NOAA's Undersea Research Program

NOAA's Undersea Research Program and various header graphics

Undersea Technologies

Field Stations Support Ships Diving Aquarius Undersea Lab
Remotely Operated Vehicles Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Observatories Submersibles


In shallow water, wet diving is the most effective way to study the seas. Divers are better than robotic vehicles at working around complex features like coral or rocky reefs. Although strides have been made to make deeper diving possible, there are still severe restrictions on the depth and length of time divers can spend underwater. Research on undersea ecosystems often requires diving to depths beyond 40 m (128 ft), work not easily done with conventional scuba diving equipment. Using oxygen enriched air (nitrox), divers are able to extend their bottom time since they absorb less nitrogen in their blood. NOAA's Undersea Research Program (NURP) funded researchers working on Carolina offshore reefs depend on nitrox to save time and money. NURP provides scientists with equipment and personnel to carry out their missions. In 2001, the program helped scientists conduct almost 9,000 nitrox dives with a flawless safety record. Techniques for the safe use of nitrox are also published along with dive tables in the NOAA Diving Manual.

Divers working from surface vessels are limited by factors such as weather, gas supply, and decompression sickness. The ability to live and work beneath the waves is provided by the Aquarius undersea laboratory, the only undersea habitat in the world devoted to science. The habitat, owned and operated by NURP, is located in 20 m (64 ft) at the base of a coral reef within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, an ideal site for studying the health of sensitive coastal ecosystems. The habitat accommodates four scientists and two technicians for missions averaging ten days. Aquarius successfully supported 34 missions between 1993 and 2001.

NURP operations cover the globe from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Bases of operations on shore are determined by the dive site locations. All the NURP Centers have field facilities from which dive operations can be deploy. In addition, several NURP Centers maintain remote field stations that allow them to support a variety of coastal research projects more effectively. Caribbean Marine Research Center, Lee Stocking Island The Caribbean Marine Research Center (CMRC) provides facilities and support for marine research and education at Lee Stocking Island in the Exuma Cays, central Bahamas, approximately 90 minutes from south Florida. Use of laboratories, vessels, submersibles, equipment and accommodations is available year-round to researchers and educational groups. Accomodations are available for up to 40 visiting scientists. Lee Stocking Island affords unique access to a variety of marine environments virtually unimpacted by human activities such as commercial development and fishing pressures. Habitats found within minutes of the Island's dock include shallow and deep reefs, mangroves, grassbeds, ooid shoals, stromatolites, tidal channels and deep ocean. Mid-Atlantic Center, Rutgers University Marine Field Station, Tuckerton, NJ Rutgers University Marine Field Station (RUMFS) is located at the tip of a salt marsh peninsula adjacent to Little Egg Inlet within the Great Bay-Little Egg Harbour estuary in southern New Jersey U.S.A. The Mullica River - Great Bay-Little Egg Harbor estuary is relatively unaltered and has recently been designated a NOAA National Estuarine Research Reserve. Renovated in 1995, the main facility is equipped with wet and analytical laboratories, culture room, dark room, dive locker, and office space. Wet laboratories include heated and cooled sea water with controlled light cycles. RUMFS has five small vessels (17-24 ft) for work in the estuary. In addition, a dormitory was recently constructed about five miles from the RUMFS complex. The dormitory can house up to 20 students, faculty, and visiting scientists. South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico Center - Florida Keys Research Facility, Key Largo, FL The NURP Center at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington supports the most active coral reef research program in the Florida Keys. Two leased canal-front houses on Key Largo support scuba diving operations and the Aquarius undersea laboratory, located eight miles away on Conch Reef. One unit houses scientists, a workshop, two climate-controlled science labs, circulating seawater tank, and nitrox and air tank-filling facilities. The second unit serves as office space and the Aquarius workshop and storage space. Both have dockage for the Center's five research vessels ranging in size from 7-10 meters.

Long-term Ecosystem Observatory (LEO) - Larger Image - Rutgers University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have developed a Long-term Ecosystem Observatory (LEO-15) that sits 15 meters deep on the inner continental shelf of New Jersey. LEO-15 continuously monitors its environment, and it is now the focus of a broad spectrum of research sponsored by NURP's Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB) research center. Since its inception, many projects at LEO-15 have been supported with funding from the National Science Foundation, NURP, and the National Ocean Partnership Program. A dozen different sensors at LEO-15 provide real-time information. LEO's Web site receives real-time data from satellites and the in situ sensors. An electro-fiber optic cable runs along the bottom of the ocean to two submerged nodes. The nodes have profiling instruments, which measure temperature, salinity, and depth, which are controlled by scientists via the Internet onshore. For more information regarding LEO-15, please see http://marine.rutgers.edu/nurp/leo15.html.

NURP makes a variety of research submersibles available. Pisces V is owned by NURP and operated by the Hawaii & West Pacific regional center. Both subs carry a pilot and two scientists. They are capable of diving to 2000 meters. The submersible is custom equipped to accomodate a variety of mission requirements. Standard gear includes external video and still cameras, two hydraulic manipulator arms, a CTD profiler and color sonar. Pisces V's mother ship is the 253 ft. RV Ka'imikai-o-Kanaloa (RV KOK).
	With its fish bowl acrylic sphere, two scientists comfortably make observations at 920 m (3,000 ft) while inside the Johnson-Sea-Link (JSL) submersible. JSL is owned and operated by the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution (HBOI) and leased to NURP scientists.
Delta has nineteen viewing ports and can reach a depth of 370 m (1,100 ft). Owned and operated by Delta Oceanographics, the submersible is small enough to be flown by plane to research sites around the world and versatile enough to be operated from ships of opportunity.
	Alvin is a three-person deep submersible vehicle (DSV) with a depth capability of 4,500 m(14,450 ft). It is owned by the U.S. Navy, operated by the W-H-O-I and funded by the NSF, NOAA, and Navy. Alvin has taken more than 8,300 people to the deep sea on about 4,000 dives and about 20,000 hours underwater.

NURP operates undersea robots or remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) that are deployed from ships of opportunity. We provide access to a variety of ROVs some leased, some owned by the program. Our ROVs have worked from the tropics to the poles. A typical example of an ROV used for underwater science in the Kraken, owned by the NA & GL center. The Kraken has a depth capability of 940 meters (3,000 feet). The manipulator arm works like the arms and hands of a human body to pick up specimens and place them in containers. Kraken's suction samplers collect algae, animals, and sediments. The video cameras on the Kraken allow for wide angle, close up, low light images, and a 35 mm film camera with a flash allows for high resolution imaging and photography. A laser determines the size of objects underwater and a scanning sonar uses sound to view objects and organisms outside the range of the cameras.

AUVs are the most recent class of exploration technology. Independent of the surface, battery powered, and controlled by computers using various levels of artificial intelligence, these vehicles are programmed to carry out various underwater survey tasks. The Remus AUV was developed by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for NURP's Mid-Atlantic Bight Center to carry out wide area continental shelf surveys.

NURP charters a wide variety of ships to support its projects. However, one ship that is dedicated largely to NURP projects is the RV Ka'imikai-o-Kanaloa (RV KOK). In the Pacific Ocean where deep coral reefs and fishery habitats remain largely unexplored, NURP's 69 m (223 ft) support vessel KOK used with the submersibles Pisces IV & V herald a new era of deep ocean scientific research. The KOK has a "moon pool" so that navigation and communication equipment can be lowered from the laboratory to below the keel level. The ship also features a multi-beam sonar mapping system for charting the sea floor with high resolution coverage to depths of seven miles. The KOK provides facilities for 10 scientists and nine technicians as well as a ship crew of 14 persons for up to 50 days at sea. All other support ships used for NURP operations are leased from a variety of vendors.

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Art of Submersible

NOAA's Undersea Research Program
1315 East-West Highway, R/NURP
Silver Spring, MD 20910
301-713-2427, fax 301-713-1967
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