science at sea: meeting future oceanographic goals with a robust academic research fleet

Science at Sea:Meeting Future Oceanographic Goalswith a Robust Academic Research Fleet

Briefing for the Consortium for Ocean Leadership

Nancy RabalaisCommittee on Evolution of the National

Oceanographic Research FleetOctober 15, 2009

Committee Roster

Ronald Kiss (co-chair), Webb Institute (ret.), Rockville, MDRichard Pittenger (co-chair), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (ret.), Massachusetts

Francisco Chavez, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, California

Margo Edwards, University of Hawaii, ManoaRana Fine, University of Miami, FloridaNancy Rabalais, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, ChauvinEric Saltzman, University of California, IrvineJames Swift, University of California, San Diego William Wilcock, University of Washington, SeattleDana Yoerger, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts

StaffDeborah Glickson, Associate Program OfficerJeremy Justice, Program Assistant

Outline

•Background and context•Committee charge•Findings•Recommendations

Background

What types of missions might occur in the future?

What equipment will be needed?

How might the role of ships change?

How will costs impact the future fleet?

Background

When study began, Navy was preparing an RFP for

the design of 2 new Ocean Class ships

Statement of TaskIn support of the need for oceanographic fleet replacement, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) is currently in the early design process for the first of two new Ocean Class ships and requires near-term advice on how the rapid advancements in ocean observing technology and the impacts of rising costs will impact the future fleet relative to Navy needs. Therefore, ONR has requested that the National Research Council (NRC) appoint an ad hoc committee to review the scientific and technological issues that may affect the evolution of the University National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) academic fleet, including:

1. How technological advances such as autonomous underwater vehicles and ocean observing systems will affect the role and characteristics of the future UNOLS fleet with regard to accomplishing national oceanographic data collection objectives.

2. The most important factors in oceanographic research vessel design. Do specialized research needs dominate the design criteria and, if so, what are the impacts on costs and overall availability?

Statement of Task (cont.)

3. How evolving modeling and remote sensing technologies will impact the balance between various research operations such as ground-truthing, hypothesis testing, exploration, and observation.

4. How the increasing cost of ship time will affect the types of science done aboard ships.

5. The usefulness of partnering mechanisms such as UNOLS to support national oceanographic research objectives.

Findings

Findings (1)

• The U.S. academic research fleet provides an essential, enabling resource for the nation.

Global—Large ships cap able of working worldwide.Can stay at sea for 50 or more days, and can carry 30-38 scientists.Ocean—General purpose ocean-going vessels, able to stay at sea up to 40 days and carry 25 scientists.Intermediate—Ocean-going vessels with berths for 18-20 scientists.Regional—Serve coastal oceanography needs, can stay at sea for 30 days and carry 20 scientists.Regional/Coastal—Used close to port, often conducting short cruises. Can stay at sea for 30 days and accommodate 20 scientists.Local—Used close to shore, can stay at sea for about 20 days and accommodate about 15 scientists.

Types of Ships in the Academic Fleet

Findings (2)

• Scientific demands on the U.S. academic fleet are likely to increase in future years. However, aging ships and evolving technology require fleet modernization and recapitalization to maintain the nation’s leadership in ocean research.

Findings (3)

• The fleet of the future will be required to support increasingly complex, multidisciplinary, multi-investigator research projects, including those in support of autonomous technologies, ocean observing systems, process studies, remote sensing, and modeling.

Findings (4)

• Ocean observatories and autonomous vehicles will impact future vessel design requirements for acoustic communications, deck space, payload, berthing, launch and recovery, and stability. Servicing ocean observatories and launching and recovering autonomous vehicles will result in increased demands for ship time.

Findings (5)

• There is a need for increased ship-to-shore bandwidth, in order to facilitate real-time, shore-based modeling and data analysis in support of underway programs, allow more participation of shore-based scientists, and increase opportunities for outreach.

Findings (6)

• Supporting future research needs will require both highly adaptable general purpose ships and specialized vessels. Some vessels should be capable of operating in high latitudes and high sea states. More capable Coastal, Regional, and Global class ships will also be needed.

Findings (7)

• Development of the NSF-sponsored ARRV has benefited from community-driven ship design, allowing the users to participate more fully and create optimal designs within cost constraints.

Findings (8)

• The increasing cost of ship time and economies of scale associated with larger ships may lead to greater usage of the Global class vessels, which have laboratories, deck space, and berthing capabilities that can support multiple science operations.

