Performance and Progress Report - John Doe FIX: put in the authors ...

In 2005, we conducted two more Law of the Sea cruises, one representing the completion
of our work off the east coast of the U.S (two legs) and the other in the Gulf of Alaska
(two legs). The survey work off the U.S. east coast took place on the NAVO vessel USNS
Pathfinder, a 329-ft, 5000 ton vessel equipped with a hull-mounted Kongsberg Simrad
EM121A multibeam sonar, under the supervision of Dr. Jim Gardner. In addition to the
multibeam sonar, the Pathfinder, also carried an ODEC Bathy2000 3.5-kHz chirp subbottom
profiler and a BGM-5 Bell Gravity Meter. NAVOCEANO was responsible for
system calibration, data collection and quality control and overall cruise management
whereas Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) was contracted by NOAA to
perform bathymetry processing aboard ship. The overall responsibility of cruise
planning, both before and during the cruises, as well as processing MBES acoustic
backscatter and 3.5-kHz profiler data were the responsibilities of the UNH/NOAA
representative aboard ship.
The Atlantic Margin surveys were a continuation of the work (3 legs) completed in 2004
year covering the northern segment of the Atlantic Margin (see last year’s progress
report). The first leg of this year’s operations (Leg 4) required a half-day transit to an
area mapped in 2004 to perform a patch test prior to mapping operations. A patch test
(exclusive of a yaw calibration) was performed in this area and was followed by 31 days
of mapping the margin from the point left off in 2004 towards the south. Leg 4 was
completed on May 23, 2005 and the ship transited to Charleston, SC for re-supply and a
crew change. Leg 4 collected 6423 line km of MBES and 3.5-kHz profiler lines and
mapped a total area of ~22,500 nm 2 . Data collected on Leg 5 have been classified by the
U.S. Navy and are not publicly available at this time.
The second 2005 Law of the Sea cruise brought us to the Gulf of Alaska. NOAA
contracted through NSF-UNOLS (National Science Foundation University National
Oceanographic Laboratory System) with the University of Hawaii to conduct the Gulf of
Alaska mapping using the 186-ft, 3060-ton RV Kilo Moana, a SWATH (small water area
twin hull) vessel with a hull-mounted Kongsberg Simrad EM120 MBES as well as a
Knudsen 320 B/R 3.5-kHz chirp sub-bottom profiler and a Carson gravimeter.
The planned schedule for the cruise called for 2 legs of approximately 30 days of
operations each. The University of Hawaii's Hawaii Mapping Research Group was
responsible for systems calibrations, data collection and quality control and overall cruise
management whereas the UNH group was responsible for bathymetry, acousticbackscatter
and 3.5-kHz processing. Gravity data were collected and processed by the
University of Hawaii group.
The first leg of operations required a 7.5-day, 4200 km, transit from Honolulu, HI to an
area ~70 km NW of Bowie Seamount. A complete patch test was performed in this area
and then the mapping commenced with a dip line run up the margin in the southern
portion of the area. Twenty-five days of continuous mapping the margin from south to
north followed the patch test. Mapping during Leg 1 was halted on July 27, 2005 and the
ship transited to Kodiak, AK for a scheduled re-supply and a crew change. Leg 1
collected 18,135 line km of MBES and 3.5-kHz profiler lines and mapped a total area of
47,586 nm 2 . Leg 2 of the survey departed Kodiak, AK on August 2, 2005 and collected
JHC Performance Report 46 30 January 2007