Meeting Report
National Deep Submergence Facility Vehicles
Science and Operations Training Sessions
January 25, 2004
Oregon Convention
Center - Room C124
777 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Portland OR 97232
To download a pdf
version of this report click <200401desmi.pdf>
Executive Summary:
The DEep Submergence Science Committee (DESSC) held their winter meeting on Sunday, January 25, 2004, the day before the start of the AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting (26-30 January) in Portland, Oregon. This was the first time that the DESSC community meeting was held at a forum other than the fall AGU conference. The change in venue was made in an effort to better reach the non-G&G deep submergence community.
The meeting began with presentations by the Principle Investigators who used submergence vehicles in 2003. A variety of reports were made by the National Deep Submergence Facility (NDSF) operator to summarize facility operations and planned activities, system upgrades, and vehicle design efforts. Funding agency representatives provided budget information as well as agency priorities. DESSC activities, future plans and issues were reported, including discussions of long-range and expeditionary planning, public outreach and educational activities.
The second half of the meeting
included a training session on National Deep Submergence Facility vehicles
science and operations. This training session was the first of its kind
and was offered to provide detailed information on both the capabilities of the
NDSF vehicles (primarily Alvin, Jason2 ROV, and the DSL-120A sidescan sonar)
and sensor suites, and their at-sea operations procedures. The session also provided insightful
information on the effective operating procedures for these systems. The latest upgrades to the facilities were
presented as well as planned improvements. Information was also provided
on autonomous vehicle operations and how ABE has been used effectively with the
NDSF vehicle systems in recent surveys.
Recommendations / Endorsements: None from this meeting.
Action Items / Tasks:
New
Actions: None
Open
Actions From Previous Meetings:
|
Task |
Status |
Assignment |
|
Inventory of Vehicles and Equipment– Develop a
web page that will provide an inventory of deep submergence vehicles and
equipment. NDSF, as well as, PI owned
equipment/tools should be included |
Ongoing |
Annette, Patty, Dan, and DESSC |
Index of Appendices
|
I. |
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|
II. |
||
|
III. |
Science
Reports: |
|
|
|
a. |
ALVIN
Programs (6.8 MB) |
|
|
b. |
NDSF
ROV Programs (2.1 MB) |
|
|
c. |
Other
Vehicle Programs (2.7 MB) |
|
IV. |
NDSF
Operator’s Reports |
|
|
|
a. |
2003
Vehicle Operations (3.5 MB) |
|
|
b. |
|
|
|
c. |
|
|
|
d. |
|
|
|
e. |
|
|
V. |
NOAA
Report (4.9 MB) |
|
|
VI. |
NSF Report: |
|
|
|
a. |
|
|
|
b. |
|
|
VII. |
||
|
VIII. |
UNOLS
Working Group on Ocean Observatory Facility Needs (15.4 MB) |
|
|
IX. |
||
|
X. |
||
|
XI. |
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|
XII. |
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|
XIII. |
Other Facility
Operator Reports: |
|
|
|
a. |
|
|
|
b. |
|
|
|
c. |
|
|
|
d. |
|
|
|
e. |
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f. |
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|
|
g. |
|
Meeting
Report:
Morning: DEep Submergence Science Committee Planning
Meeting
Introduction – The annual Deep
Submergence Science Committee (DESSC) community meeting was held on January 25,
2004 at the Oregon Convention Center.
Patty Fryer, DESSC Chair, opened the meeting at 0830. She introduced the members of DESSC and reported that a few
committee positions will open this year, including the position of DESSC
Chair. The positions will be advertised
in EOS.
Patty explained the purpose
of this meeting is to bring together the members of the community to report on
the latest activities and future plans for the National Deep Submergence
Facility (NDSF). The meeting is a forum
to obtain direct community feedback on their future needs, both in terms of
research geographic areas and system upgrades. This is the first time that the
DESSC is holding their winter meeting away from the Fall AGU meeting. The move was made to better engage the
non-G&G community. DESSC will
return to the Fall AGU meeting in December 2004.
Also, for the first time, a
NDSF training session will be held in the afternoon of the meeting. The training session will provide useful
information to both the new users and experienced users of the NDSF vehicles.
The minutes of June 2003
DESSC meeting were approved with the comments provided by Patty Fryer.
The
meeting agenda was followed in the order as reported herein. The agenda is included as Appendix I
and the participant list is included as Appendix
II of this report.
