DESSC Meeting

Welcome and Introductions - Patty Fryer, DESSC Chair, called the meeting to order at 0815. The meeting agenda is included as Appendix I. A list of meeting participants is contained in Appendix II. Patty reviewed the activities of the Committee over the past year. DESSC members Joris Gieskes and Marv Lilley rotated off the committee in the spring and were replaced by Hedy Edmonds and Debbie Kelley.

Over the past year, DESSC has been making an effort to better reach the biological community. They held a Special Session at the ASLO/AGU conference in February 2002. They are also making an effort to be ambassadors at various biology meetings.

Patty reported that Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has formed an internal committee to review the National Deep Submergence Committee (NDSF) and their marine operations program. The Committee is chaired by Fred Sayles. A replacement for Dan Fornari as the NDSF Chief /scientist replacement has not been identified. WHOI is in the process of conducting a design study for a new ALVIN, a 6500+ meter human occupied vehicle (HOV). They have formed a New ALVIN Design Advisory Committee (NADAC) made up of HOV users and some DESSC members to provide input on the study and design features.

The DESSC has considered the general design goals for a new HOV, relative merits of HOV/ROV, and the desired depth capability of a New ALVIN. Some of the desired capabilities that could be designed in a replacement for ALVIN include:

· Greater speed

· Improved science sensors and tools

· Improved maneuverability

· Increased power for propulsion and payload

· Greater endurance and improved ergonomics

· Better visibility and lighting

· Improved navigation

· Improved safety systems

· Improved manipulation ability

· Greater external sample storage and increased science payload

· Better communications

· Improved data collection, logging and interface capability to science instruments

· Depth capability to 6000-7000m (depending on the technical feasibility and cost-benefit analysis)

Over the past year the DESSC has considered the science justification for HOVs, as well as, the desired depth capability for a new HOV. They have prepared a paper that provides a science justification for HOVs. Some of the HOV benefits include:

- Engagement of the operator

- Visibility in 3-D

- Maneuverability/reliability

- Unobtrusiveness

- Capacity for outreach education and recruitment.

Other activities of DESSC have been included outreach and educational efforts. These will be reported later in the meeting.

At the Link Symposium in May 2002 a discussion on a “Full” ocean depth (11,000 m) HOV vs. a ~6500 m HOV came up. In response to the full-ocean depth issue, DESSC recommendations include:

· Concerns regarding effective use of resources

· Current effort (6500m +) is outgrowth of community-wide discussions and workshops

· Maintain the deployment capability from the existing support ship (no major modifications to the ship design, or submersible launch-recovery system)

· Meet the stated needs of the scientific community

A copy of Patty’s viewgraphs is contained in Appendix III.

Approval of Minutes of May 2002 DESSC meeting – The minutes of the May 2002 DESSC meeting were approved as written.

2002 Science Reports - Presentations by Principal Investigators – Users of the NDSF facilities and other facility assets provided reports on their cruises over the past year.

Karen Von Damm had the first ATLANTIS/ALVIN cruise of 2002 starting on 6 January and ending on 10 February. The cruise plan called for 5 dives at 21N East Pacific Rise (EPR), then transit to 9-10N for 20 dives in five areas. In Karen’s opinion it was the worst mechanical cruise since 1984. Problems were related to both ALVIN and ATLANTIS failures.

ATLANTIS problems:

· Generators resulting in loss of propulsion and lighting

· A-Frame – resulting in hard deck landings and a hard stop mid-air

· Low water pressure

· Drains that overflow

· Hydrowinch problems resulting in loss of rock coring abilities on some days.

ALVIN problems:

· Computer failures resulting in major problems

· No data collection on several dives

· No navigation data

· No overlays on several dives.

The WHOI engineers were very busy throughout the cruise trying to correct the problems. In spite of all of the difficulties, over 200 water samples were collected.

