Wreck 1487; SE of Nantucket

Source report excerpt: “The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) is sending a Long Range Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (LRAUV) designed to detect potential oil spills on a test run to a known sunken vessel that is actively leaking. The LRAUV, “Polaris” will travel to a known shipwreck labeled “Wreck1487”, approximately 70nm south of Nantucket, to test the sensitivity of an optical sensor and then see how well WHOI’s adaptive mission survey can sniff out and map out an oil plume. The frequently (potentially constantly) leaking wreck will hopefully serve as a real-world proxy. Data will be collected from the following sensors: Up/down 1200 kHz ADCP (RDI) SeaOWL Wetlabs ecopuck Seabird glider payload CTD with […]”

Source report excerpt: “The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) long-range autonomous underwater vehicle (LRAUV) "Polaris" arrived on-scene at the Wreck 1487 site in the early hours of 24 Jan 2022. The site is approximately 70 nm south of Nantucket. The USCG assisted WHOI in launching the LRAUV to save transit time and battery power. After launch, several calibration tests were completed, and then it took a few days for the LRAUV to transit to the research site. Durign the trip, WHOI identified, but was able to isolate, and ground fault error that could have potentially jeopardized its mission. Once on scene, the LRAUV began grid pattern searches through the area looking to identify or "sniff out" […]”

Source report excerpt: “Information from the LRAUV mission can be seen near real-time on a publicly accessible website. 1. Once on the website, click the "Dash4" tab. 2. Click the + button to select a vehicle. Click on the word "polaris" to access the log and data. 3. The "log" tab shows actions taken by WHOI LRAUV pilots and mission planners. 4. Click on the "data" tab to see data that is being gathered and in the various formats it is being displayed and summarized. Some of this data is being incorporated and displayed in ERMA.”