NEW CASTLE, N.H., — A new ship has arrived at the docks by the Coast Guard station here, one that will chart the future of navigation for years to come.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's newest coastal mapping vessel, the Fredinand R. Hassler commissioned in 2012, will be homeported at the Judd Gregg Marine Reseach Complex.
From there, it is expected to chart the sea floor up and down the East Coast, but will pay particular attention to the Northeast, including a wide swath of the Seacoast.
The 124-foot catamaran-style boat contains the most sophisticated mapping equipment in use today, NOAA Lt. Cmdr. Benjamin Evans said on Friday. Its multi-beam echo sounder can sweep a 120-degree swath of ocean floor, taking more than 1,000 individual depth measurements.
The information is then translated onto a computer screen in three dimensions, using equipment developed at the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire.
The system, called CUBE, “assesses what is real and predicts an accurate view of the ocean floor,” Evans said. “It will give you its assessment of what it sees and then say to us humans, 'You really need to look harder here.'”
It is the UNH center that was the reason NOAA decided to homeport the Hassler in New Castle, Evans said. The center is considered a national leader for excellence in ocean mapping, and many of its graduate school students are crewmembers aboard the Hassler and NOAA's other three mapping vessels, he said.