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Topping it All Off

In February, R/V Neil Armstrong spent some time in a shipyard in Charleston, S.C., to have its scientific equipment installed, including a satellite antenna, shown here. Most of its sensors are hidden out of sight in the very bottom of the ship. These include two multibeam sonars optimized for different water depths, three separate acoustic doppler current profilers for studying the movement of water, and a multi-frequency mid-water echosounder to image fish and other organisms beneath the surface. On Wednesday, Neil Armstrong arrives in Woods Hole for the first time in preparation for the start of its science missions this spring.

(Photo by Dave Wellwood, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)