RVTEC 2004 Meeting Minutes
November 3-5, 2004
The Florida Institute of Oceanography hosted the meeting at
The University of South Florida – College of Marine Science, St. Petersburg, FL
Davis
Hall, Room 130
A copy of these minutes can be downloaded at <200411rvtmi.pdf>.
Executive Summary
RVTEC met on November 3-5, 2004. The meeting was hosted by Florida Institute of Oceanography on the campus of
the University of South Florida –
College of Marine Science, St. Petersburg, FL.
Dale Chayes, RVTEC Chair, presided over the meeting. The meeting included reports by Agency representatives and UNOLS
Committee liaisons. A variety of issues
were discussed. Progress on the defined
Levels of Technician/Instrumentation support was reported. The meeting also included a variety of
technical sessions:
·
ADCP Survey and Performance
Assessment
·
Fleet Wide Assessment of Towed Systems
·
Organizational Excellence Driven by Customer Satisfaction
·
Foreign Clearances for Working in EEZ Waters
·
Moving Vessel Profilers
·
System Backup and Restoration, Data Dissemination to Scientists.
FIO and USF
personnel provided presentations on institution programs including the Alliance
for Coastal Technologies (ACT), Coastal Ocean Monitoring and Prediction System
(COMPS), and the Ocean Technology Center.
Facility tours were provided to the RVTEC meeting participants.
Reports and the status on various technical efforts
were reported. These included the
High-Resolution Marine Meteorology workshop, SeaNet, HighSeasNet, Seawave, VSAT, dragging for a mooring in 4200 meters
of water, Radio Frequency Spectrum, RIDGE 2000 and MARGINs cruise metadata
requirements, and Healy Communications.
Plans for INMARTECH 2006 were discussed, as the meeting will be hosted by
the US.
Elections were
held for the RVTEC Chair position. Dale
Chayes was completing his second term as Chair. The RVTEC membership nominated Bill Martin (University of
Washington) to serve as the new RVTEC Chair.
Actions
SCOAR Liaison - The RVTEC Chair will send a letter to
SCOAR recommending Steve Hartz's appointment as an ex-officio member to serve
as a liaison with RVTEC.
Definitions
of Levels of Technical Support – Develop an on-line form for RVTEC to provide
information about Technical services (UNOLS Office). When the form becomes available it will be posted for RVTEC
members to complete.
Radio Frequency Spectrum – Individuals interested in
participating in this effort should contact the UNOLS office.
INMARTECH
2006 – A subcommittee of Barrie Walden (WHOI), Eric Zettler (SEA) and Mary Lynn Dickson
(URI) will work to organize the meeting.
Safe
Working Loads – RVTEC will request that the RVOC Safety Committee address the issue of
safe working loads and indicate that a clear definition of “safe working load”
is needed.
Appendices
Day 1: Wednesday, November 3, 2004
Day 2: Thursday, November 4, 2004
Meeting Minutes
Day
1 November 3, 2004 –
Meeting Called to Order - Dale Chayes, RVTEC Chair, called the
meeting to order at 0830. Florida
Institute of Oceanography (FIO) hosts the 2004 RVTEC meeting on the St.
Petersburg campus of the University of South Florida (USF). The meeting agenda is attached as Appendix
I. Introductions were made
around the room. The attendance list is
included as Appendix II.
Introductory
Remarks - Rob Walker,
FIO, greeted everyone and went over meeting logistics.
Welcoming
Remarks - John Ogden, FIO
Director, welcomed everyone. Dr. Ogden
gave some background information on their institution: FIO is a consortium of 17 members including
the University of Miami. FIO is a UNOLS
Non-Operator member of UNOLS. They fund
100 ship days on a competitive basis to members. Ship time is primarily for educational purposes but there are
some days devoted to research mostly in Florida waters. Dr. Ogden went on to say that, like other
institutions, they are trying to build a new ship to stay in the education-oriented
niche at $3K/day for a 24x7. Their
campaign for a new vessel has been going on for six years.
