquisition will allow them to rebuild that resource. Purchase four Model 6000 High Power Pingers from Benthos as a batch purchase to keep supplies available within the fleet. Pingers are a valuable resource and future ability to acquire pingers is in question, so this batch purchase to allows the manufacturer (Ocean Instruments) to produce enough to provide to WHOI and offer to the oceanographic research community. The final request will provide a ship-owned deck box to communicate with acoustic releases on science instrumentation to provide a spare for scientists. The deck boxes often malfunction or have configuration issues, and the provision of a spare deck-box reduces the significant risk of losing a day or more of ship time or loss of oceanographic instruments due to a single-point failure of this critical piece of equipment. The principal impact of the present proposal is under Merit Review Criterion 2 of the Proposal Guidelines (NSF 23-525). It provides 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 other organization access to well-maintained, high quality, calibrated instruments for their research. It ensures collection of high-quality oceanographic data in support of science, reduces the cost of that research, and expands the base of potential researchers. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.