Posted by Cherie Winner

· Wednesday, March 26th, 2014

Focusing while fully zoomed in assures best clarity when you zoom back out to see a larger field of view. (Courtesy of Peter Girguis, chief scientist, Harvard; Funding agencies: NSF, ONR, NOAA; ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

By lining up video cameras on either side of the sub during a transit, scientists can record a rolling view of the seafloor five times wider than Alvin’s basket (Courtesy of Peter Girguis, chief scientist, Harvard; Funding agencies: NSF, ONR, NOAA; ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Use the Iris setting on the camera controller to adjust exposure. In general, it is easier to "rescue" under-lit images than images that are too brightly lit. (Courtesy of Peter Girguis, chief scientist, Harvard; Funding agencies: NSF, ONR, NOAA; ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

The key to capturing good images and video underwater is lighting. Alvin’s new lights and ability to move sideways make it easier than ever to set up a great shot. (Courtesy of Peter Girguis, chief scientist, Harvard; Funding agencies: NSF, ONR, NOAA; ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Chris German, outgoing chief of the National Deep Submergence Facility at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, has prepared guidelines for making the best use of Alvin’s improved lighting, imaging, and video data collection systems. The guidelines are based on the experience of scientists who participated in the Science Verification Cruise (SVC). Read More →

Changing Times and Timeless Missions

Posted by Peter Girguis

· Wednesday, March 26th, 2014

Pilot-in-training Nathan Brown (left) and WHOI scientist Susan Humphris talk with Peter Girguis, chief scientist of the expedition and chair of the Deep Submergence Science Committee (DESSC). Humphris, Brown, and Pilot Bob Waters were on Alvin’s first dive of this cruise. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Photo credit Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Over the last 12 days a team of scientists, engineers, technicians, submersible pilots, and ship’s crew sailed into the Gulf of Mexico and took the United States’ newest research submersible, the human-occupied vehicle (HOV) Alvin, on its first scientific dives. Though the sub had been through a number of rigorous Navy certification dives to ensure that it can safely transport its occupants to and from the cold, dark deep, Alvin’s scientific equipment had yet to be thoroughly tested. Read More →

Getting Alvin Ready to Dive

Posted by Lonny Lippsett and Chris Linder

· Tuesday, March 25th, 2014

Narrated by Jefferson Grau, Alvin pilot-in-training. (Produced by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Skyping Ship to Shore

Posted by Heather Olins

· Tuesday, March 25th, 2014

Alvin Expedition Leader Bruce Strickrott answers questions from students at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS) in Cambridge, Mass., in a Skype conversation from sea. Harvard graduate student Heather Olins facilitates the discussion. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Chief Scientist Peter Girguis describes the science goals of the Alvin Science Verification Cruise to the CRLS students. In the background, Harvard graduate student Heather Olins points out an attachment point on the stern of the Alvin submarine. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Today a group of us were able to spend an hour with ~50 high school students from Cambridge, Mass., via Skype. Ship-to-shore communication is often difficult, so we were very happy that we were able to maintain video and audio connection for the entire conversation. The goal was to tell these students what we were doing out here, talk about what it’s like to work with Alvin, and more broadly what it’s like to do science at sea. Read More →

Is This the Day?

Posted by Lonny Lippsett

· Monday, March 24th, 2014

Alvin pilot Bruce Strickrott conducts pre-dive safety training with Dan MacDonald, a University of Delaware graduate student. All potential Alvin divers are fitted with Emergency Breathing Apparatus masks that are tested to ensure they seal tightly around their faces. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Duke University scientist Cindy van Dover donned her EBA in Alvin’s personnel sphere Sunday, following training protocols. When a CO₂ scrubber malfunctioned, the mission was aborted and the sub and occupants surfaced safely. (Photo by Jefferson Grau, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Every time you board an airplane, you get the speech: “In the event of a loss of cabin pressure, oxygen masks will appear …”

Alvin is similarly equipped with Emergency Breathing Apparatus, or EBAs, and pilots and scientists diving in the sub are scrupulously briefed on how to use them in case of an emergency during a dive.

Alvin Expedition Leader Bruce Strickrott has performed hundreds of these training briefings. “I think about it every time I dive: ‘Is this the day I’ll have to wear one of these?’ ” he said. Read More →

In the Ball

Posted by Lonny Lippsett and Chris Linder

· Monday, March 24th, 2014

Scientist Chris German (WHOI) and Kang Ding (University of Minnesota) take in the view from Alvin’s two new forward-looking viewports on either side of the pilot’s station. (Photo by Bruce Strickrott, WHOI; Courtesy of Peter Girguis, chief scientist, Harvard; Funding agencies: NSF, ONR, NOAA; ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Alvin Expedition Leader Bruce Strickrott demonstrates how he can stand up in the upgraded Alvin’s new larger 6.5-foot-diameter sphere, something he could never do in the old sub’s 6-foot-diameter sphere. (Photo by Kang Ding, University of Minnesota; Courtesy of Peter Girguis, chief scientist, Harvard; Funding agencies: NSF, ONR, NOAA; ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Alvin’s new sphere has padded benches and 18 percent more volume than its predecessor, adding a bit of comfort to a cramped space. On the way back to the surface, WHOI scientist Chris German makes notes. (Photo by Kang Ding, University of Minnesota; Courtesy of Peter Girguis, chief scientist, Harvard; Funding agencies: NSF, ONR, NOAA; ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

