EX2102: 2021 Technology Demonstration (AUV & Mapping)

From May 14-27, 2021, NOAA Ocean Exploration led the 2021 Technology Demonstration on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to Norfolk, Virginia. The expedition provided an opportunity to test several technologies that will allow the ocean exploration community to explore deeper, farther, and more comprehensively than previously possible. The expedition brought together NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Science Center, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA JPL), the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and the Inner Space Center/University of Rhode Island (ISC/URO) to advance new ocean technologies and sampling techniques. The expedition had three overall objectives; field testing and engineering readiness of WHOI/NASA JPL Oprheus autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV), piloting environmental DNA (eDNA) collection for NOAA Ocean Exploration and mapping priority deepwater areas offshore the U.S. Southeast, largely focused on the Blake Plateau. The Orpheus AUV project was the first Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute supported project to take place on a NOAA ship. During 14 days at sea 8 AUV deployments were completed between 12 and 866 meters in depth. Over 724 GB of downlooking AUV 4K video were collected. The AUVs surveyed 30 linear kilometers of seafloor and logged over 16 hours of bottom time. The AUVs spent a total of 32 hours 59 minutes in the water, which included autonomous water column exploration. Twelve CTD rosette casts were completed, most simultaneous with AUV operations. Using the Niskin bottles on the CTD rosette, 120 water samples were collected for post-cruise eDNA analysis. A detailed standard operating procedures document for eDNA collection was developed during the expedition. Exploration mapping operations included acoustic data collection using the EM 304 MKII multibeam echosounder, Simrad EK60/80 split-beam echosounders, Knudsen sub-bottom profiler and Acoustic Doppler Profilers. 8,703 square kilometers of largely unmapped seafloor were mapped using the EM 304 with 8,519 square kilometers being within the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone and Territorial Sea deeper than 200 m. All operations and data collected were in U.S. waters. EX-21-02 took full advantage of the additional reach afforded by a world that has shifted towards virtual interactions as the norm. By increasing accessibility through free, virtual, and public formats, the team was able to interact with far greater numbers than has been typical in the past.