Scripps research vessel Roger Revelle sails again following mid-life refit

Roger Revelle, a research vessel of Scripps Institution of Oceanography of UC San Diego, has completed undergoing an 18-month mid-life upgrade program expected to extend its service life by another few decades.

The vessel has since sailed out to sea for the first time following the refit. It is currently conducting scientific research activities with an embarked team of 42 scientists and crewmembers in the Pacific while en route to its final destination of Honolulu.

The refit work on Roger Revelle entailed replacement of its six engines with four more efficient engines, replacement of the existing bow thruster with a new thruster, and installation of a ballast water system as well as desalination equipment that uses heat from the vessel’s engines to convert seawater into potable water.

Scripps said the newer engines allow the vessel to sail with considerably less noise.

The vessel has also been fitted with both new and refurbished research equipment including an extendable metal beam for collecting trace metal-free water samples, a video plankton recorder mounted on an A-frame on the aft deck, multi-beam and sub-bottom profilers, an acoustic doppler current profiler for measuring water currents, and a new ocean acidification tracking system for collecting data from the atmosphere and the sea surface.