Mouth of the Columbia River Experiment

CMOP completed a week of support for the "Mouth of the Columbia River Experiment" funded by the Office of Naval Research. The SATURN collaboratory provided scientists with daily forecasts and real-time data from sensors at several observation stations in the estuary. Craig McNeil and his team from APL-UW conducted studies with an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV).

McNeil's team sent the AUV through the mouth of the Columbia River on several ebb tides to study currents and mixing, identify oceanographic features (liftoff point, internal waves, eddies/rolls/boils), and suspended sediment distributions. I went out with the them to capture the action as the AUV was retrieved from Columbia River Bar. Not the easiest task to perform on the ocean. The video is to let you experience how intense it can get retrieving a hugely expensive piece of scientific gear.

Want to know more about about AUVs? Read an article I wrote titled Underwater Robotics Succeed In Unlikely Place