Martin & Riener Contract Clients

C & C Technologies, Inc.

Set-up, operation, and maintenance of sidescan sonar equipment for cable-route survey, Kodiak - Dutch Harbor, Alaska, May - July 2011.

Specifics of work: Equipment used include Benthos C3D and SIS-1000, POS/MV and Cnav GNSS, Ixsea GAPS USBL, SeaBird CTD, and DT winches. Software used included Isis, SonarWiz, Hypack, and verious utilities. Partner Peter Martin provided general technical support and field engineer services; partner Karen Riener served as navigator. Work involved considerable component-level electronic improvisation as well as IT improvisation.

Point of contact for reference: Richard McGee, Manager, West Coast Division, or Mark Amend, Senior Technical Manager, C & C Technologies West Coast Division, Bothell, Washington, +1 425 408 9190.

Paterson Pitts Group

Pro-bono technical consultancy establishing hydrographic survey capability for this long-established land survey firm, March - April 2010 and November 2010 - February 2011.

Specifics of work: Equipment and software interfaced included Ohmex SonarMite single beam echosounder, Ross single-beam echosounder, Trimble RTK GPS equipment and data-acquisition- and processing software, CHC GNSS equipment, Carlson survey software, Starfish sidescan equipment (and associated Scanline software), Hypack, and YoNav II survey planning software. Work included development of mathematical methods latency analysis using Octave and other programming tools. Solved both hardware and software problems in Blutooth and other serial communications between devices (including fabrication of data communications cables), solution of problems with software applications incompatibilities, and digital cartographic work obtaining and geo-referencing images for use in the YoNav II and Hypack navigation software.

Point of contact for reference: Nigel Pitts, senior partner, or Peter Knight, hydrographer, +64 3 477-3245.

Seafloor Systems Inc.

• Estuarine survey and associated data processing, July - September 2010. Bathymetric and sidescan data were collected at Eagle River and Bay, Fort Richardson, Alaska, for the University of Colorado and the U.S. Army, for the purpose of characterizing Beluga whale habitat.
• Multibeam survey of Lake Huron ridge, May - June 2010, for University of Michigan and NOAA, in connection with archaeological study of prehistoric human occupation when lake levels were lower.
• Pro-bono work, August-September 2009, in connection with Seafloor Systems' cooperation with Williamson & Associates in the performance of hydrographic survey contracts for NOAA. Task was to convert CTD data files that had been inadvertently collected in "narrow-range" conductivity mode.
• Multibeam and sidescan survey at three sites in the Gulf of Mexico, for the purposes of studying mudflows and comparing three multibeam systems and one sidescan/sub-bottom sonar system, June 2007 and again February 2009. Project funded primarily by Office of Naval Research but including investigators from the academic sector.
• Pipe route surveys, both deep- and shallow water, for Capital Signal Company aboard 32-ft launch and 150-ft survey vessel operating near Trinidad & Tobago, southeastern Caribbean, December 2007 and January 2008.
• Equipment setup and operator training for inland bathymetric survey at Chacamauga Lake and Dam, near Chattanooga, Tennessee.
• Near-shore and shore survey work with Global Remote Sensing, Inc., for communication cable landing sites near Juneau, Seward, and Kodiak, Alaska. Small-scale operation done by two surveyors and two crew using 10-meter boat.

  Specifics of work: Sonar data acquisition equipment used has included Teledyne-Benthos C3D interferometric sonar, several Kongsberg-Simrad multibeam systems, and a variety of GPS and IMU equipment. Software used for data collection and processing has included the Hypack Suite, Isis, Kongsberg-Simrad SIS, and a great variety of general mathematical- and image-processing tools including Octave and Matlab, UNIX tools such as AWK, and Photoshop, Excel, etc. Data-conversion work involved physical-oceanographic considerations of the problems, deriving the mathematics of proper conversion, and writing AWK script and C programs to convert the originally-recorded data files. Work in Alaska included mechanical design of vessel equipment mounts as well as interfacing of Teledyne-Benthos C3D sonar, Coda-Octopus F180 navigation gear, Timenet time server, Leica RTK survey equipment, Valeport tide gauge, and other equipment, in a first-time site/vessel deployment. Follow-up data processing work included sophisticated mathematical modeling of tides (~30 ft amplitude) to correct for operational errors and to improve bathymetric accuracy. Work in the Gulf of Mexico included setup, operation, and extensive field engineering work on Kongsber-Simrad EM 710, EM 1002, EM 2000, and EM 3002 multibeam systems, associated SIS acquisition software; Benthos SIS-1000 sidescan/sub-bottom system (and associated Isis acquisition software); Coda F-180 GPS/MRU. Work involved power supply engineering, firmware modification, and both analog- and digital electronics repairs and modifications to sonar systems, and electrical and mechanical work on hydraulic winch. For survey work in southeast Caribbean, worked with Benthos 1624, Edgetech 4200, and Geoacoustics sidescan sonars, Geometrics 881 and 882 magnetometers, Kongsberg/Simrad MRUs, Reson 8125 multibeam sonar, and many other systems whose hardware and software required considerable attention. Inland work in Tennessee included interfacing Benthos C3D sonar, Hypack software, Seatex MRU, and CSI Vector GPS/heading sensor. Equipment used for cable landing surveys in Alaska included Reson 8111 multibeam sonar, Applanix POS/MV navigation system, Geoacoustics 159 dual-frequency and Datasonics SIS-1000 sidescan and sub-bottom sonars, and Seabird Electronics SBE 19 CTD; beach topographic survey was accomplished using Ashtech RTK survey equipment with Pacific Data Link radio modems. In general these jobs demanded electronic-technical as well as mechanical resourcefulness.

