Oceanographic Instrumentation 2013

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

A request is made by the University of Washington to fund additional and replacement instrumentation for the R/V Thompson, a 274? general purpose, global class research vessel, and R/V Barnes, a 66-foot coastal research vessel, both operated as part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System research fleet. These platforms provide facilities for conducting oceanographic research funded by the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies. The instrumentation they propose to acquire will provide operational flexibility to projects that are embarked upon both vessels, will address some deficiencies noted during the fall 2011 NSF vessel inspections, and will increase their capacity to do useful science and data collection during transits between funded cruises.. In order of priority, they propose to purchase the following: Magnetometer cable upgrade from SIO/STS $18,607 Magnetometer SDSL data uplink from WHOI $16,425 $35,032 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.