Dan Fornari reported on Jim Cowen’s 2002 ATLANTIS/ALVIN cruises. The first was to Guaymas Basin, Gulf of Mexico on April 26 to May 11^thandthe second cruise was to the Endeavour Segment, Juan de Fuca Ridge (August 4-25, 2002). Both cruises involved a combination of ALVIN dives and CTD operations. The ALVIN operations were highly productive and they were able to make more dives than originally anticipated on both cruises, despite losing dive days to bad weather during the Endeavour cruise. They completed 15 CTD casts during the first cruise and 20 casts during the second cruise. This is essentially two casts per night. Only one equipment problem was experienced with the CTD. This was a failure of the CTD pylon on the next to last day of operations at Guaymas Basin.

Jim credits the tremendous efforts, cooperation, and competence of the ALVIN and ATLANTIS crews for two highly successful cruises. A written report from Jim is provided as Appendix IVb.

Dan continued by reporting that there would an AGU poster session by Rachel Hayman and Ken McDonald’s on their May 2002 ATLANTIS/ALVIN cruise. Details are provided in Appendix IVc. The poster will report on off-axis hydrothermal activity on the EPR near 9^o28’N. During two ALVIN dives, they mapped over 100 sediment mounds, which appear to be hydrothermal in origin. Eleven sediment push cores were collected in the mounds, within the craters, and in ambient surrounding sediments. Other samples collected during the dives include three "slurp" samples of mossy material on the fault scarp, and rock samples with moss-covered surfaces.

Dan concluded by thanking NSF for adding dives to Hans Schouten’s cruise in May 2002. Dan then emphasized the need for additional ALVIN engineering dives.

Hans Schouten reported on his ATLANTIS cruise at 9^o55’N on 14-23 May 2002 (same cruise as MacDonald/Hayman). An objective of the cruise was to ground-truth November 2001 survey results with ALVIN dives. The science activities included four ALVIN dives, ABE lowerings, CTD operations, and use of a digital camera on the CTD wire, rock cores and rock dredges. Hans showed maps from the survey. He showed the various bathymetry features at 9^o29’N – 104W.

Tim Shank began his report by stating that the importance of engineering dives cannot be understated. His ATLANTIS cruise operations were flawless in May/June 2002. His cruise, titled Galapagos Rift Exploration 2002 on 24 May to 4 June used ALVIN, ABE, the Tow Camera, and a CTD. They carried out nine ALVIN dives at depths from 3788 to 3796 meters and seven ABE dives. Tim remarked that using ABE and ALVIN in tandem was fabulous. By 7:30 a.m. each morning, ABE surveys would be available for ALVIN dives. Tim showed an example of ABE’s micro bathymetry survey. They had five Towed Camera (TowCam) lowerings and 4,100 pictures were taken. Six CTD tows/vertical casts were made. Twenty-six scientists from 10 institutions participated in the cruise.

Highlights from the cruise included:

· Surveyed three regions of the Galapagos Rift (86°13’W, 88°59’W, 89°37’W)

· Rose Garden (86°13’W) considered an area of recent eruption- “paved over”

· Recent lava flows and young communities at Rosebud (86°W)

· Discovery of clam field (Calyfield) at 1660m

· New species of vent-endemic sponge

· Discovery of extinct high-temperature sulfide chimneys (89°36W)

· Effective vent detection with ABE and synergism with ALVIN operations

· Education: 25th An. CD; Dive and Discover, NOAA, NGeo; NPR; NGeo TV

Viewgraphs from Tim’s presentation are included as Appendix IVe.

Paul Johnson reported on his ATLANTIS/Jason II cruise on 29 August to 23 September. This was the first scientific use of the ROV Jason II. This was a Life in Extreme Environments (LEXEN) program and sampled fluid for microbial and chemical analyses from young and old sites. Five sites were studied: Baby Bare, Wuzza Bare, Axial Seamounts, Endeavour axis and ODP Hole 1026b. Eleven individual Jason II dives were made with for a total bottom time of 323 hours. Ten elevators were deployed. Other operations included:

· 18 thermal blanket deployments

· 850 LITERS of fluid from the barrel sampler during 6 deployments

· 60 liters of fluid from the LANG sampler

· 136 discrete fluid samples taken in the Butterfield sampler

· 9 gas tight and 13 major fluid samplers taken,

· 9 push cores

· 4 bio-grabs

· 9 rocks recovered

· 3796 digital still images taken

· 11 CTD casts

· A 10-meter piston core

· 5 sets of larvae settling experiments deployed.