Agency Reports
National
Science Foundation - Sandy Shor (Appendix
III) - Sandy states
that NSF does not have a budget yet for 2005.
NSF is on a continuing resolution until mid-November. He said to expect a flat budget, plus or
minus a percentage or two. Expect about
3,000 NSF funded ship days this year. Last year was approximately 3,200.
The Instrumentation proposals deadline was three weeks ago. Sandy said he has
about two-thirds in hand and says there is no surprises and that he is
pleased. The Technical services
proposals are due November 15th but only consist of annual reports
this year. Dolly handled two $20M
facility proposals in 2004, one to support acquisition of a new seismic vessel,
and the other a replacement human occupied vehicle at WHOI. The new seismic vessel, Western Legend, will replace Ewing (LDEO) and will be owned
by NSF after the conversion to support research operations. The vessel will be renamed, Marcus
Langseth. The new submersible will
replace ALVIN and have a depth
capability of 6,500m. The design and
build proposal is funded to be completed in two stages, pending proof of hull
welding. There are extensive oversight
committee structures for both efforts.
Sandy also reported that
Jim Yoder (NSF) adjusted the NSF budget process so that ship construction up to
$25M can be supported mid-size Infrastructure within NSF's program
budgets.
Office
of Naval Research (ONR) - John Freitag (Appendix
IV) - John reports
that ONR has a budget for FY2005. Ship time is down approximately 25% this year
driven by program demand. Field program work was high last year and is expected
to high next year. There are about 525 ship days planned so far for 2005, but
will likely go up a bit as the year goes on.
INSURV Associated Science Inspections: R/V Thompson (UW) was the first Navy
ship inspected that included participation by RVTEC members. Seventeen Navy
personnel plus four science personnel (Stewart Lamerdin, Marc Willis, Mike
Webb, and John Freitag) took part in the inspection, which was declared
successful. Two days of the inspection
were held dockside, two were at sea, one day was devoted to the report
write-up, and one day was for the Inspection debrief. A round table review (for
science,) generated a 75-page report. R/V
Melville will be next (in a couple of weeks.) Tony Amos will replace
Stewart on the science team (Stewart will be at sea at the time of the
Inspection.)
Handling Systems: R/V Kilo Moana has
had consistent problems with CTD handling. John said that heavy weather and
small ships are, “an accident waiting to happen.” NSF (Dolly Dieter), and ONR have agreed to fund a study on
different handling systems. The study will not only focus on systems used in
the US but also on foreign vessels as well.
A committee has been formed (Matt Hawkins, UDel (based on his track
record with the lab vans and the R/V Cape
Hatteras replacement), Marc Willis (OSU), Jim Holick (RPS), Andy Bowen
(WHOI), and Tom Althouse (SIO). The
committee has completed a preliminary (non-UNOLS) report that is not yet
public. The first part of the report addresses the Kilo Moana. John said he is
happy to address any questions off the record and also mentioned that the
committee visited several foreign vessels.
A comment was made that RRS James Clark Ross has a very good CTD
handling system, big and expensive, but completely hands-off.
Ocean Class vessels: The
Science Mission Requirements (SMRs) for the Ocean Class vessels are complete.
Hull studies funded by ONR are also complete. The Federal Oceanographic
Facilities Committee (FOFC) long-range fleet plan is being updated on the
5-year schedule. The plan calls for the renewal of the Ocean Class. RADM Jay Cohen announced that he would like
to fund the Ocean Class construction from core 6.1 (R&D) money that is
quite different than the historical approach.
RADM Cohen Is very Interested In the X-Craft hull form, which were
designed a littoral warfare design. He has asked that UNOLS give the hull form
serious consideration. A committee has been formed that Includes Ocean Class
Steering Committee members and the Fleet Improvement Committee who will visit
the shipyard where the X-Craft is under construction. The Admiral says he is
open to other hull form approaches as long as the pros and cons have been weighed. There will be an operator selection process
for the Ocean Class vessels soon.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) - Mike Webb - Mike reports that NOAA has two new
ships on line. The USNS Indomitable has
replaced the McArthur as the McArthur II. Several other T-AGOS vessels have been transferred to
NOAA over the last few years and integrated into their fleet.
