Meeting Summary Report
DEep Submergence Science Committee
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
May 17-18, 2004
The Deep Submergence Science Committee (DESSC) met on May 17-18, 2004 at
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).
The meeting included reports from the three agencies that support the
National Deep Submergence Facility (NDSF).
Representatives of the NDSF provided reports on:
·
Vehicle operation summaries
·
Support ship improvements and plans
·
Status of WHOI archives
·
Ship and vehicle upgrade plans.
·
Response to community survey on biology system and sensors
·
Navigation upgrades and
improvements
·
Near bottom
high resolution sonar systems
·
Rock drill
·
Deep submergence scheduling in 2005 and beyond
The DESSC discussed their 3-year agenda.
Major items include the replacement of ALVIN, bringing new assets into
the NDSF, observatory needs, maintaining an inventory of vehicles and tools,
shallow submergence science needs, and expeditionary science. The DESSC reviewed future global deep
submergence initiatives including RIDGE2000 and Margins.
There was discussion on ocean observatory facility needs. Recent studies indicate that deep submergence assets will play a critical
role in the installation, operation, and maintenance of ocean observatories and
associated science support operations.
Both Human Occupied Vehicles (HOVs) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
(AUVs) will be able to perform important tasks at observatories, but ROVs are
expected to be the “work-horses” of deep-sea observatories due to their
extended dive duration, heavy-lift capability, and available power. At least two additional deep-ocean ROV are
needed to meet the projected demand from ocean observatories and still satisfy
other science needs.
The meeting
concluded with status reports on new vehicle design efforts. WHOI submitted a proposal for a replacement deep diving HOV to NSF in
March 2004. The HOV proposed build plan
would be to start immediately with the hull materials testing program. If all goes on schedule, the vehicle would
be ready for service in 2008. There was
a report on the Hybrid ROV (HROV) status. The HROV should be ready for service in
2007.
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I |
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II |
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III |
UNOLS
Report (2.06 MB) |
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IV |
NDSF Operator’s Reports |
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A |
2003
and 2004 Vehicle Operations (3.7 MB) |
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B |
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C |
NDSF
Archive Status Report (5.04 MB) |
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D |
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E |
Slurp
Sampler Proposal Status (~700 kB) |
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F |
High
Resolution Sonar (1.4 MB) |
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G |
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V |
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VI |
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VII |
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VIII |
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IX |
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X |
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XI |
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XII |
DESSC
Chair Slides (~680 kB) |
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XIII |
Other
Operator’s Report (1.6 MB) |
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Meeting Summary Report
Day One: Monday,
May 17, 2004
Introductory Remarks, Meeting Logistics, Introductions - Patty Fryer, Deep Submergence Science
Committee (DESSC) Chair, called the meeting to order at 0830 on Monday, May 17,
2004. The meeting was held at Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Carriage House. The agenda for the meeting is included as Appendix I. The
items of the agenda are reported in the order addressed. Meeting participants introduced
themselves. The list of attendees is
included as Appendix II.
A motion was made and approved to accept the minutes of the January
25, 2004 DESSC meeting.
Patty reviewed the current DESSC membership status and the role of
DESSC. Terms of four DESSC members,
including the Chair, will end this year.
A call for nominations was announced to the community earlier in the
year. Individuals interested in serving
on DESSC have provided statements of interest and CVs. Each DESSC member was provided with a
package containing this information and was asked to review the material so
that the topic could be revisited later in the meeting.
There
was a brief discussion on whether a group of alternate DESSC members should be
formed. These alternates could be
called upon if a DESSC member was unable to participate in a meeting. This concept was not approved. The DESSC agreed that being on the committee
is an important role. If a member does
not attend meetings, or is inactive they should be replaced.
In
other membership news, Patty reported that Shirley Pomponi has stepped down as
Chair of the Shallow Water Submergence Committee (SWSC) and ex-officio member
of DESSC. She has recently taken
responsibilities the acting Managing Director at Harbor Branch Oceanographic
Institution (HBOI). It was suggested
that Craig Young could be nominated to DESSC and also be asked to serve as
chair of the SWSC. Patty has contacted
Craig and he has indicated that he would be willing to serve if appointed.