The entire cruise was successful and almost all of the scientific goals for the first year of the two-year field program were reached. Major factors for this success include good weather and few instrument or equipment failures. No Jason dives were terminated due to equipment/system failures. The officers and deck crew of the ATLANTIS contributed to the success of the cruise.

Paul remarked on the need for a sub-bottom profiler for Jason II.

Paul’s viewgraphs are included as Appendix IVf. Copies of his EOS article, Probing for Life in the Ocean Crust, were available at the meeting.

Next, Fred Duennebier reported on his THOMPSON/Jason II cruise, which was the second science cruise for the vehicle. The cruise took place off Hawaii in October-November 2002. Pictures from Fred’s cruise are included as Appendix IVg.

One task during the cruise was recovery of rock samples from the Mauna Loa South Rift. In about 12 days, JASON 2 recovered more than 2 tons of rock samples (Figure 1). The second task was recovery of the Hawaii Undersea Geo-Observatory (HUGO) Junction Box from Loihi volcano that had been on the ocean floor for five years. HUGO was inactive because the fiber-optic cable to shore had developed an electrical short. Information about HUGO can be found at: http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/HUGO/hugo.html. Figure 2 is a digital image from JASON 2 of the HUGO Junction Box when it was first located on the dive. Figure 3 shows Jason II attaching a ring to the HUGO Junction Box so that MEDEA can lift it to the surface. Figure 4 shows Jason II fishing the fiber-optic cable from the mud in front of the HUGO Junction Box so that Jason II can cut it prior to lifting the Junction Box to the surface. Figure 5 shows the Jason II crew with the HUGO Junction Box on the deck of the THOMPSON. The box is in great shape and will hopefully be able to be redeployed in a couple years. Lastly, Figure 6 shows one of the recoveries of Jason II on THOMPSON. They experienced some weather problems during the cruise preventing ROV work, but were able to do survey work with THOMPSON’s EM300 system. The Jason support team was terrific.

Patty Fryer commented on the need for a rock drill that could be used with the ROV.

Bob Embley reported on the Submarine Ring of Fire 2002 - Explorer Ridge expeditions on June 28 - July 11 and July 23 - August 5, 2002. Details of the cruise can be found on the web at, <http://www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/02fire/background/plan/plan.html>. The cruises were on THOMPSON and used a suite of vehicles and tools including specialized sonars, a CTD, AUV ABE, and ROV ROPOS.

The first expedition conducted initial surveys of the seafloor and the water column above the Explorer Ridge using a CTD, ABE and THOMPSON’s EM300 multibeam. ABE sensors that were used included:

· Altimeter

· Pressure gauge

· CTD transmissometer

· Magnetometer

· EH sensor

· Imagenex scanning sonar

· SM200

Bob showed a comparison of Imagenex data and the SM2000 data and remarked that they got a lot more data with the SM2000. Without ABE, Bob remarked that he is sure they would have been able to find the most active vent area. There were more than 40 active vents and extensive extinct chimneys.

ROPOS operations were conduced during the second cruise. There is a lot of seismic activity at Explorer Ridge. They had a new digital camera on ROPOS and this worked remarkable well.

Dana Yoerger commented on ABE 2002 operations. ABE has been used to collect bathymetry and magnetic data. On the Explorer Ridge expedition the ABE data was taken while ALVIN was in the water. This was an important capability. Multibeam mapping sonar SM2000 is working well and provides dramatically better coverage.

John Delaney reported on NEPTUNE related activities over the past year. The Keck Foundation has provided $5 million in funding to support the NEPTUNE observatory initiative (Appendix IVj). The objective of the observatory is to document the linkages in time and space involved in plate tectonic modulation of microbial productivity. The participants in the NEPTUNE program include

· MBARI

· SIO

· Pacific Science Center

· JPL

· WHOI

· UW

· NOAA

In August 2002, John led a cruise funded by the Keck Foundation using TIBURON from WESTERN FLYER. They instrumented two sites one at the Endeavour Segment of the Juan de Fuca Ridge and at the intersection of the Nootka Fracture Zone and the Cascadia Subduction zone. This was the first field effort of the project. Boreholes were made in the basaltic basement at the Endeavour Ridge to provide deployment sites for short-period seismometers. The instruments will be deployed in 2003. The MBARI drill was used successfully. Debbie Kelley has developed a system (funded by NSF) that uses a drill called RAMBO.