R/V
Fairweather is out of
the shipyard, in Ketchikan, doing charting work in SE Alaska. The Fisheries Research Vessel FRV1, Oscar Dyson has been launched and will be home ported in Kodiak.
FRV2, Henry Bigelow, is under construction at Halter shipyards. Both ships
were fortunate to stay clear of harm from the recent hurricanes.
The USNS Ship Capable has been transferred from the Navy to NOAA with $18M
to convert the vessel for use as an Ocean Exploration vessel. They are developing the
requirements for the conversion.
Mike said that there has been a high turnover of the Electronic Technicians
(ETs). Most of their ETs are very new to this business and there is much
training needed. There is a feeling in some quarters that “You can just hire
people off the street, no problem.” A76 (a contracting out) process is thought
by some to be the right answer.
It was noted that the NOAA Ship Townsend
Cromwell went to American Samoa to be used but it was sold for 1/2 the
value of the fuel that was in it.
U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) - Jon Berkson/
Lt. Cmdr Don Peltonen - Jon reports that heavy Antarctic ice conditions
since 2002 have led to a two-ship norm to break out McMurdo Station. Breakout
had been 50 - 100 NM of ice compared to nearly 200 NM this year.
The propulsion motors on
the USCGC Polar Sea have been
condemned. It is estimated that it will take two years for the repairs to be
made. The ship is currently dockside in
Seattle, WA. The USCGC Polar Star will deploy shortly. Its motors are not that much better than Polar Sea but
they are “okay.” The USCGC Healy is fully operational and had
a port call in Provideniya recently.
Replacement plans: The Ocean Commission’s Recommendation 6-4 says to refurbish
or replace the two USCG polar icebreakers. The CG has commissioned Booz Allen
Hamilton to do a study, which is due in December 2004. The next step will be to
do a mission needs statement and then a preliminary requirements analysis. The Office of Science and Technology Policy
is coordinating a US heavy icebreaker National policy summit that will take
place at the same time as this RVTEC meeting. There will be presentations on past
and present roles, national needs, agencies, funding, and policy. Participants
will include the CG, John Marburger, Dir. OSTP, and NOAA.
John also reports that the Department of Homeland security has their FY05
budget. They have directed funding of a National Academy study on the role of
icebreakers. The report should be out by September 2005.
Research
Vessel Operators' Committee (RVOC) and Safety Committee Report - Bill Martin,
UW (Appendix V) - Bill summarized the reports and workshops
that were provided during the October 2004 RVOC meeting Special reports were
given on the van pool status, the load handling systems,
the long core system, research vessel updates, and vessel security requirements
(CMMS). Speakers included Dennis Nixon who discussed insurance and liability issues for operators.
Bill announced that the medical support contractor for the UNOLS Fleet, Medical
Advisory Systems (MAS) was bought out by Medaire, based in Tempe, AZ.
The UNOLS Safety Committee
plans to re-write the RVOC Safety Training Manual. The chapters will be
reformatted and will be available on the Web including a chapter on hazardous
materials. There will also be a pull
out section to give to chief scientists and PI’s. Revised chapters are due
January 15th. The assignment list is not quite finished yet. There was a
question as to how safe working loads for wires would be addressed in the
manual. The wire committee and load handling committee will provide
information. RVTEC members indicated
that this is an Important Issue that must be addressed by the re-write.
