Traveling the globe with NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown
NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown, one of the 16 ships in the NOAA fleet operated, managed and maintained by the NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, is NOAA’s only global-class oceanographic research vessel. It is also the largest and most well-traveled NOAA ship.
According to the ship’s commanding officer, NOAA Corps Captain Robert Kamphaus, the ship has been deployed from its Charleston, South Carolina homeport for more than three years. "It's an unprecedented deployment,” said Kamphaus.
The ship’s endurance, versatility and highly-trained crew are what allow it to be such an asset. Researchers use numerous on-board instruments to collect and assess scientific data from above and below the ocean’s surface, allowing them to simultaneously study the atmosphere and the ocean to increase our understanding of global climatic and other environmental changes.
The Brown spent more than 680 days at sea during its most recent deployment, surveying more than 192,000 square nautical miles, and visiting more than 30 ports and eight foreign countries, including Iceland, Barbados and Portugal. Pictures are worth 1,000 words, so this time we’ll let them tell the story.
NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown crew members service a Tropical Atmosphere Ocean buoy in October 2014.
NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown alongside in Pago Pago, American Samoa, in October 2014.
NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown crew members deploy an instrument that measures water conductivity, temperature and depth in the Gulf of Alaska in June 2016.
NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown crew members recover buoys in the Gulf of Alaska in June 2016.
- Contributed by Brandon Baylor
