NOAAS Ronald H. Brown

The U.S. NOAA Ship "Ronald H. Brown" is a blue-water research vessel of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She was launched on May 30, 1996 at Halter Marine's Moss Point shipyard in Pascagoula (the keel being laid in February 1995) and then commissioned on July 19 in Charleston. She was NOAA's first newly built oceanographic research vessel in 17 years.

The "Brown" is named for former Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown, who was killed in a plane crash while in office. At convert|274|ft|m in length, she is the largest vessel in the NOAA fleet. The hull of the ship is ice-hardened to allow for Arctic and Antarctic research. The ship has a total of 59 bunk spaces and can seat 30 at a time in its mess room. The ship also includes a 4-bed hospital facility.She carries a complement of six NOAA Corps officers, including one medical officer, 20 crew and a maximum of 32 scientists.

The deck equipment features three winches, two fixed cranes, a portable crane, a hydrographic boom and an A-frame. This equipment gives the "Ronald H. Brown" a lifting capacity of up to convert|42000|lb|kg as well as up to convert|10000|m|ft of cable that can pull up to convert|8100|lb|kg. One of the winches is specifically for use with specialty cables such as optical fiber cables or coaxial EM Cable.

As a research vessel, a substantial amount of the ship is dedicated to laboratories. Included in the convert|4100|sqft|m2 of lab space are a computer/electronics lab, a biochemical lab and a wet lab.

In addition to its state-of-the-art oceanographic sampling capabilities, the "Ronald H. Brown" has instrumentation to study the atmosphere, including a Doppler weather radar for a better understanding of storm dynamics at sea. This combined atmospheric and oceanographic sampling capability makes the ship unique in the world's research fleet. Scientists aboard the vessel study critical environmental issues across the world's oceans. She has participated in many national and international projects since 1997. [cite web | date = February 10, 2004 | url = http://www.moc.noaa.gov/rb/visitor/proj_archive.htm | title = Project Archives | work = NOAA Ship RONALD H. BROWN | accessdate = May 9 | accessyear = 2006]

The "Ronald H. Brown" and three other research ships were all built to the same basic design. The three sister ships are "R/V Thomas G. Thompson" (UW), "R/V Roger Revelle" (Scripps) and "R/V Atlantis" (Woods Hole).

ee also

* NOAA ships and aircraft

References

External links

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