Fleet Improvement Committee (FIC) - Marc
Willis, OSU (Appendix VI) - Marc
reports that there is a projected gap between ship days that will be available
In the future as compared to the estimated ship days needed to meet future
science Initiatives. His slides include
a chart that shows the shortfall. Fleet
renewal efforts are underway:
Regional Class - NSF has
indicated that they will fund the construction of three Regional Class
vessels. They have partnered with
NAVSEA through a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to acquire the ships using the
integrated project team (IPT) approach
Ocean Class: ONR is
funding a hull form study that will compare the monohull, SWATH, and
X-Craft. The X-Craft vessel is
currently under constructions at the Nichols Brothers shipyard In Washington
State <www.nicholsboats.com>. UNOLS has been asked for their
recommendation and a decision is needed within a very short time frame. Someone
from the RVTEC community is needed to participate in this effort and in the
shipyard visit on November 17th.
Large ship mid-life refits are coming up soon: Thompson (2006), Revelle
(2011) and Atlantis (2012)
A steering committee has been formed to update the science mission requirements
for the Global ships.
There was then a
discussion of Service Life Extension Projects (SLEP.) The operators of UNOLS
vessels were tasked to provide SLEP estimates that would not enhance the
capabilities of the ships (maintenance only). The estimates range in the price of
$1M to $5M per ship for a 5-year extension. The resulting capabilities would be
considerably less than that called out by the SMRs, that the science would
suffer.
The UNOLS Fleet Improvement Plan update is proceeding as well as the FOFC
Long-Range Fleet Plan update.
Marc updated the group on the status of facility design and construction
efforts for the Alaska Region Replacement Vessel (ARRV), the Cape Henlopen
Replacement Vessel (CHRV), and ALVIN replacement.
The Americans w/ Disabilities Act will have impacts on research vessel design.
The ADA requirements were considered in the ARRV design. There is not as much
guidance in the regulations for research vessels as there are for cruise ships.
FIC is reviewing the ADA requirements to determine how they could be applied to
research vessels.
Arctic Icebreaker Coordinating Committee
(AICC):
Dale reported that:
Break
UNOLS
report - Annette De Silva, UNOLS (Appendix
VII) - Annette
provided an overview of UNOLS activities and goals for 2005. She also provided updates of several UNOLS
Committees: The DESSC has been
participating in the ALVIN replacement
and Hybrid ROV project. DESSC will meet
the day before AGU in December in San Francisco. The SCOAR Committee is working on developing criteria for broader
use and accessibility of aircraft.
Their outreach efforts included an article in EOS and another in
Oceanography Magazine. They continue to
work on the format for an aircraft request form that will be modeled after the
UNOLS Ship time Request form.
Adding a RVTEC liaison to SCOAR has not
moved forward since the last meeting. At the last meeting Steve Hartz expressed
an Interest In serving as the liaison.
The RVTEC Chair will send a letter to SCOAR recommending Steve Hartz's
appointment as an ex-officio member.
Scheduling: The global
ship schedules will be reduced In 2005 to 280 days with down time in each
vessel's home port. There are a large number of deferred ship days slated for
2006.
Quality Improvement Efforts
continue with reviews of the Post Cruise Assessment reports (PCAR) and debriefs
from Kilo Moana. An MTS article on fleet renewal was
published.
Information on
acoustic/marine mammal permitting procedures is available on the UNOLS web site
at: <http://www.unols.org/committees/ssc/permits/permits.html#mamm>.
Peter Wiebe from WHOI was
elected as the new UNOLS chair and Marcia McNutt from MBARI was elected to the
chair-elect position.
Definitions
of Levels of Technical Support – Annette DeSilva, UNOLS (Appendix VIII)
Annette reports that at the last RVTEC meeting it was agreed to standardize how
we communicate UNOLS technical services to the public. A technical services
outline was endorsed at the last RVTEC meeting. No additional comments were
received from RVTEC regarding the outline. The UNOLS Council has
enthusiastically endorsed this approach.
The plan is to develop a fleet-wide database of technical services
Information and centrally maintain the information. Each institution will have to provide their own content. The timeline to have the system up and
running on the UNOLS website is unknown, possibly 6 months. It will depend on the availability of
resources. There are potential conflicts between the offered services and the
post cruise assessment via the database and conflicts between the ship time
request form and the services that are advertised”. UNOLS is working on a
“unified” database that would tie everything together, the ship time request
form, the schedule, the post cruise assessment report, and the technical
services database. The plan is to
maintain a revision history of changes and perhaps an automatic notification of
change service.