Points of contact for reference: John Tamplin, president, or Tyler Brouillette, vice-president, Seafloor Systems Inc., +1 916-933-8085; Michael Davis, University of Colorado / U.S. Army, Fort Richardson, +1 907-384-0538; Straud Armstrong, engineer, Teledyne-Benthos, +1 508-564-1158; Richard McGee, president, Global Remote Sensing, Inc., +1 206-5687683.

Aquatics Environmental Services, Inc.

• Ongoing cooperative R&D in several areas of hydrographic data processing.
• Lidar surveys and hydrographic surveys on the Red River in southern Manitoba, October 2009.
• Hydrographic surveys in cooperation with Canadian Hydrographic Service on reservoirs and lakes in southeastern Ontario, October 2008.
• Engineering survey of bridge columns in Vancouver, British Columbia, September 2008.
• Marine coastal geological survey in Mackenzie delta, Canadian arctic, August 2008.
• Bathymetric survey of channels of the lower Mackenzie River in the Canadian arctic, July and August 2007.

  Specifics of work: Lidar work was proof-of-capability shoreline survey using vessel-mounted Riegl laser scanner together with POS/MV navigation augmented with cellular-network differential corrections. Work included setup and interfacing of instrumentation as well as data-processing work with "trajectory" (position and attitude) files using UNIX AWK. Bathymetric- and sidescan survey was accomplished using Hypack/Hysweep software and Benthos C3D pole-mounted on 36-ft aluminum catamaran survey vessel and on 32-ft aluminum monohull survey vessel, and using Ross Sweep system of single-beam transducers on a unique shallow-water rib boat with floating transducer booms, and on a jet-ski watercraft outfitted with single-beam sonar, on-board computer and GPS. Navigation was by Leica RTK and Pacific Crest radio modems in conjunction with POS/MV MRU in the case of the multibeam survey boat, and in conjunction with Seatex MRU and CSI Vector Sensor in the case of shallow-water sweep boat. Work included electronic, mechanical, and software aspects of setup, standard remote-area river survey and boat operations, and data processing using Hypack multibeam editor. Certain software errors relating to motion-correction of sonar data, affecting a great number of users in the hydrographic community, were discovered and correction software was written in C programming language, after an interim correction was developed using UNIX utilities. The jobs incidentally included some boat-electrical and mechanical work on Volvo Penta mains and generator engine.

Point of contact for reference: Darwin Monita, president, Aquatics Environmental Systems, Inc., +1 204-296-5664. Also Keith Weaver, Canadian Hydrographic Service, +1.905-336-4657, or Steve Solomon, Natural Resources Canada, +1.902-2092713.

Raytheon Polar Services Company
and Antarctic Support Associates

• Work aboard the Work aboard the Nathaniel B. Palmer has been primarily in the capacity of electronics technician. Systems supported in the course of five cruises included physical oceanographic, acoustic, geophysical (gravity & magnetics), seismic, meteorological, and satellite-based remote-sensing, communication, and navigation.
• Work aboard the Work aboard the Laurence M. Gould has been in the capacity of electronics technician with additional responsibilities of computer network maintenance and some data processing and production of maps, using UNIX scripting tools, GMT, and common GIS and image-processing programs.

  Specifics of work: Most recent contract was September - October 2006 in port Lyttleton, New Zealand, installing new Teledyne multi-channel seismic equipment (interfacing it to Oyo data-acquisition equipment and Syntron air-gun control equipment) and component-level repair and tune-up of Datasonics (Benthos) SIS-1000 sidescan sonar system. Other equipment set up, operated, and maintained on several research cruises between 1998 and present has included various models of SeaBird CTD and associated instruments such as WetLabs transmissometers, Chelsea fluorometers, sound-velocity probes, etc. ; Knudsen and Bathy single-beam and SeaBeam multibeam sonar; Eppley and Bioshpherical radiometers, R.M. Young meteorological instrumentation; biological oceanography instrumentation including HTI sonars and MOCNESS net sampling systems.

