Kongsberg DP Technician, Michael Neal, verifies input signals to the ship's dynamic positioning system after upgrades were made during the ship's dry dock period.

Kongsberg DP Technician, Michael Neal, verifies input signals to the ship's dynamic positioning system after upgrades were made during the ship's dry dock period. Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2017 Laulima O Ka Moana. Download larger version (jpg, 9.0 MB).

Day 3: Shakedown Operations Offshore of Oahu
July 9, 2017

The Laulima O Ka Moana expedition team continues shakedown operations offshore of Oahu. Today's operations focused on calibrating the Ultra Short Base Line (USBL) acoustic navigation system – a system that uses sonar to track and record the position of the remotely operated vehicles at depth relative to the ship during a dive. In the afternoon, a test CTD (Conductivity, Temperature, Depth) cast was conducted down to 760 meters (2,493 feet) to compare data against an expendable bathythermograph (XBT) cast that was also conducted. However, during the upcast, the connection to the CTD failed. In the evening, additional Dynamic Positioning testing and training was conducted with onboard personnel. Overnight operations will include running a test survey with the multibeam sonar.