2003 Science Reports – Principal
Investigators (PIs) who used the NDSF in 2003 were invited to give a brief
report on their project. Debbie Kelley moderated this session and
provided reports from PIs who could not attend. Science presentations that were made at the meeting are included
in Appendix III. Appendix
IIIa includes the ALVIN reports.
Appendix
IIIb includes the NDSF ROV reports and Appendix
IIIc includes reports for non-NDSF vehicles.
ALVIN Science Reports (Appendix
IIIa):
Debbie Kelly began the science reports with a presentation on her cruise to the Mid Atlantic Ridge at Lost City on April 21- May 22, 2003
. During this cruise, Pat Hickey celebrated
his 500th dive as an ALVIN pilot.
The main objective of the cruise was to characterize the Lost City
Hydrothermal Field. Debbie’s cruise
included 19
ALVIN dives averaging 5.7 hours in length.
This was the first cruise using ALVIN after its overhaul. They
focused on the 2km x 1km top of Lost City.
During the ALVIN dives vents were sampled for fluid, microbes, and
chimney material. Thirteen
students participated in the cruise and 11 went to the seafloor in the
vehicle. ABE was used to characterize the bathymetry and water column
around the field and for exploration of possible fields less than 80 km away.
ABE operations were carried out at night.
Seventeen
ABE missions were carried out for a total of 127 hours. Approximately 200 km of seafloor was
surveyed. The entire field was mapped in detail. ABE worked
incredible well and they were able to image very small features.
The
chimneys at the study area were the size of a 15-story building. Approximately 30,000 images were collected
using Dan Fornari’s cameras.
Approximately 25,000 frame grabs were taken with ALVIN. The new frame grabbing system provides
images immediately after a dive. This
was very useful for planning the next dives.
Debbie
reported on some of the problems that were experienced during her cruise. There were some navigation issues related to
transponder set-up. Also, there were
problems with ALVIN’s computers resulting in blank monitors. There were also condensation problems with
the pan and tilts. The sonar was not
available until the last ALVIN dive.
Fortunately this did not impact the program since they could use the ABE
survey data. One ALVIN dive was lost
because of a variable ballast problem.
There were navigation data problems and as a result, Dana Yoerger
reprocessed the data at the end of the cruise.
All
in all, Debbie reported that it was a successful cruise.
Jess Adkins reported on his ALVIN cruise at the NE
Seamounts in May/June 2003. The cruise
was named “Medusa” and it was the first use of ALVIN for paleoclimate work. The
goals
of the program were to collect depth transects of fossil and modern
deep-sea corals, figure out how to better collect them in the future, and to
characterize the living community at seamounts. A nested approach to use of the systems was applied.
Fifteen dives were
funded, but 10 dives were carried out do to weather conditions. ALVIN had more than 45 hours of bottom
time. Alvin operations were at
1,000-3,000 meters. There were eight
ABE dives, 3 Tow Cams, one dredge, 13 CTD casts, and two MITESS casts. Six seamounts were mapped and photo-mosaics
have been created. Approximately 10,000
photos were taken using ABE and the towed camera sled. A lot of species were collected.
Outreach
activities included a web link to Dive and Discover #7, as well as, a radio
interview and web link with the Museum of Science.
The cruise was very successful.
Jesse
provided some suggestions for system upgrades and operations improvements:
Debbie summarized Carolyn Ruppel (Georgia Tech) and Cindy Lee Van Dover (William & Mary) program, Windows to the Deep. The program conducted biological sampling and high-resolution mapping at methane seeps on the Blake Ridge and Carolina Rise. The cruise dates were
July 22 – August 3, 2003. The science party of 20 members included 16 graduate, undergraduate, or just graduated students, and a Master teacher from Southeast COSEE office. There was a broad range of disciplinary expertise. The NOAA Ocean Exploration Program sponsored the program. ALVIN successfully completed 7 out of 7 scheduled dives. Water depths were 2000 to 3500 m in three primary locations. Eleven of the 16 students visited the seafloor.
Accomplishments
included:
• Sampled sulfate - and methane-dependent
seep organisms
• Acquired sediment push cores
• Sampled bacterial mats and free-living
bacteria
• Retrieved geological samples
• Overnight operations: Mapping and
subbottom imaging
The most complete map ever of the Cape Fear submarine slide (associated with gas hydrate deposits) was produced. Details of the program can be found at <