Tom Shirley could not attend, but provided viewgraphs (Appendix IVk) in advance of the meeting. His cruise, titled, GOASEX: Gulf of Alaska Seamount Exploration took place on 22 Jun - 15 Jul 2002. Fifteen ALVIN dives were made to study crab distributions.

Patty Fryer completed the science presentations by reporting on the NDSF “Most Valuable Asset,” Chief Scientist Dan Fornari. She noted his dedication, energy, and commitment to making the NDSF the most capable facility available to meet the deep submergence community’s research needs. Patty read a poem prepared by Susan Humphris, “An Ode to Dan” (Appendix IVl). Dan was presented with a print from artist Alp Ozberker in gratitude for all of his contributions to DESSC and the National Deep Submergence Facility.

Break

National Deep Submergence Facility (NDSF) Operator’s Report:

Dick Pittenger began the report for the NDSF operator by remarking that the year has seen good times and bad times. As Karen Von Damm reported, there were problems experienced with both ALVIN and ATLANTIS. On the positive side, Jason II is in service and initial operations have been successful.

Operations Summary - NDSF vehicle systems – Rick Chandler reported on the vehicle operations in 2002. His viewgraphs are included as Appendix Va. ALVIN operations included 328 operating days with 97 dives. Even though ALVIN has been operational for the entire year, there were fewer dives than normal due to ATLANTIS maintenance in the spring and the Jason and non-ALVIN cruises in the fall.

The average dive depth was 2121m with and average duration of 7.5 hours. The average depth this year was less than the previous few years due to a high percentage of relatively shallow dives for the IMAX work, at the Galapagos and on the seamounts in the Gulf of Alaska.

The 4.9 hrs average bottom time is up from 4.5 hours last year, also due to the high percentage of shallow dives. In addition to the science highlights reported, this year also included 25^th anniversary dives at Galapagos. Three dives were lost in 2002, all due to weather.

In 2002 ROV Jason II joined the NDSF. Sea trials were conducted in July off Oregon. Two science cruises (Juan de Fuca and Hawaii) have been made for a total of 26 lowerings and 455 hours of bottom time. The deepest dive has been to 4,650 meters.

üThe DSL-120 sonar is currently at sea on THOMPSON off Guam with Maurice Tivey.

NDSF operating costs in 2002 was $4,100,134. Personnel salaries continue to be the largest part of the budget, with dive-related supplies second. Overall costs have remained stable for the past five years.

Diving this year was fairly evenly divided among the three major scientific disciplines with minor shares for IMAX imaging and engineering.

Rick continued with a description of the newly revamped Marine Operations web site.

The vehicle overview page, reached by clicking on ‘NDSF Vehicles’ from the welcome screen, gives information access for each of the four vehicles and also a “Cruise Planning Tool Kit.” There are links to the cruise-planning questionnaire; UNOLS ship time request form, port agent, and contact listings. They have tried to standardize the organization of each vehicle and ship section so that information can be quickly and easily found.

From the Jason II/Medea menu, there is access to ROV cruise summaries. The ROV operations team publishes a brief cruise report, with an abstract of scientific goals, methodology and results.

An added feature is a page of highlights, with descriptions of tools used and operations requested.

The ALVIN page includes a new section, ‘Dive Site Charts.’ This provides a menu of charts available showing locations of all ALVIN dives up to the present. The charts provide not only geographic location, but also information on dive depth using the color-coding at the bottom.

John Delaney commented that this information and resource is needed for all of UNOLS ship use. Dolly commented that to some degree this is being addressed by UNOLS and Oceanic.

Upgrades to the NDSF vehicles, sensors, navigation systems and ATLANTIS

Barrie Walden continued with a review of ALVIN upgrades. His viewgraphs are included as Appendix Vb.

Barrie reported that the data logging & display software problems experienced earlier in the year have been resolved. There were indications that there might be problems with the in-hull data logging just before Karen’