NOAA Exploration Command Center Highlights Strong Partnerships

May 1, 2012

In April, the White House blog invited Web viewers to explore deep-sea habitats in the Gulf of Mexico live from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) Okeanos Explorer when it featured the ship's Gulf of Mexico 2012 expedition. These exploration activities provide an understanding of the ocean through research in accordance with President Obama's National Ocean Policy Draft Implementation Plan.

Thanks to a long-standing partnership between Mississippi State University and NOAA, scientists at Stennis Space Center, MS could do more than just see the Gulf's hidden world via video. They were able to actually communicate with the scientists on Okeanos in real-time as they watched the amazing images being transmitted.

The new Mississippi State University Science and Technology Center at Stennis is now home to the only NOAA Exploration Command Center in the Southeast. An Exploration Command Center is a state-of-the-art communication hub that provides a two-way communication system that allows scientists on research vessels at sea to collaborate with scientists on shore as they all view live, high-definition video streams of secrets of the sea.

The Mississippi State University High Performance Computing Collaboratory and NOAA's National Coastal Data Development Center (a division of NOAA's National Oceanographic Data Center) provided technical support for the team effort that made this new Exploration Command Center possible. The Northern Gulf Institute, a NOAA cooperative institute, participated with NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration and Research to coordinate the first use at Stennis of this cutting-edge technology during the Okeanos Explorer's expedition.

"The Mississippi State University of Science and Technology Center at Stennis is the perfect place to house the new NOAA Exploration Command Center," said Dr. Steve Ashby, associate director of the Northern Gulf Institute. "Stennis is known for innovative research and collaboration among its agencies. We were able to set up the Exploration Command Center very quickly because Mississippi State and NOAA work well together here. This is a good example of the kind of cooperation that exists at Stennis."

The Exploration Command Center at Stennis is only the seventh in the United States. Development of NOAA Exploration Command Centers began in 2003 when NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration partnered with the Institute for Exploration to develop an operating model for scientists to participate in ocean exploration through "telepresence technology." This technology, now used in Exploration Command Centers and elsewhere, allows scientists aboard the Okeanos Explorer and the Ocean Exploration Trust Vessel Nautilus to be in constant contact with shore-based scientists through a combination of high-definition cameras, remotely operated underwater vehicles and state-of-the-art networking.

"The key is that this method of communication offers a unique, real-time data exchange that enables the shipboard science party to 'reach back' to scientists on shore to take advantage of a broader range of expertise," said Russell Beard, director of NOAA's National Coastal Data Development Center.

Scientists from several Federal agencies and universities across the region travelled to Stennis to collaborate with the scientists onboard the Okeanos during the Gulf of Mexico 2012 expedition. Visit the Okeanos Explorer Web site for more information about the expedition, including videos and high definition photos from the depths of the Gulf.