Findings (9)

• The UNOLS consortium management structure is sound and is of benefit to research institutions, federal agencies, state and private interests. The federal agency partnerships that capitalize and support the academic research fleet, particularly between the Navy and NSF, have a proven record of cost savings and asset sharing. However, there are many assets that are not integrated with UNOLS, leading to sub-optimal use of the full U.S. research fleet.

Recommendations

Recommendation

Federal agencies supporting oceanographic research should implement one comprehensive, long-term research fleet renewal plan to retain access to the sea and maintain the nation’s leadership in addressing scientific and societal needs.

Fleet Renewal Plan

Recommendation

All future UNOLS ship acquisitions, beginning with the planned Ocean Class vessels, should involve the scientific user community from the preconstruction phase through post delivery of the ship.

Community Involvement

Recommendation

The future academic research fleet requires investment in larger, more capable, general purpose Global and Regional class ships to support multidisciplinary, multi-investigator research and advances in ocean technology.

Larger, Capable Ships

Recommendation

NOAA should identify which of its 13,200* unmet annual ship day needs could be supported by the UNOLS fleet. NOAA and UNOLS should work together to develop a long-term plan to increase the usage of UNOLS ships in support of the NOAA mission.

*As identified by the NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations in their 2008 Ship Recapitalization Plan

Integration with NOAA

Recommendation

The NSF Division of Ocean Sciences, NSF Office of Polar Programs, and the U.S. Coast Guard should improve coordination of ship operations and support between the UNOLS and polar research fleets.

Integration w/OPP and USCG

The final report will be available December 2009.

Prepublication copies can be downloaded from www.nap.edu.

Final Report

Thank you

Federal agencies supporting oceanographic research should implement one comprehensive, long-term research fleet renewal plan to retain access to the sea and maintain the nation’s leadership in addressing scientific and societal needs.

All future UNOLS ship acquisitions, beginning with the planned Ocean Class vessels, should involve the scientific user community from the preconstruction phase through post delivery of the ship.

The future academic research fleet requires investment in larger, more capable, general purpose Global and Regional class ships to support multidisciplinary, multi-investigator research and advances in ocean technology.

NOAA should identify which of its 13,200 unmet annual ship day needs could be supported by the UNOLS fleet. NOAA and UNOLS should work together to develop a long-term plan to increase the usage of UNOLS ships in support of the NOAA mission.

The NSF Division of Ocean Sciences, NSF Office of Polar Programs, and the U.S. Coast Guard should improve coordination of ship operations and support between the UNOLS and polar research fleets.

Recommendations

•How technological advances such as Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and ocean observing systems will affect the role and characteristics of the future UNOLS fleet with regard to accomplishing national oceanographic data collection objectives. Chapters 2 and 3 (pg. 13-36)

•The most important factors in oceanographic research vessel design. Does specialized research needs dominate the design criteria and, if so, what are the impacts on costs and overall availability? Chapter 4 (pg. 37-46)

•How evolving modeling and remote sensing technologies will impact the balance between various research operations such as ground-truthing, hypothesis testing, exploration, and observation. Chapters 2 and 3 (pg. 13-36)

•How the increasing cost of ship time will affect the types of science done aboard ships. Chapter 5 (pg. 47-59)

•The usefulness of partnering mechanisms such as UNOLS to support national oceanographic research objectives. Chapter 6 (pg. 61-64)

Which Chapters Address SOT?



–Physical Oceanography – Few floats, gliders and AUV’s are able to operate to the full depth of the water column. In the future as this technology matures there will still be parts of the deep ocean they will not reach and ship based observations will still be needed for calibration. Process studies, such as tracer and mixing experiments, and the continuation of established time series. (p. 14) Large research vessels will be needed to deploy and recover moorings and fleets of gliders. Ocean acoustics will continue to need ship based experiments. (p. 15)

SOTs 1 and 3 – Physical Ocean.



–Chemical Oceanography – Research needs large scale global ocean surveys and multidisciplinary process studies which in turn will require Global Class ships with adequate clean lab space and berthing for large science parties. (p. 16) In situ chemical sensors will be increasingly utilized and incorporated into large scale systems like Argo, but they are expected to only provide a small subset of the chemical, isotopic, and kinetic parameters needed to be measured. In the forseeable future the majority of geochemical work will be limited to shipboard sampling and analysis. (p. 17)

–Data collected from coastal observing systems will help quantify carbon sources and sinks, Regional Class vessels will be needed to collect the variety and volume of sediment, biological and water samples that are difficult to access using stationary or autonomous instruments. (p. 18)

SOTs 1 and 3 – Chemical Ocean.



