UNOLS DEep Submergence Science Committee

Planning Meeting

Marriott Conference Room, Golden Gate A-1

55 Fourth Street

San Francisco, CA

Sunday, December 9, 2001

 

Logistics

The meeting room will be equipped with the following audio/visual equipment:

·         Microphone and Podium

·         Overhead Projector

·         8’ x 8’ Screen

·         VGA/SVGA Computer Projector (Individual MAC or PC laptops can be hooked-up for PowerPoint presentations)

·         35 mm Slide Projector

·         ½” VHS Player (this will run through the computer projector and project on the screen)

 

It is requested that all individuals who have been asked to make presentations provide a copy of their material (electronic format preferred or paper copy) to the UNOLS Office.  Presentations can be submitted to the UNOLS Office in advance of the meeting at office@unols.org or they can be given to Annette DeSilva at the meeting.  Presentation material will be included in the meeting minutes.

 


08:00   Coffee, Distribution of Meeting Material (Written Reports)

 

08:15   Approval of Minutes of May 2001 DESSC meeting

 

08:20   Introduction - DESSC Chair's Report

 

08:30   2001 Science Reports - Presentations by Principal Investigators

·        ALVIN users

·        ROV/AUV users

·        Users of other facility assets

 

10:00 - 10:15   Break

 

10:15   National Deep Submergence Facility Operator’s Report (WHOI)

·         Introduction

·         Operations Summary - NDSF vehicle systems

·         WHOI work plans for 2002-2003

Ž     ATLANTIS

*        Work Done

*        Work to be Done

*        Community input for improvements

Ž     ALVIN

*        Overhaul (2001) report

*        Community input

Ž     ROV Upgrade

*        Progress

*        Scheduling for field trials

Ž     Scheduling for 2002/2003

·         Archive Update (Dan Fornari)

 

11:30   Other Facility Operator Reports

·        HBOI (S. Pomponi)

·        MBARI (M. Chaffey)

·        MPL (F. Spiess)

·        HURL

·        ROPOS

 

12:00 – 13:30   Break for Lunch (Attendees will be on their own for lunch and DESSC members will hold an executive session)

 

13:30   6500m Sub and New Alvin Construction Advisory Committee (NACAC)

 

13:45   WHOI/NDSF Chief Scientist

 

13:55   Agency and UNOLS reports

 

14:10   NOAA Ocean Exploration Initiative

 

14:30 - 14:45  Break            

 

14:45   Shallow-water Submergence Science Ad Hoc Committee

Mandate, membership, support (comments from facility reps?)

Issues:  Science, Technology needs, Access and Funding

 

15:05   Long-Range and Expeditionary Planning Discussion

 

15:20   Report on the UNOLS DESCEND tech follow-up plans

·        Technology workshop

·        DESSC's role

 

15:30   Announcements of future submergence meetings:

·        AGU/ASLO Special session (February 2002)

·        Archeology (MIT, April 2002 - Dave Mindell)

·        Spring Benthic Ecology meeting (Florida - C.L Van Dover)

·        NOAA/NASA Exploration 2002 - LINK Symposium (Spring 2002)

 

15:45  Updates on public outreach and education activities?

·         Dive and Discover

·         Extreme 2001

·         NOAA Explorations: Deep East 2001

·         New Millennium Observatory (NeMO)

·         MATE Internship Program

·        UNOLS Public Outreach and Education Links

·         Deep submergence lectureships

 

16:15  Issues related to access to Submergence Science Assets and Funding

 

16:35   Adjourn

 


Monday, December 10, 2001 at 9:00 AM

DESSC IMAX Screening

Voyage into the Abyss Project

 

Location:         Sony IMAX Theater at Metreon,

101    4th Street (across from the AGU/Moscone Center)

 

A 20-minute selection of some of the first extensively illuminated super-high fidelity footage of the deep ocean will be presented on the IMAX screen. Filmed from Alvin in the 15/70mm giant screen film format, the footage includes shots from hydrothermal vent sites in the Atlantic and Pacific (600m to 4000m). The raw footage being presented is part of  “Voyage into the Abyss" (working title) a giant screen film now in production and scheduled for release September 2002.

 

The screening is in follow-up to the Principal Investigators report at the DESSC meeting and includes footage from the recent August Mid-Atlantic Ridge cruise for the project. The presentation is also open to AGU attendees.

 

Voyage into the Abyss is a collaborative science education outreach effort produced by Volcanic Ocean Films Inc., an affiliate of The Stephen Low Company, together with Rutgers University. Major financial support for the project comes from the National Science Foundation. Project contributors include: the New England Aquarium (Boston), the Museum of Science and Technology (Syracuse) and the University of South Florida. Filming for the project has been completed principally with submersible Alvin and the deep submergence resources of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and brings together the latest advances in submarine imaging and lighting technology including a new lighting array configured specially for the submersible and the unique demands of this project.

 

The final film will be the culmination of over six years of development and the first concerted effort to light and capture a diversity of the ocean’s extreme environments in a high-definition presentation. Via the giant screen, the Voyage into the Abyss project will give audiences around the world a ‘being there’ experience of dimensions of the planet that most have never truly seen before: including submarine volcanoes, hydrothermal vents and strange communities of deep-sea organisms.