Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York/Langseth Oceanographic Instrumentation

A proposal is made to fund instrumentation on the R/V Marcus Langseth, a 235’ Global seismic vessel with general oceanographic capabilities. The vessel is owned by Columbia University and operated by Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University under a cooperative agreement with NSF. The Langseth is unique in the Academic Fleet in that it provides a combination of capabilities for imaging the oceans, the seafloor and the solid earth beneath the sea. It is the only vessel in the world dedicated to academic research that can conduct 3D seismic surveys as well as extended offset 2D surveys. The tuned, linear source array, consisting of up to 36 airguns, with a total capacity of 6,600 cu in is also unique asset of this vessel.All of the requested equipment in this proposal is for upgrading existing systems. Instrumentation requested in this proposal includes:Seamap BuoyLink 4DX GNSS Source Tracking system $224,016Cisco Meraki computer Network vessel-wide upgrade $36,135Seamap Near Field Hydrophones and HVRU $43,215 $303,366Broader ImpactsThe principal impact of the present proposal is under Merit Review Criterion 2 of the Proposal Guidelines (NSF 19-602). It provides infrastructure support for scientists to use the vessel and its shared-use instrumentation in support of their NSF-funded oceanographic research projects (which individually undergo separate review by the relevant research program of NSF). The acquisition, maintenance and operation of shared-use instrumentation allows NSF-funded researchers from any US university or lab access to working, calibrated instruments for their research, reducing the cost of that research, and expanding the base of potential researchers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.