The RVTEC was asked to
review and if needed update the list of points of contact. The list will be used to reach the
Individual responsible for maintaining the information.
Ewing replacement - Dale Chayes, LDEO - Dale displayed the PowerPoint
presentation that was provided by John Diebold, LDEO. (Appendix IX). Dale
also mentioned that NSF is returning the Title for the R/V Ewing back to Columbia University so that the ship may be sold.
Alaska
Regional Research Vessel (ARRV) - Steve Hartz, UAF (Appendix X)
Work is continuing on the acquisition of an Alaska Region Research Vessel
(ARRV). Steve reports that they now have an ARRV Website: <http://www.sfos.uaf.edu/arrv/>. They are also working on solutions to
address ADA issues including one ADA stateroom. The ice class is unknown at the
moment. The estimated total cost to build the ARRV will be $83M. The operating
cost estimate is at $23,800/day. Steve said they expect funding to be included
in the NSF/Major Research Equipment & Facility Construction (MRE/FC)
request to Congress in 2006.
R/V Cape Henlopen
Replacement Vessel -
(Tim Deering, UDel.) (Appendix XI) - Tim reported that the
current schedule is for the Cape Henlopen
to be retired from service on October 1, 2005. The shipyard building the
new vessel is Dakota Creek Industries in Anacortes, Washington. New
construction is done using “modular” build.
The final design phase took place during 2004 and construction is well
underway. All major equipment has been ordered and is arriving at the yard. It
will start “looking like a ship” in January 2005, when major outfitting should
begin. The new vessel will be delivered
from the shipyard to Florida by a heavy lift ship on October 15, 2005. The UDEL
crew will deliver the new ship to Delaware. From November 2005 through February
2006 they will cross deck equipment and complete the outfitting of the new
vessel using UDEL funding. The new vessel should be ready to begin operations
around March 2006. 1230 LUNCH
1320 Meeting reconvened
Dale Chayes went over
RVTEC meeting trivia. Candidates for
RVTEC Chair and the venue for next year's RVTEC meeting were discussed. Meeting attendees were instructed to give
their money to Annette for tonight’s dinner.
Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers
(ADCPs)- Stewart Lamerdin, MLML (Appendix XI a and b) - Stewart
presented a PowerPoint presentation summarizing ADCP survey results from the
RVTEC members. Approximately 50% of the
installations include a window. Fouling problems and anti-fouling measures were
discussed.
NSF (Sandy Shor) has funded Eric Firing and Jules Hummon through the SOEST ship
technician support grant to provide some level of support for ADCPs in the
UNOLS fleet. The level of support has not been defined as yet.
Discussion followed on how to quality control the data and questions arose on
how to train and how to deal with troubleshooting and technical support at RDI.
A comment was made that at RDI, their first level of support has not always
been the most helpful. Further comments were that:
-
The
vessel-mounted component of their company is a very small portion of their
business and there have been quality control problems.
-
RDI does
not seem to have much in the way of in-stock spares.
Further discussion items
included:
-
How to
establish configuration parameters.
-
Broad range
of users and levels of understanding on the part of different science parties.
-
The older
narrow band transducers had big problems with transducers de-laminating.
-
Design for
maintenance.
-
There is a
new version of VMDAS coming.
-
Setting up
a list-server for this discussion, particularly when Jules gets back (from her
current event.) Open source might help move this process forward a bit.
OS38
installation on R/V IB Nathaniel B.
Palmer - Michael Carpenter, Raytheon Polar Services (Appendix XIII)
- Mike reported that on
the Gould Installation there was sand blasting grit was trapped in the well and
there was a bubble on the face of the transducer. Ethylene glycol is being used in the wells on the Gould and propylene glycol is being used
on the Palmer. The window is Zelux W
(1 and 1/2” thick) and is optically clear (characteristics are provided in the
slides). There is a waterline free-surface, no hydrostatic head.
