The essays below will help you to understand the goals and objectives of the mission and provide additional context and information about the places being explored and the science, tools, and technologies being used.
by Kevin Boswell
A one-week cruise aboard the R/V Point Sur was conducted to deploy two different autonomous sensor platforms developed as part of this project to explore the sound scattering layers of the Gulf of Mexico.
Read moreby Lu Wang
Impactful science often comes from collaborative efforts, when experts from different disciplines assemble to provide unique perspectives and form new ideas.
Read moreby Lu Wang
One of the goals of this expedition is to deploy an autonomous glider that transmits data via Iridium satellite during the course of a mission, while the glider is at the ocean’s surface.
Read moreby Kyler Abernathy and Lu Wang
Releasing tens of thousands of dollars of instrumentation into the ocean is tricky — you may not get it back once it’s in the water.
Read moreby John Horne and Chad Lembke
The increased use of ocean robots, such as autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), is expanding the resolution, range, and duration of physical and biological measurements collected throughout the water column in the world’s ocean.
Read moreby Chris Taylor
Echosounders have been employed in fisheries and ocean research for decades to detect fish, plankton, and features both on the seabed and in the water column.
Read moreby Kyler Abernathy and Lu Wang
The National Geographic Society Driftcam is an untethered mid-water imaging system, built to collect detailed information about ocean animals via high-resolution video, at depths as deep as 700 meters (2,297 feet).
Read moreby Tracey Sutton
The pelagic habitat contains a diverse and highly specialized fauna, with adaptations becoming more and more “bizarre” as one goes deeper into the water column.
Read moreby Kevin Boswell
The oceanic rim ecosystem, including waters of the outer continental shelf, is arguably the least-known marine habitat in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
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