National
Science Foundation (NSF) – Dolly Dieter
provided the NSF report. She reported
that NSF expects to be level funded in 2005.
Ship operations costs are increasingly going higher and higher. The increasing cost of fuel is a big concern
and is impacting operation budgets. Although no
major budget cuts are forecasted, there are concerns about increasing costs for
operations.
The
deep submergence budget levels for next year will likely remain level. NSF has tried to find support for NDSF
improvements, such as, lighting for ALVIN.
Mike
Reeve briefly discussed this year’s NSF budget problem, which resulted in a
$12M shortfall. In anticipation of an
NSF budget increase for FY04, an increase in ship time was scheduled for
calendar year 2004. When the actual
budget was level funded, funds were unavailable to support all of the ship time
scheduled. The budget shortfall was
split between NSF’s science and facilities programs.
Office
of Naval Research (ONR) – John Freitag
provided the report for ONR. He
reported that in recent years the Navy has not made a lot of use of ALVIN. The agency’s primary involvement with the
NDSF has been with ALVI N’s certification.
The
Navy’s contribution to WHOI’s Hybrid ROV (HROV) development effort has been in
the area of the micro-fiber tether design.
SPAWAR has been sharing their technology development with WHOI in this
area.
Lastly, John reported that the
Navy’s submarine NR-1 has announced availability for science
opportunities. In the past these
opportunities were not advertised widely.
The recent opportunity was announced to the DESSC community. The sub has a depth capability of about 800
meters. The scheduling of NR-1 normally
takes place in October. Projects are
primarily chosen on the basis of how they fit with the Navy’s schedule for use
of the vehicle. There have been some
reports that the Navy is considering recharging NR-1’s reactor.
National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – Barbara Moore provided the report for NOAA with information on both
the National Undersea Research Program (NURP) and Ocean Exploration. In budget news, the agency isn’t optimistic
about receiving anything more than a level budget in the next few years. They are committed to the NOAA days they
have on the ship schedule. NOAA has
been working to make NURP more in line with their missions, and as a result there will likely be less emphasis
on the geological research in future.
Major
changes are planned for the Ocean Exploration (OE) program. The program will be more “requirements
driven,” which is not very friendly to research. They will move towards planning many years in advance with a more
matrix management approach. The agency
is still learning how to do this. It
will be a more deliberative and longer planning process. OE and NURP will be working more closely
together. They will try to keep NURP
more mission driven and OE more exploratory.
OE will be using more non-NDSF vehicles (Ballard’s Hercules and HBOI’s
Sea Links). NURP will continue with
their commitment of $500K for NDSF. It
is unlikely that this level of funding will increase. More funds are going is going into diving programs and other less
expensive (shallower) work.
The
$28M budget for this year is split evenly between NURP and OE. Next year’s request (FY05) looks like it
will be $22M.
UNOLS Report – Peter Wiebe, Chair Elect, provided the UNOLS Report. His viewgraphs are included as Appendix III. He began by explaining activates that have impacted 2004 fleet operations. The NSF budget shortfalls impacted fleet utilization with a number of ship time deferrals. Problems with acoustic and marine mammal permitting have also resulted in some cruise cancellations or deferrals.
An area of recent concern for
UNOLS is with Radio Frequency Spectrum Management. The potential for increased demand on the spectrum frequency
could have serious impacts on ship communications. UNOLS is working with NSF and ONR to communicate with the FCC on
this issue.
There
are two efforts focused on shipboard over-the-side handling. Two of the winch manufacturers, Dynacon and
Markey, have been visiting ships and conducting winch inspections. There is also a load handling system
symposium underway. The effort is being
lead by Matt Hawkins, U. Delaware.
Ongoing ship design efforts include the ARRV
(construction funds are included in NSF Major Research Equipment (MRE)
account), an EWING replacement, and the CAPE HENLOPEN Replacement Vessel. The EWING replacement with a modern seismic
ship has been moved forward. Plans are
underway for LDEO to acquire the WESTERN LEGEND.
