| Title | Tagline | Short Description |
|---|---|---|
| Cable | The electo-optical cable uses copper wire and optical fibers to carry power to and communications to and from the system of regional scale nodes and the shore. |
Backbone cable |
| COVE | COVE (Collaborative Ocean Visualization Environment) combines the geobrowser interfaces of such tools as Google Earth and Virtual Earth |
COVE (Collaborative Ocean Visualization Environment) |
| CTD | The conductivity-depth-temperature (CTD) takes many different kinds of ocean-water measurements and transmits the data back to the ship. |
CTD system |
| EM300 System | The EM300 is a type of sonar used to make regional maps of the seafloor. |
EM300 multibeam Echosounder |
| Gravity Corer | Knowledge of sediment types will help scientists and engineers identify the best locations for the regional observatory nodes. |
Gravity Corers |
| Importance of the Oceans | A complex set of ocean phenomena makes our planet liveable. But there are also hazards and many mysteries yet to be explored and understood. |
Importance of the Oceans |
| Mission | The primary purpose of this cruise is to map the seafloor in two areas of high scientific interest within the National Science Foundation’s Ocean Observatories Initiative. |
Cruise Mission |
| Node 1, Hydrate Ridge | Science focused around Node 1, Hydrate Ridge, is highly interdisciplinary. |
Node 1, Hydrate Ridge |
| Node 3, Axial Seamount | Axial Volcano has the most robust magma supply on the Juan de Fuca Ridge. |
Node 3, Axial Seamount |
| Nodes | The five nodes on the Regional Scale system will adapt high-voltage power and high-bandwidth communications to levels and formats useable by scientific instrumentation. |
Nodes and Cable |
| Ocean Observatories Initiative | The Ocean Observatories Initiative of the National Science Foundation will launch a new era of scientific discovery in the oceans. |
Ocean Observatory |
| Regional Scale Nodes | The Regional Scale Nodes will extend continuous high-bandwidth (tens of Gigabits/second) and power (tens of kilowatts) to a network of many different types of instruments widely distributed across, above, and below the seafloor in the northeast Pacific Ocean |
Regional Scale Nodes |
| R/V Thompson | The Research Vessel Thomas G. Thompson works throughout the world’s ocean basins and is the vessel being used for this July 2008 node survey cruise of the Ocean Observatories Initiative. |
Research Vessel Thompson |
| Sentry | Sentry is a new, state-of-the-art underwater robot that can operate independently of the ship. It will be used on this mapping cruise to conduct highly detailed bathymetric maps of the sites for RSN nodes 1 and 3. This cruise is the first formal deployment of Sentry on a working oceanographic research cruise. |
Sentry AUV |
| TowCam | The TowCam is an underwater digital camera system that will be used to take still photos of the seafloor to aid in decision making about exactly where to place the nodes. |
TowCam |