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Sea Going Oceanographic Facilities
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Last updated 2/6/2001
Sea Going Oceanographic Facilities Prepared by the Prospectus Background: In the past the FIC created a fleet
improvement plan about every five years. With the passage of time and the
changing environment for funding research vessels it became apparent that the
existing mode of planning was not responsive to the realities. At the
November 1998 meeting of the Fleet Improvement Committee it was decided to
publish a Biennial Review that would attempt to illustrate where the fleet is
going and what needs should be addressed. The goal of this report is to inform the research
community, funding agencies and operators on the state of sea going
oceanographic facilities and how these facilities may meet future research
needs. |
The Biennial
Review of Sea Going Oceanographic Facilities will do the following:
1. Assess the capability of sea going facilities now and for the coming decade.
2. Report trends in research requirements and how the facilities will meet those requirements.
3. Inform researchers on coming changes in facilities and new technologies being included in ship design.
4. Advise funding agencies on future requirements and areas needing R&D.
5. Inform operators on future trends and global and
regional scenarios so they may better plan their future.
Table of Contents:
The Review is organized into Sections and Chapters. Since the Review will be published on the World Wide Web, all chapters need not be done at the same time and some chapters may be revised often while others are revised less often. The sections of the Review are as follows:
Chapter 1: The Future
A. A. Future Research Requirements
B. B. NSF Futures
Synthesis Document
C.
C.
An
assessment of Future Science Needs in the Context of the Academic Oceanographic
Fleet
Chapter 2: The UNOLS Fleet
A. A. Past Trends and Future Projections for the Academic Research Fleet
B. B. The Status of the UNOLS Fleet, Changing Requirements, Planning for the Future
C. C. A Historical Perspective of Fleet Replacement and Expansion
D. D. New Assets - Planning, design and construction
E. E. Science Mission Requirements
Chapter 3: Specific Topics
A. A. Icebreakers
B. B. Seismic Vessels
C. C. Swath Vessels
D. D. Submergence Vehicles
E. E. Ocean Observatories
Chapter 4:Future Areas of Opportunity
Chapter 5: Technical Issues
B. Shore Side and Shipboard Technical Support
C. The Impact of New Technologies
A. Future Research Requirements:Chairs of NSF Ocean Discipline review committees.
This chapter provides links to the NSF Futures
Workshop reports.These workshops reviewed the future of ocean science.They
address the question "What are the new areas of research that oceanography
will study in the coming decades?"The Biennial Review document addresses
the research requirements first so that the following discussion of facilities
is in the context of these science requirements. The Futures Workshop web sites
are listed below:
Life
in Extreme Environments Workshop
June17-19, 1998, NSF, Arlington,Virginia
http://www2.ocean.washington.edu/lexen/
Physical Oceanography:
APROPOS: Advances and Primary Research Opportunities in Physical
Oceanography Studies
December 15-17, 1997, Monterey, California
http://www.joss.ucar.edu/joss_psg/project/oce_workshop/apropos/
FOCUS:Future of Ocean Chemistry in
the U.S.
January 6-9, 1998, Charleston, South Carolina
http://www.joss.ucar.edu/joss_psg/project/oce_workshop/focus/
FUMAGES:Future of Marine Geosciences
December 5-7, 1996, Ashland Hills, Oregon
http://www.joi-odp.org/FUMAGES/FUMAGES.html
http://www.joss.ucar.edu/joss_psg/project/oce_workshop/fumages/
OEUVRE: Ocean Ecology: Understanding
and Visions for Research
March 2-5, 1998, Keystone, Colorado
http://www.joss.ucar.edu/joss_psg/project/oce_workshop/oeuvre/
This chapter is a synthesis report of the Futures documents.The draft report, Ocean Sciences at the New Millennium, can be viewed at: <http://www.joss.ucar.edu/joss_psg/publications/decadal/>
C.
An assessment of Future Science Needs in the Context of the
Academic Oceanographic Fleet – Tim Cowles (OSU) and Larry Atkinson (ODU)
This Chapter is the summary report of a workshop conducted
in August 2000 that brought together members of the research community to:
o
Identify potential observational/experimental approaches that may be used to address fundamental questions in ocean science over the next 20 years,
Identify the characteristics of different research platforms that could provide the capabilities for meeting the identified technological requirements, and
Evaluate the role of research vessels and potential trends in vessel utilization within the context of other observational platforms.
The report can be viewed at: <http://www.unols.org/committees/fic/biennial/futship.pdf>
The academic fleet is renewed through a process that includes all aspects of the oceanographic community. Without going into all the details we would like to mention that an important first step is for the user community of oceanographers to reach a consensus on what is needed in the future based on assessments of future trends.
Recently, NSF asked the oceanographic community to assess the future of the traditional four sub-disciplines of oceanography. The members of FIC reviewed these documents to determine if there were any requirements related to ship use. They found some common threads through the reports. They are as follows:
· Launch and retrieve autonomous, remotely operated vehicles, and submersible.
