Rolling Deck to Repository (R2R) 2014-2019

DESCRIPTION: The National Science Foundation supports a fleet of oceanographic research vessels that operate worldwide and year-round in service to the U.S. academic research and education community. Each vessel routinely operates a suite of “underway” environmental sensors that collect oceanographic, geophysical, meteorological, and navigational data, as well as supporting sampling programs, specialized instruments, and submersible operations. Investigations across a full range of ocean science disciplines are supported, from impacts of global change on ocean chemistry and ecosystems, to the structure and dynamics of ocean circulation, to the nature of volcanic and earthquake processes at the global plate boundaries. In 2009, NSF funded the initiation of the Rolling Deck to Repository (R2R) program, whose mission is to document and preserve the underway data from every cruise in the U.S. academic research fleet, assess the quality of high value datatypes and provide feedback to operators; create standard quality-controlled products including shiptrack navigation, geophysical profiles, and real-time meteorology; and develop an Eventlogger application to document at-sea operations. The current award has supported the transition of the R2R Program from a “development” focus to an “operational” focus as well as the continued provision of R2R data services for cruises of the academic fleet from 2014 through 2018.

OUTCOMES: The searchable R2R Cruise Catalog and access to other data services are provided through: www.rvdata.us R2R products and services are designed to benefit key stakeholders including vessel operators, research scientists, cyberinfrastructure developers, funding agencies, and the general public. R2R provides tools and feedback to help marine technicians improve data quality and documentation at sea, and frees them from the need to maintain an institutional data archive. The R2R central cruise catalog for the academic fleet ensures that original field data from every cruise are routinely preserved and disseminated; improves access for scientists and the public; and has simplified funding agency efforts to enforce data sharing requirements. Standardization of data acquisition procedures across the fleet facilitate integration with observations from other platforms, while enabling new synthesis efforts for a global ocean that is vast and sparsely explored.