NOAA Ship Rainier
December 1998 Featured Platform
Named for a massive volcanic cone rising 14,410 feet above sea level in Washington State, the RAINIER is the most modern and productive survey platform of its type in the world. The ship was built with capabilities for deep sea and coastal hydrography, and support of high-precision on shore surveys. RAINIER's primary mission is the acquisition of coastal hydrographic survey data for compilation into NOAA's nautical charts. In recent years, the ship has focused its charting efforts primarily in Alaska.
To acquire hydrographic data, Rainier and its survey launches are equipped with precision echo sounders, data acquisition and processing computers, Differential Global Positioning System receiver/transmitters (DGPS), Sidescan Sonar, and an assortment of bottom samplers, tide gauges, and sound velocimeters. The ship is also equipped with the Hydrochart II Intermediate Depth Swath Sounding System.
Essential to the RAINIER's mission are six 29 foot, six-ton, aluminum-hulled survey launches. The ship also carries three 19 foot small boats used for diving and shore support operations, such as the installation and removal of tide gauge and DGPS control stations.
During the 1998 field season, three RAINIER launches were outfitted with multibeam systems. These systems are ideal for shallow-water applications where high precision mapping is required because it allows the hydrographer to collect data with 100% area coverage rather than just the ocean bottom directly below the survey launch. This increased coverage will prevent the possibility of hazards between the survey lines going undetected.
This new equipment, coupled with the ship's current
systems, six survey launches and three small boats, has resulted in the
RAINIER
being the most productive survey platform of its type in the world. As
a result, today's mariner gets more accurate and safer nautical charts
than ever before. A secondary benefit of this more complete picture of
the bottom is to science. Scientists can now more accurately determine
what processes created the shape of the bottom and how the bottom may be
changing.
The
RAINIER's
implementation is the first time that several multibeam systems are used
concurrently to cover large survey areas. Projects of this type generate
massive amounts of data necessitating the use of high speed processing
computers and a one-quarter terabyte disc storage system which are located
aboard RAINIER. The data collected by the multibeam system is used
to create high resolution, three-dimensional terrain models of the ocean
floor. The picture like images of the bottom allow the hydrographer to
do an analysis of the bottom, selecting all dangers to navigation, thus
ultimately updating the nautical chart.
| Length (LOA): 70.4 m (231 ft)
Breadth: 12.8 m (42 ft) Draft: 4.4 m (14.3 ft) Displacement: 1800 tons Cruising Speed: 12 knots Range: 5,898 nm Endurance: 22 days |
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