NOAA's Aquarius Marks 20 years of Service to
NOAA and the Nation
This story entered on 10th Sep, 2007 01:21:11 PM PST
NOAAs Aquarius, the planets only undersea science laboratory,
is marking 20 years of service to NOAA and the Nation this year
with a schedule that includes scientific and education missions
focused on coral reefs and associated habitat. There are three coral
reef research missions including: The Role of Sponges in Nitrogen
Cycling and Total Respiration in Coral-Reef Ecosystems and New Technology
for Dissolved Nutrient Detection (University of North Carolina Chapel
Hill and NOAA); Preliminary work for Coral Restoration and Resilience
Experiments (NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program); and If Reefs
Could Talk, the monitoring of reef communities with live education
and outreach events (NOAA's National Marine Sanctuaries Program).
Aquarius events also include two Next Generation Saturation Development
Missions as well as Development of Plans for a Joint Mobile Saturation
System able to dive on any shelf in the nation (Navy, University
of North Carolina, and NOAA).
In addition, Project SeaCAMEL is scheduled for November with live
interactive teaching and education events from the Aquarius Reef
Base (Living Oceans Foundation, Virginia Institute of Marine Science
at the College of William and Mary, and NOAA).
Aquarius is owned by NOAA and operated by the NOAA Undersea Research
Program's (NURP) Undersea Research Center at the University of North
Carolina Wilmington. To learn more about each of these missions
and to watch the action live, visit: http://www.uncw.edu/aquarius/.
A new feature allows you to take a Google Earth virtual
dive to the Aquarius Reef Base, visit: http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/technology/diving/aquarius/aquarius.html
Contact information
Name: Andy Shepard
Tel: (910) 962-2446
sheparda@uncw.edu
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