The current Fleet includes 27
ships. In 2020 six of the current UNOLS ships will still be in
operation. Assuming that the new seismic vessel, ARRV, 3 NSF Regional
vessels, and the CHRV are funded, six additional ships will be available for a
total of 12 ships. With the addition of
Ocean Observatory ship time (installation and O&M), demand is expected to
increase approximately 1000 days by 2020. The additional Observatory ship
time represents over 40% of the current use of the Global Class. Observatory needs will compete with the
major interdisciplinary research programs that rely on the Global Class
Vessels. Funds to support the estimated
future increase in ship time have not been identified. The
ship time projections indicate catastrophic consequences if there are further
delays in new vessel design and construction.
Lastly, Peter reported that UNOLS is preparing a response to the Ocean Commission Report. UNOLS strongly supports the recommendation to Congress for modernization of critical infrastructure (Recommendation 27-4) and urges placing Recommendation 27-4 near the top of the prioritization list. Also, UNOLS endorses the recommendation to Congress to double the federal ocean and coastal research budget (Recommendation 25-1) and urges that 25-1 be placed at the top of the prioritization list for action by Congress.
Discussion followed. Dave Mindell asked if there are any
indications that demand for the ship time would go down? Peter replied that reports have not
indicated this. There will also be a
need for an event response capability.
Schedule flexibility would help allow ships to be available for event
response.
National
Facility Operators Report
NDSF Vehicle Operations Summary: Rick Chandler provided an update of
ALVIN and ROV operations for the past year.
His viewgraphs are included as Appendix
IV.a. Engineering
dives were conducted off San Diego in January.
One day was lost this year to mechanical problems. The vehicle has had 250 hours bottom
time. In 2004, ALVIN celebrated
its 4000th dive and 40th anniversary.
Rick reviewed 2004 ALVIN Dive Statistics. At the time of the meeting, total ALVIN dives are 4,012 with a collective total depth of 8,339,919
meters and a total time submerged of 27,658 hours. The average depth per dive is 2,079 meters and the average time
submerged per dive is 6.89 hours. The
total persons carried are 12,029. Rick
showed the percentage of dives conducted by discipline. Most dives were conduced either for biology
or geology/geophysics research.
Next
Rick reviewed the 2004 ROV and towed vehicle operations. There has been two science cruises conducted
as of May 2004: Rob Pockalny had a
cruise on THOMPSON at Endeavour Deep using Jason2 and DSL-120. Jason2 had nine lowerings with 297 hours of
data. They had their longest lowering
of Jason2, 72-hours. The other cruise
was in support of Martinez on KILO MOANA at the Lau Spreading Center using the
DSL-120 sonar. DSL-120 had 7 lowerings
for 390 hours of data. Four more Jason2
cruises are scheduled this year.
NDSF Support Ships – Al Suchy reviewed maintenance projects completed on ATLANTIS
in 2003-2004 and plans for 2004. His
viewgraphs are included as Appendix
IV.b. Completed improvements include:
Dick
Pittenger commented that the problems Al identified should be included in the
Lesson’s Learned document being compiled by UNOLS. Maintainability demands are a lot higher on ATLANTIS than with
KNORR. Measures should be taken to
avoid these problems during design and construction efforts in the future.
Maintenance is
also scheduled for July 16-27, 2004 in Seattle and Oct 7-30, 2004 in San
Diego. The projects to be carried out
include:
·
Pursuit of lab drain mods.
Al explained the impacts of new security regulations. These regulations apply to all of the UNOLS large ships. Access to ship will be impacted and everyone must be aware of the new regulations. There will be an increased need for pre-authorized access lists. Gangway watches may request pictured ID’s in MARSEC Condition 1. There will be thorough search of person and belongings on 25% of personnel coming aboard in MARSEC Condition 2. In MARSEC Condition 3 there will be search of 100% of person and belonging coming aboard ship. Implementation of the new regulations will impact manpower demand.
Lastly,
Al reported on the impact of rising fuel costs. To date, about $100k more than what was in the proposal budget
has been spent on fuel. These increased
costs are having a significant impact.
They are struggling with this and looking to see what additional cost
cuts might be possible.
Status Report On The Archiving Of All Deep Submergence Data In The WHOI Archives – Dan Fornari provided a status report on archiving. He reviewed the various archiving activities that have been underway and asked for DESSC input. The archiving activities are detailed in Appendix IV.c. He reviewed the efforts involving video data migration, meta-data, and development of a distributed database. These efforts have involved: