Scientific Support
Ship Support for Scientific Projects

The information provided on this page is an overview of the support that is available on the RONALD H. BROWN.
The RONALD H. BROWN is staffed with 28 operating crew, including 6 commissioned officers/mates and personnel within the Engineering, Deck, Stewards, Survey, and Electronics Departments. The primary responsibilities of the operating crew are directed toward day-to-day operations of the ship, including routine data collection and system management tasks related to the ship's configuration as a platform supporting scientific research.
The ship's operating crew routinely provides basic support services for all shipboard scientific missions, and can provide some forms of additional assistance to the scientific complement for particular project activities on a cruise-by-cruise basis.
Basic services provided by the ship's operating crew to all projects include:

Deck Department (8 personnel):

• Assistance with Initial load-out and post-cruise offloading of scientific equipment and supplies;
• Operation of deck machinery for deployment and recovery of scientific gear;
• small boat services;
• Provision of limited supplies and services for staging, securing, and destaging gear (e.g. line, lumber, straps, portable lab tables, carpentry support, etc.).

Engineering Department (6 personnel):

• Electrical connections to ship's power bus for scientific "vans" (portable labs), including power cable terminations and provision of ship-side connectors;
• Water and compressed air hookups as required

Survey Department (1 technician):

• Operation and maintenance of the NOAA fleet-standard Scientific Computing System (SCS), and its suite of permanently installed meteorological and oceanographic sensors;
• Assist with scientific instrument and sensor setup and calibrations;
• Manage underway PCO2; CIRIMS, PRP, GTD and DMS sampling systems ;
• Run Bathy 2000 bathymetric trackline and Seabeam surveys;
• Configuration of custom logging files of individual ship's sensor sets to support project needs;
• At conclusion of project provides full and custom data sets to scientific complement; archives and distributes all digital and hard copy data;
• Maintenance of files on ship's sensor calibration records;
• Routine ship's sensor maintenance tasks;
• Training and assistance on operation of ship's upper-air sounding system, autosals, CTD system, Seabeam, Bathy2000, shipboard computer network and other specialized shipboard system;
• Projects are advised to be prepared to provide their own technician to draw CTD samples, run salinities and conduct necessary salinometer calibrations. The Survey Technician will assist with this workoad on a time available basis only, especially if there is a time constraint on the analysis.

Electronics Department (1 technician):

• Operation and maintenance of shipboard electronics systems including navigation, communications, and shipboard computer network hardware and software;
• provision of IP numbers and standard software for scientific workstation setup on shipboard network;
• setup and management of ship's electronic mail system;
• custom configuration of SCS serial outputs for scientific workstations and instruments;
• maintenance and assistance on ship's CTD, Seabeam, Bathy2000, SEAS, HF radio, ADCP, real-time data transmission, special system archiving, computer hardware and software, network backups, and other specialized shipboard systems;
• consultation on specialized electronics issues on setup and troubleshooting of scientific systems.

Stewards Department (4 personnel):

• Provision of cleaning and laundry supplies, stateroom linens, and preparation of meals.

Bridge Watch (2 watchstanders per watch):

• Navigation, maintenance of underway operations and weather logs.
• Coordination of day-to-day scientific support by ship's operating crew.

Additional assistance and support of scientific projects desired of the ship's operating crew must be specified in advance within the mission project instructions, and/or in discussion with the ship's Operations Officer. Additional support needs which may arise during the course of a scientific project in the field are considered on a case-by-case basis. Every effort will be made to fully support the needs of embarked scientific projects, though it should be noted that the ship's operating crew has primary responsibilities for routine shipboard operations, serving in their individual capacities under negotiated labor contracts and under the direction of the ship's Commanding Officer.

Scientific Instrument Installation

The ship's laboratory spaces and exterior decks can accommodate a wide variety of scientific instrument and equipment installations. In most cases, setups of scientific systems are accomplished by scientific party personnel. Ship personnel may be available to assist with simple installations; these requests need to be coordinated through the Operations Officer. Certain installations may require additional support from the ship's electronics and engineering personnel, and in these cases the requirements should be fully described in the project instructions. Examples of system installations which may require additional assistance include deck-penetrating cabling or sampling tubes, special power or mechanical hookups from ship's systems, or interfacing with the SCS system.
Details to be considered should include:

• Physical space requirements (height, width, depth, weight)
• Electrical power requirements (voltage, frequency, phases, tolerances, UPS)
• Environmental concerns (temperature, humidity, corrosion, vibration, and location)
• Restrictions on normal shipboard operations which might affect the instrument (wash-down, painting, ventilation, discharges, etc.)
• Network connection requirements
• Data input requirements (sensors, navigation equipment, etc.)
• Mechanical requirements (cable installation, brackets, etc.)

Installations requiring modification to the ship and its equipment must be pre-approved by the Commanding Officer. Funding for installation and removal of science equipment is to be provided by the individual projects. Costs should cover such items as cable installation, foundations, mounting brackets, special power and interface requirements. Complex installations may require the use of an outside contractor and long lead times for preparing specifications and issuing contracts or purchase orders.

Ancillary Projects

Ship's personnel participate in ancilliary projects on a continuing, not-to-interfere basis during most projects.
Ancillary projects normally conducted aboard the RONALD H. BROWN include:

• NOAA Shipboard Environmental data Acquision System (SEAS) routine weather observations and data transmission.
• NOAA/NMFS Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle observation sighting logs.
• NOAA/NOS Bathymetric Trackline data collection and transmission per NIMA guidelines.
• WMO/ASAP upper air observation data transmission (when data is collected for primary project).
• NOAA/OAR IMET, TSG and ADCP data collection and transmission.
• NASA SeaWiFs satellite data collection and transmission.
• Nautical Publications/Charts and Weather Forecast Monitoring.

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•  URL: http://www.moc.noaa.gov/rb/science/support.htm
•  Updated: April 10, 2008