So Long, Nancy Foster!

[Billy Bones]

This afternoon the mission ended and I went out to pick up one of our biologists and a researcher who was headed back home to NC.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid104/peb01ad6cc94a99dc197922d28748a393/f98b6c82.jpg

Once everyone was aboard I was handed a clutch of printouts of some of the preliminary underwater maps. Fascinating were some of the sonar images of known mooring blocks and wrecks! The shelf edge maps had lots of drama, but many data dropouts which can be fixed when combined with other passes. Preliminary results are pretty exciting, at least from my 'geee-whizzz' perspective. I leave more substantive analyses to my wife and others.

Pulling away from the ship before she makes her last video pass w-->e past Buck Island, through the monument, I caught this image, sun setting behind and ship and park ahead...

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid104/p92f298365b83660aef1bb761e9ad8dd8/f98b6dfd.jpg

From here she's off to St. John for similar work in their park.

I hope everyone enjoyed this series. I thought that if nothing else, others might enjoy seeing some warm ocean (76degF) this time of year.

NOAA has been very good about putting out data products FAST and on the web. If/when they do that I'll follow up here with a link.

Cheers,

Billy

[ 02-24-2004, 01:17 PM: Message edited by: Billy Bones ]

[Alan D. Hyde]

Thanks for taking the trouble to put together an excellent series of posts.

Alan

[Tom Lathrop]

Billy, Thanks for the look at the Nancy Foster and update on the work she is doing. I was curious about why NOAA was doing that work in light of pressing needs for survey work in continental USA so I asked my son, who is an oceanographer with NOAA about it. This is what he said.

"The Nancy Foster replaced the old Ferrel. She's not one of our regular hydrographic platforms, but a sort of jack-of-all-trades small oceanographic ship. She does not do any work directed from NOAA headquarters in this office.

In a typical year, she may conduct a dozen or more small projects, as opposed to a few large ones like the ships that I have worked on.
Usually a visiting scientist will lead the operations, while the officers and crew operate the vessel and provide support."

http://www.moc.noaa.gov/nf/index.html

So, I guess she operates with funding from other than NOAA sources. Just as well, since they have been having budget difficulties with much of the survey work being outsourced (that word again) to private contractors.

[PaulC]

Yes, it was a very interesting group of posts. Thanks