–Atmospheric Chemistry and Air-sea exchange – Future research will involve a combination of airborne and ocean-borne research platforms (unmanned aircraft, drones and buoys), but ships will be needed to provide access to the marine atmosphere with a duration and payload unmatched by other platforms and to serve as a test bed for new analytical instruments and for calibration/validation of the next generation of satellite based instruments. (p. 18)

–Biological Oceanography – In the future new biological sensors will be adapted for use on ocean observatories and autonomous platforms, but for the near future ships will be needed to collect water and organisms for biological studies and for sustained established time series. (p. 18)

SOTs 1 and 3 – Atm. and Bio Ocean



–Marine Geology – New and improving observational and sampling technologies are being increasingly used for the seafloor and its underlying geological structures, but these will require ships capable of deploying them. (p. 21) Ocean bottom seismometer networks are being increasingly deployed and these types of studies require the largest ships for instrument deployment. (p. 22) The Ocean Observatories Initiative will require significant Ocean and Global Class ship time and be capable of deploying and supporting ROV’s capable of deploying thin cable, junction boxes and sensors. (p. 24)

SOTs 1 and 3 – MG&G



–Technological Advances – It is expected that Dynamic positioning will become standard on future ships. (p. 27) Future ships must have sufficient space aloft to accommodate all atmospheric and oceanographic sensors as well as navigation and communication satellites without interference. (p. 28) Future research ships will require increase bandwidth to relay large data sets. (p. 28) At least one ship must be capable of reliable, safe collection of long cores. (p. 28) Autonomous platforms and their associated launch and recovery systems come in many different forms, many of which will place new and varied demands on oceanographic vessels. (p. 29) To facilitate handling floats, gliders and AUV’s future ships will new lower freeboard, better over-the-side handling systems and acoustic/optical technology to assist in spotting vehicles on the surface. (p. 29- 31) As the use of ship-launched UAV’s increases, launch and recovery systems will be factored into ship design. (p. 32)

SOTs 1 and 3 - Technology



–Technological Advances (Cont.) – While increasing bandwidth will likely influence science operations , it is unlikely to decrease the demands for science berths. (p. 33) Telepresence is likely to become a useful tool only for intense components of a cruise that last for a short duration. (p. 33) To support the increasing number of systems going to sea more highly qualified and trained sea-going technicians will be needed.

SOTs 1 and 3 - Technology



–Summary – As continuous ocean observing systems and future generations of autonomous and fixed platforms document novel phenomena and processes in the ocean environment, they are likely to drive increased demand for ship time to further research these new discoveries. Ships will also be needed to train students and further the study of oceanography.

SOTs 1 and 3 - Summary

SOT 2 – Science Drivers•The most important factors in oceanographic research vessel design. Does

specialized research needs dominate the design criteria and, if so, what are the impacts on costs and overall availability? Chapter 4 (pg. 37-46)

SOT 2 – Ship Design Drivers



Summary – Future academic vessel designs need to be general purpose and highly adaptable to changing science needs. Trends toward increasing beam, length, and draft and displacement and the economy of scale present in larger hulls suggest that investments in larger more capable vessels in any size class are preferred. (p. 46)

SOT 2 - Summary

•How the increasing cost of ship time will affect the types of science done aboard ships. Chapter 5 (pg. 47-59)

•Present trends in science and technology indicate further growth in major research programs requiring significant ship resources. The increasing cost of ship time and economies of scale may lead to higher usage of the Global Class UNOLS vessels, which are capable of simultaneously carrying out multiple science operations. Complex programs are less likely to require multiple legs lowering operational costs, if put on the largest ships of the fleet. The reliance on Ocean Class vessels in the current fleet renewal strategy probably will not lead to a future fleet with reduced operational costs, but may lead to a fleet with fewer capabilities. (p. 59)

SOT 4

•The usefulness of partnering mechanisms such as UNOLS to support national oceanographic research objectives. Chapter 6 (pg. 61-64)

•The UNOLS consortium management structure is sound and is of benefit to research institutions, federal agencies and state and private interests. The federal agency partnerships that capitalize and support the academic research fleet, particularly between the Navy and NSF, successfully provide cost savings and asset sharing. (p. 64)

•There are areas where improvements may be made – see the last two recommendations.

SOT 5

science at sea: meeting future oceanographic goals with a robust academic research fleet

Documents

research needs

future unols fleet

university of california

various research operations

national research council

future fleet relative

university of washington

university of miami