Technology demonstration expeditions provide an opportunity to test new technologies or applications that will allow the ocean exploration community to explore deeper, farther, and more comprehensively than previously possible. Such expeditions are vital for the advancement of the ocean exploration field in our collective endeavor to explore, map, and understand the vast ocean realm.
During one such expedition, the 2021 Technology Demonstration, 24-hour-a-day operations on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer focused on field engineering trials of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s new Orpheus class of autonomous underwater vehicles, piloting NOAA Ocean Exploration’s environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling protocols, regular CTD (conductivity, temperature, and depth) rosette casts, and acoustic mapping of the seafloor and water column with the new EM 304 multibeam and deepwater sonar suite on the ship.
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Video courtesy of NOAA Ocean Exploration, 2021 Technology Demonstration.