Discussion of cables, bend
radius, and interference followed.
Organizational
Excellence Driven by Customer Satisfaction- Mr. Lynn Wright, Architecture for
Excellence (Appendix XIV) - Lynn
presented a PowerPoint presentation giving an overview of their company’s
approach to the process of improving team and organizational performance.
Alliance
for Coastal Technologies (ACT) - Sheryl
Gilbert (Appendix
XV) - Sheryl provided an overview of the ACT program and the Integrated
Ocean Observing System (IOOS)
Coastal
Ocean Monitoring (COMPS) and Physical Oceanographic Real Time Systems (PORTS) -
Cliff Merz, USF (Appendix XVII) - A presentation on in situ real-time
measurements and modeled data was presented.
Center
for Ocean Technology (COT) - Larry Langbrake, Director of the Center for Ocean Technology (COT),
University of South Florida (USF), College of Marine Science The COT Engineering Group are capable of
producing, from the ground up, scientific instruments for use in the research
milieu, especially targeting the oceanographic environment. COT is capable of
production of instrumentation from the conception stage to the actual machining
and assembly of the prototypes and prospective production models. Some of the
on-going projects include a particle imager, called SIPPER, a profiler, known
as BSOP, and an optical platform referred to as the ROBOT. Information about COT can be found at <http://cot.marine.usf.edu/>. Larry reported that they started out
developing applications to go in AUVs.
Then moved on to in situ mass spectrometers and absorption techniques.
Moving on to MEMS so that they can be smaller, less expensive and cheaper. With the increasing demand for micro or
miniaturized devices, COT established its MEMS group. They are able to both
develop and micro-manufacture miniaturized devices. This group is playing an integral part in the development of new
systems for scientific instruments and other devices. They have miniature cylindrical ion traps (500 microns in
diameter.) They have a working one in the laboratory at about 10 ppb
sensitivity. COT is working on 3D
imaging (acoustic and laser line scan) for port security applications.
The day concluded with FIO and USF
Facilities Tours.
Day
2 November 4–
Meeting
business: There are now
three candidates for the RVTEC chair position: Lynn Butler (URI), Woody
Sutherland (SIO), and Bill Martin (UW)
SeaNet
- Dale Chayes, LDEO (for Andy Maffei,
WHOI) - Dale reported for Andy Maffei, who could
not attend the meeting. Dale reports
that at present, operational support for SeaNet continues through Laura
Goepfert at WHOI. Future support for
the program will be through Jim Aikens At WHOI.
Radio Frequency Spectrum – Individuals interested in
participating in this effort should contact the UNOLS office.
HiSeasNet
- Steve Foley (Appendix XIX)
Steve offered some basic
background information on the company and what they can offer. HiSeasNet is an
IP data link at 96k bits per second. It is not RoadNet, which is software. The bandwidth is leased so that they can use
whatever they want with it. The
hardware to run the system is large and is housed at UCSD/San Diego
Supercomputer Center (SDSC.)
The system requires GPS and gyro feed. At the ship end there is a small Cisco router
and a 2.4m SeaTel antenna in a 3m-diameter “dome”. At present, current ships
using HiSeasNet are Revelle, Thompson and Melville. They will be adding the Ewing Replacement, Atlantis
and Knorr. On the downside, in heavy weather the link fails. Traffic can
overload (saturate) the link.
-
Question:
How does the “fair” queue get implemented?
-
Question:
How can they insure the videoconference of “96K”? (Reply - shut down other
services.) Out going (mostly) only
Voice Over IP (VOIP) phone calls.
C-band is $35K/ship/year (bandwidth + support) Limit VOIP to a couple of
handsets on the Revelle.
- Question: How much effort is it to take care of the link? Shipboard technicians generally handle maintenance from the ship end. There are drifts of satellite occasionally. For Windows, they run a local Windows upd