Archive for Adam Soule

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 
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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 →

Tweaks and Troubleshooting

Posted by Lonny Lippsett 
· Friday, March 21st, 2014 
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Peter Girguis, chief scientist of the Alvin Science Verification Cruise, stands before the sub during nighttime tests of the sub's lighting. Scientists and engineers are experimenting with adding and positioning lights to optimize Alvin's imaging capabilities. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
On Thursday, scientists on the Alvin Verification Cruise adjusted high-intensity LED lights on the sub’s “brow” and just above the forward viewports (not seen in this drawing) to perfect the lighting so they can obtain sharp, shadow- and glare-free photos and videos from the sub. (Illustration by E. Paul Oberlander, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

The whole objective of this research cruise is to test a newly rebuilt Alvin equipped with upgraded systems that had never been used before by scientists under field conditions. Scientists and engineers expected hiccups and learning curves. After four test dives of Alvin, it was time to tweak, troubleshoot, and optimize. Read More →

About

From March 14 to 26, Peter Girguis, chair of DESSC (DEep Submergence Science Committee), will lead a group of scientists, including many veteran Alvin divers, from a host of research institutions to “road-test” the new vehicle on an expedition in the Gulf of Mexico. More »

More about

HOV Alvin
Alvin Upgrade
Rebuilding Alvin from Oceanus magazine

Participating Organizations

National Science Foundation
Office of Naval Research
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
   Administration
University-National Oceanographic
   Laboratory System
National Deep Submergence Facility
DEep Submergence Science Committee
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Alvin Science Verification Cruise
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