Ship Operations: R/V Knorr

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Project Summary The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) requests funding for R/V Knorr operations in 2005 in support of scientific research funded by the National Science Foundation. The KNORR has a 206 day schedule in 2005, and all are in support of NSF funded research programs. This is a five year cooperative agreement, and funding for each year of the agreement will be negotiated and is dependent on the number of days at sea in support of NSF-funded research.Intellectual Merit The ship support requested in this proposal is required for the at-sea fieldwork for NSF research projects. These projects have been rigorously evaluated for scientific and intellectual merit. The highly competitive nature of the award granting process ensures a very high level of intellectual merit. The knowledge gained and the discoveries made by the research programs scheduled for Knorr in 2005 will enhance our understanding of the oceans and address a broad range of important scientific questions. The Knorr will provide researchers with the equipment, and skilled shipboard personnel, required to safely and productively pursue their scientific endeavors at sea. Broad Impact Statement The research programs supported by Knorr will be important in understanding the Earth's climate and how it changes over time, in ontrasting earthquake rupture processes between oceanic and continental fault systems, determining the processes that control water mass formation in the Southern Ocean and phytoplankton growth in the equatorial Pacific, and in understanding the formation of oceanic crust at sea floor spreading centers. These intellectual endeavors will continue to broaden our understanding of the oceans, spur new questions, and confirm scientific theory for years to come, benefiting society at large. An oceanographic expedition is in many respects an extension of the University classroom. Knorr legs are typically staffed by a diverse mix of senior and junior scientists, post-doctoral investigators, engineers, technicians and graduate and undergraduate students. These cruises are an extraordinary educational experience that expose all of these participants to new ideas, teach fundamental scientific principles through observation and practice, and inevitably raise questions that stimulate new thinking about how the oceans work. Over the past several years an increased awareness of collective responsibility to bring this science into the classroom and to the general public has resulted in the development of new avenues to share these scientific findings. The cruise web site concept has been very effective in reaching the classroom with real-time images, data and two-way communication between scientists and students in schools across the country. This effectively extends the sea-going experience from the handful of participants on a single leg to hundreds or even thousands of students in classrooms across the country, as well as to the general public. Several cruises are planning to use this tool to present their data through web-based approaches either at their home institution or through web sites maintained by community organizations (e.g. RIDGE2000). The WHOI web site (http://www.whoi.edu) has pioneered efforts to present the results of research expeditions and sea-going projects to the general public (e.g. the Dive and Discover web site: http://science.whoi.edu/DiveDiscover), and they are continuing to develop new ways of using the WHOI web site to convey the excitement and importance of sea-going research to a larger audience.