Characterizing Variability in Pacific Northwest Methane Seeps Using a Fleet of Small AUVs (RC 101)

Craig McNeil

Principal Investigator; Principal Oceanographer, University of Washington, Applied Physics Laboratory

Craig McNeil, Ph.D., researches the upper ocean and how the ocean breathes via air-sea gas exchange processes, especially at high wind speeds. As a scientist, he takes great pleasure in discovery. As an oceanographer, who has spent approximately two years (in total) at sea doing research, his trips have taken him to the Arctic, the tropical Pacific (east and west), the North Atlantic, the North Pacific (many times), the Mediterranean, the North Sea, and many estuaries around the United States. As an experimentalist who uses a lot of instrumentation, he also enjoys the challenge of making difficult measurements to advance science. Sampling of methane seeps is no exception, as they are very difficult to measure by traditional shipboard techniques. This project advances the use of autonomous underwater vehicles to perform process studies of methane seeps and evaluate their importance as a source of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, to the atmosphere.

Tamara Baumberger

Co-Principal Investigator; Geochemist, Oregon State University, NOAA Cooperative Institute for Marine Ecosystem and Resources Studies, NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory

Tamara Baumberger, Ph.D., researches the gas chemistry of methane seeps, hydrothermal vents, and submarine volcanoes with a special interest in the carbon cycle and the noble gas chemistry. She is interested in understanding the origin and fate of these volatile compounds in extreme environments and their impact on the surrounding ocean. In this project, she is studying dissolved methane in the water column. These observations will help constrain the methane flux from the studied Cascadia Margin methane seeps.

Jeff Beeson

Co-Principal Investigator; Marine Geologist, Oregon State University, NOAA Cooperative Institute for Marine Ecosystem and Resources Studies, NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory

Jeff Beeson, Ph.D., focuses on understanding the geological controls on the distribution and chemical composition of methane seepage offshore of the Pacific Northwest. He has developed advanced processing techniques for multibeam echosounder data to better image and characterize methane seeps. The integration of sampling, sensors, and new methods to better understand how much methane is escaping the seafloor and potentially reaching the atmosphere is very exciting.

Dan Stilwell

Co-Principal Investigator; Professor, Virginia Tech

Dan Stilwell, Ph.D., is a professor in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a co-director of the Center for Marine Autonomy and Robotics at Virginia Tech. His research group develops next-generation autonomous vehicle systems for maritime applications. His group also develops the autonomy algorithms necessary for autonomous vehicles to operate without human intervention. His group’s major focus is the development of autonomous behaviors that enable autonomous underwater vehicles to operate in coordinated teams. For this project, his group is developing the algorithms needed for teams of autonomous underwater vehicles to recognize and map bubble plumes from methane seeps over large areas.

Andrew Ellers

Captain, University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory

Andy Ellers has served as master and mate around the world aboard a variety of vessels — from passenger vessels to sail-training ships and from consulting on movie-making to running yachts. However, over the past 15 years, his principal ongoing gig has been operating research vessels for the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory. Born and raised in Ohio, after college Andy began wandering and working in various interesting places and inadvertently stumbled into maritime work — which has resulted in a 35-year career (so far!). When not underway on a vessel, he spends time at his home in the woods just north of Seattle or running off to enjoy the nearby mountains.

Stephen Krauss

Research Associate, Virginia Tech

Stephen Krauss is a research associate in the Center for Marine Autonomy and Robotics at Virginia Tech. His research is focused on the development of inertial navigation algorithms that enable teams of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to coordinate collection of and accurately georeference oceanographic data. His work also includes the design, development, and operation of next-generation AUV systems, including the Virginia Tech 690 AUVs being deployed in teams to rapidly conduct wide-area surveys to locate and image methane seeps.

Trina Litchendorf

Oceanographer IV, University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory

Trina Litchendorf is an oceanographer and autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) operator at the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). She received her Bachelor of Science degree in chemical oceanography from the University of Washington. Her work with Craig McNeil’s AUVs began in 2008 when operating them in the challenging environment of the Columbia River Estuary. Since then, she has deployed McNeil’s AUVs on numerous missions in Lake Washington, Puget Sound, the Pacific Ocean (off Oregon’s Coast), and the Mediterranean Sea — and soon the North Atlantic Ocean. Her other work at APL is as a member of the Regional Cabled Array instrument team, where she oversees the deployment, testing, and refurbishment of over 150 sensors deployed on the array.

Laura Lindzey

Senior Research Engineer, University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory

Laura Lindzey is a senior research engineer at the University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory, primarily working with underwater vehicles. She fell in love with field robotics as an undergraduate, working on Caltech’s DARPA Grand Challenge Team. Her favorite projects lie at the intersection of engineering and scientific exploration, where robots are collecting data that couldn’t be obtained in any other way. She has participated in aerogeophysical field expeditions to Antarctica and expeditions supporting autonomous underwater vehicles in the Pacific and Arctic.

Susan Merle

Senior Research Assistant, Oregon State University, NOAA Cooperative Institute for Marine Ecosystem and Resources Studies, NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory

Susan Merle is a senior research assistant II at Oregon State University’s Cooperative Institute for Marine Ecosystem and Resources Studies as part of the NOAA Earth-Ocean Interactions (EOI) Program. She specializes in multibeam seafloor and water column data acquisition, processing, and analysis, as well as two-, three-, and four-dimensional rendering of ocean features and their geological interpretations. Susan uses GIS software to organize, evaluate, and manage the huge amounts of data collected by the EOI group. While at sea, Susan uses her seafloor-mapping experience to conduct bathymetric and mid-water surveys with multibeam sonar systems. During this expedition, she searched for methane seeps in the water column data collected.

Jennie Mowatt

Field Engineer II, University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory

Jennie Mowatt is a field engineer with the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). She received her bachelor’s degree in oceanography from University of Washington before embarking on a life of fieldwork. Directly out of college she developed and ran a successful autonomous underwater lab at the University of Hawai‘i, eventually trading out the tropics for the polar regions. Over the past decade she has routinely worked at a remote field station in Greenland furthering research on air-snow interactions, atmospheric pollution, and their long term impacts on ice sheets. She also worked in Antarctica as a marine technician on U.S. Antarctic Program research vessels, facilitating shipboard science and data collection in an extreme environment. At APL, her skills have combined to better assist researchers with unique and challenging field objectives.