· Send and receive large amounts of data
· High capacity shallow draft coastal vessels
· Service ocean observatories and moorings
· Sample ocean surface boundary layer and undisturbed surface waters
· Sample hydrothermal vents and the deep sea
· Support large multidisciplinary field experiments with several ships
· Deep crustal drilling and rapid drilling in sediment and shallow basement
· Long term geophysical deployments
The new aspects of this list are the arrival of undersea vehicles, the tending of ocean observatories, and the trend to even larger multi-disciplinary, multi-ship field experiments. These requirements in some cases do not imply significant changes to ship design but others require new features such as dynamic positioning and specialized winches.
The size of ships, the number of bunks, the special facilities and the regional location must be determined as well as possible for the fleet to operate effectively and efficiently. Assessing future needs is difficult but necessary to meet this task.
The science mission requirement process is specifically designed to address these needs.
Chapter 2:The
UNOLS Fleet - Trends, Projections, Status, and History
A. Past Trends and Future Projections for the Academic Research Fleet - Fleet Improvement Committee
In the next two decades the ships in the academic research fleet will reach the end of their useful life. Intermediate ships are nearest to their retirement age while the larger ships will be retired later. By about 2007 we will have fewer ships days available per year than is normally used now. The Fleet Improvement Committee (FIC) is seriously concerned that the oceanographic research community as a whole does not appreciate the critical situation looming on the horizon. We are concerned because of the long lead-time to acquire new vessels and the apparent lack of Federal budget commitment. To help in the process of getting the academic user community involved FIC, with the assistance of the UNOLS office and interested colleagues, gathered and interpreted data showing past use and future projections so that the user community can better understand the situation. To view this document, please click the title above. To download a copy of the paper, click-on: fltplan.pdf
B.
The Status of the UNOLS Fleet,
Changing Requirements, Planning for the Future by Larry P. Atkinson,
John F. Bash, Annette M. DeSilva, Kenneth S. Johnson.
This chapter provides the status of the Fleet and
it describes the Fleet Improvement Committee’s role in planning for future
facilities. Click the above title
to access the report.
How did we get to where we are? In
the past how did fleet expansions occur? What has caused change in the fleet
over time? This Chapter provides a historical perspective of the academic
fleet and the UNOLS Organization.
Click the above title to access the report.
D. New Assets: Planning,
Design, Construction - Chris Measures (University of Hawaii)
This chapter will present the ships that are now in the planning or construction phase. This would include the Hawaii Swath, Savannah, WHOI coastal Swath, etc. Because of the nature of the chapter it would require updating regularly.
Chapter Outline by Chris Measures
E. Science Mission Requirement
The first step in the construction process of a new vessel is the establishment of Science Mission Requirements. FIC and UNOLS Institutions have established a variety of Science Mission Requirements that are posted on the UNOLS website: <http://www.unols.org/committees/fic/smr/>
Chapter 3:
Specific Topics – New types of vessels
This chapter will review the status of ice strengthened hulls for ocean research.
Ø HEALY
This chapter is a link to
the document, U.S. Marine Seismic Reflection Acquisition Needs for the Next
Decade <http://www.geo-prose.com/seis/seis.html>.
It reviews the status and trends in vessels specialized for seismic
observations.It will project the facility needs for Seismic work.
SWATH vessels offer the oceanographic community the opportunity to work at sea in higher sea states than previously possible on small vessels. This chapter will review the successes and failures of SWATH vessels. The chapter will educate the reader on the attributes of SWATH designs. The status of SWATH vessels worldwide will be reviewed as well as the future in the US.
Ø AGOR 26 – University of Hawaii’s R/V KILOMOANA
Ø WHOI SWATH Coastal Research Vessel
Ø
MBARI’s R/V WESTERN FLYER
This Chapter provides the Executive Summary of the DESCEND Workshop.It provides the findings and recommendations for submergence science needs into the next decade.
E. Ocean Observatories
The ability to leave instruments at remote undersea locations for months and years is changing the character of oceanography. What are the classes of observatories and what special demands to they put on the research fleet?
Ø
Illuminating
the Hidden Planet
Chapter 4: Future
Areas of Opportunity
NOAA has the responsibility of
assessing the state of the nations fisheries stock. NOAA is in the process of
developing a new fleet of fisheries survey ships. How will this affect the
research fleet and can the research fleet be adapted to perform some of the
NOAA required surveys? For information on NOAA’s FRV design visit, http://www.sao.noaa.gov/frv.
Hydrographic surveying used to be done solely by NOAA but is now being contracted out at an every increasing rate. How is this process affecting the UNOLS fleet and are there any opportunities there?
Regulations are ever changing but recent and newly adopted rulings may well make fundamental changes in the way scientists work at sea.
Impact of New Regulations - by Joe Coburn (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
B.
Shore Side and Shipboard Technical Support
The support of technical experts at research ship home ports and at other institutions has grown to be an expected and valuable part of research ship operations. What have been the trends in this support and what may affect it in the future.
On board ships we have evolved from a expecting merely depth and location to CTD’s, ADCP’s, meteorological and internet communications. What is supported at present and what will be needed in the future? How will these demands affect costs?