The new Alvin is also equipped with new digital controls that allow pilots to automatically, rather than manually, maintain altitude from the seafloor, speed, or a position. (Photo by Kang Ding, University of Minnesota; Courtesy of Peter Girguis, chief scientist, Harvard; Funding agencies: NSF, ONR, NOAA; ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Pilot Bob Waters, right, and University of Delaware chemist George Luther in Alvin’s new sphere, whose titanium hull is thicker than the old hull to someday extend the sub’s depth range to 6,500 meters. (Photo by Amanda Demopoulos, U.S. Geological Survey; Courtesy of Peter Girguis, chief scientist, Harvard; Funding agencies: NSF, ONR, NOAA; ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Pat Hickey, who has made more than 600 dives in Alvin, instructs Chris Lathan, an Alvin pilot-in-training. (Photo by Adam Soule, WHOI; Courtesy of Peter Girguis, chief scientist, Harvard; Funding agencies: NSF, ONR, NOAA; ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Tubeworms clusters around a crack on the Florida Escarpment, where chemical-rich groundwater seeps out into the sea. Symbiotic microbes inside the worms harvest energy from the chemicals and provide nourishment for the worms. (Photo by Adam Soule, WHOI; Courtesy of Peter Girguis, chief scientist, Harvard; Funding agencies: NSF, ONR, NOAA; ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Harvard University scientist Peter Girguis used Alvin’s manipulator arm to place a memorial plaque on the seafloor for Victoria Bertics, a former graduate student. (Photo by Peter Girguis, Harvard University; Courtesy of Peter Girguis, chief scientist, Harvard; Funding agencies: NSF, ONR, NOAA; ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

A slideshow of photos taken inside Alvin’s personnel sphere, nicknamed “the ball.”

Lighting Up the Seafloor

Posted by Lonny Lippsett and Chris Linder

· Sunday, March 23rd, 2014

Video courtesy of Peter Girguis, chief scientist, Harvard University; Funded by NSF, ONR, and NOAA; ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Production and editing by Chris Linder, WHOI)

You’ve got action: deep-sea creatures doing their things at the bottom of the ocean. You’ve got cameras: new high-definition ones on the submersible Alvin. And you’ve got new LED lights. But to achieve the best imagery, every photographer knows that you can have the best cameras, and deftly zoom and adjust apertures, but those don’t mean a thing, if the light ain’t right. Read More →

The Florida Escarpment

Posted by Lonny Lippsett

· Saturday, March 22nd, 2014

Atlantis crew members Patrick Neumann and Allison Heater were the swimmers assisting Alvin’s recovery Friday. They are about to attach safety lines to support Alvin’s payload basket before it is lifted from the water. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Alvin Expedition Leader Bruce Strickrott isn't arm wrestling with Alvin’s portside manipulator arm, but rather placing a sampling device into its gripper. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Veteran Alvin Pilot Pat Hickey, right, loads weights onto the sub with Jefferson Grau, a pilot-in-training, before Friday's dive in the Gulf of Mexico. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Pilot-in-training Jefferson Grau retrieves shoes of Pilot-in-training Chris Lathan and Alvin Pilot Pat Hickey, who dove in the sub Friday. Pilots and passengers leave their shoes behind when they dive to reduce dirt and debris inside the sub’s personnel sphere. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

WHOI marine geologist Adam Soule went straight from bed to ball (the nickname for Alvin’s personnel sphere), oversleeping before his dive Friday. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Able-bodied Seaman Patrick Neumann swims back up to the small boat dispatched from Atlantis to assist with Alvin’s recovery. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Amanda Demopoulos, a biologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, shows off deep-sea mussels collected on Friday’s dive to the Florida Escarpment. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

WHOI scientist Adam Soule used Atlantis’s multibeam sonar to create this seafloor map of Friday’s dive site on the Florida Escarpment. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

On the morning he was scheduled to dive in Alvin, Adam Soule slept soundly. So soundly, in fact, that he slept through his alarm. The Alvin Group and the ship’s crew were just about finished preparing for Friday’s dive when Soule’s roommate aboard the research vessel Atlantis, Jeff Marlow, roused him so he could make his appointment to go to the bottom of the ocean. Read More →

Alvin Science Verification Cruise

Imaging Tips for Alvin Divers

Changing Times and Timeless Missions

Getting Alvin Ready to Dive

Skyping Ship to Shore

Is This the Day?

In the Ball

Lighting Up the Seafloor

The Florida Escarpment

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