Multimedia Gallery
Sentry Meets Alvin (Image 1)
The National Deep Submergence Facility's (NDSF) new autonomous underwater vehicle Sentry meets the submersible Alvin during a testing expedition off Bermuda in April 2006. Sentry is a robotic underwater vehicle used for exploring the deep ocean. It will often be used to complement Alvin by surveying large swaths of ocean floor to determine the best spots for close-up exploration. Sentry is slated to join the NDSF in 2008. The National Science Foundation supported the building of Sentry (under grant OCE 06-44290), up to but not including the final trials cruise in April 2008, which was supported by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institutions Access to the Sea program.
NDSF is hosted at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) who, since 1964, has operated deep-sea exploration vehicles for the benefit of the entire U.S. oceanographic community. NDSF is a federally funded center that operates, maintains and coordinates the use of three vital deep ocean vehicles: the human occupied vehicle (HOV) Alvin, the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Jason/Medea, and the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) ABE/Sentry. Whether diving 4,500 meters (14,764 feet) or remaining submerged for several days, each vehicle offers unique tools to explore the mysteries beneath the ocean's surface.
The NDSF is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The operation is managed by WHOI and overseen by the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS), an organization of 62 academic institutions and national laboratories involved in marine research. (Date of Image: April 2008) [See related image Here.]
Credit: Chris German, WHOI
Special Restrictions: Permission must be granted prior to using this image. To request permission to use this image, or to request a high resolution version of this image, contact the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution media office at media@whoi.edu.
Images and other media in the National Science Foundation Multimedia Gallery are available for use in print and electronic material by NSF employees, members of the media, university staff, teachers and the general public. All media in the gallery are intended for personal, educational and nonprofit/non-commercial use only.
Images credited to the National Science Foundation, a federal agency, are in the public domain. The images were created by employees of the United States Government as part of their official duties or prepared by contractors as "works for hire" for NSF. You may freely use NSF-credited images and, at your discretion, credit NSF with a "Courtesy: National Science Foundation" notation.
Additional information about general usage can be found in Conditions.
Also Available:
Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (120 KB)
Use your mouse to right-click (Mac users may need to Ctrl-click) the link above and choose the option that will save the file or target to your computer.