DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE (DOC)—Continued 
PROGRAM TITLE AND PURPOSE REMARKS 
Operational Equipment Observation and Evaluation 
To observe and evaluate the performance of scientific and Can use divers, submersibles, and 
operational observation, measurement, and assessment equip- habitats depending on the type of de- 
ment used by the NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteoro- vice involved. 
logical Laboratory and the NOAA National Marine Fisheries 
Service for comparison of surface and in situ methods. 
Lead agency: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 
Participating: NOAA components. 
Canyons, Sedimentation and Bottom Boundary Layer 
NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory Primarily uses divers and submersibles. 
(AOML) and Manned Undersea Science and Technology MUS&T funds facility access. 
(MUS&T) program investigations of submarine canyons as con- 
duits for materials from the Continental Shelf to deep ocean 
areas. And to study sedimentation processes on the Continental 
Shelf and margins and bottom shear stress of flat and sloping 
bottoms, on the shelf and slope and the variations in shear stress 
over time. 
Lead agency: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 
Participating: NOAA components, other Federal agencies, and 
scientists from academia. 
Undersea Facility Educational Projects 
To provide teaching institutions with the experience of building Student projects have led to habitats 
and operating undersea facilities and with the use of manned at the Universities of Rhode Island 
undersea equipment through Sea Grant. and Michigan. Sea Grant is a sup- 
porter of scientific diving and partici- 
Lead agency: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. pated with MUS&T in the Florida 
Aquanaut Research Expedition. Sea 
Participating: University of Michigan, University of Rhode Grant is limited by law in support of 
Island, University of Hawaii, and others. facilities and assets. 
Marine Geology and Geophysics 
Comprehensive oceanographic studies of currents, deep sea tides, Submersible-oriented; MUS&T  pro- 
sediments, paleotemperatures, biology, hydrography, and sea vides facility access. 
water chemistry in vicinity of selected seamounts, and the em- 
placement of bottom seismometers in studies of the Mexico 
Tectonic Plate Junction by the NOAA National Ocean Survey. 
Lead agency: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 
Participating: NOAA components, University of Hawaii, Univer- 
sity of Mexico, Scripps Institution of Oceanog- 
raphy. 
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