Point of contact for reference: Jim Holik, manager, Marine Science, +1 720-5682129, Bruce Felix or Andy Nunn, marine technician supervisors, +1 720-5682348, or Jesse Doren, marine operations supervisor, +1 720-5682126. Links to recent evaluations: by Marine Project Coordinator and by Marine Electronics Tech Supervisor.

Williamson & Associates

• General electronic-technical and operational support, at sea and at home office. Work has included interferometric sidescan sonar seafloor surveys, magnetometry, seafloor surveys using in-house developed resistivity and electric-field instruments and cone penetrometer, and experimentation in land-based passive seismic geophysics.
• Hydrographic survey in cooperation with Science Applications International Corporation (see below).

  Specifics of work: Interferometric sidescan survey equipment includes 30- 60- and 120 kHz analog systems, the electronic details of which became quite familiar to me. Worked with Ultra Short Baseline Array positioning systems involving chase boats and data radio links. Much reverse-engineering and improvisation done on various electronics, including SeaSpy magnetometers, RF equipment, and general power- and signal interfaces.

Point of contact for reference: Art Wright, Survey Manager, or Mike Williamson, President. +1 206-2858273; also Doug Hrvoic, president, Marine Magnetics, Inc., +1 905-7093135.

Science Applications International Corporation.

• Hydrography for NOAA coastal navigation charts (New Jersey and Lousiana), using Klein sidescan sonar , Reson multibeam sonar , and TSS POS/MV positioning, integrated by SAIC's ISS survey software and SABRE date processing software. Services were contracted through Williamson & Associates (see above).

Specifics of work: Routine work in three contract periods included shallow-water sidescan "flying" and multibeam control and data management, and data processing primarily comprising "ping editing" and target identification. Atlantic coast work was from mid-size work boat; Gulf of Mexico work was from large survey vessel with two auxiliary survey boats. Non-routine work included typical electronic and mechanical (including 15 kW generator) trouble-shooting, and a bit of diving under hull.

Point of contact for reference: Paul Donaldson or Gary Parker, project lead hydrographers.

MicroSeismic Inc.

• Field engineering and computer setup work in emission and transmission tomography, using Reftek and Kinemetrics recording instruments to collect passive and induced microseismic data with directional arrays.

Specifics of work: Portable photovoltaic-powered seismic recording stations were set up in the field on two separate jobs (northwest Utah and northern Alberta), 2003 and 2004. Work was for a starting-venture company, so improvisation an resourcefulness was required on both the hardware- and software end of things.

POC for reference: Herbert Barrow, Geologist.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

• Electronic-technical and operational support of GLOBEC III cruise, BIOMAPER II operations. This towed vehicle carries a system of five up-looking and five down-looking sonar transducers built by Hydroacoustics Technology Incorporated; a two-camera Video Plankton Recorder; and sensors for conductivity, temperature, depth, light transmissivity, and fluorometry, along with vehicle attitude telemetry.

  Specifics of work: Work was aboard the NSF Antarctic research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer, in 2002., and included science watch-standing as well as equipment maintenance. Karen Riener assisted researcher in the investigation of the acoustic properties of krill.

POC for reference: Peter Wiebe, Senior Scientist, or Carin Ashjian, Associate Scientist, Biology, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Oregon State University   College of Oceanographic & Atmospheric Sciences

• Voluntary participation in setup, training, and testing of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle built by Bluefin Robotics, Inc. This vehicle carries several Wetlabs optical instruments as well as CTD and microstructure instruments. Relatively short-range tracking is accomplished via an ORE LXT Ultra-Short Base Line array system. Vehicle navigation is by dead-reckoning between on-board gps fixes obtained upon surfacing. Communication from vessel to vehicle is possible via Freewave UHF spread-spectrum radio modem.

POC for reference: Tim Boyd, Research Associate, or Hemantha Wijesekera, Physical Oceanography Research Faculty.

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University

• Radio Officer services aboard R/V Maurice Ewing, 1991-1996, worldwide, equatorial - polar.

  Specifics of work: The position was to fulfill the former requirements that vessels carry USCG/ FCC- licenced radio officers/radiotelegraph operators. My qualifications allowed me to work on ship radar and navigation equipment as well as RF communication equipment. Carried on amateur-radio HF communications occasionally for benefit of crew. Self-taught a great deal about computers, programming, and digital electronics.

POC for reference: Joseph Stennett, Science Officer, or Paul Ljunggren, Marine Superintendent.

U.S.D.A. Forest Service

• Wallowa-Whitman National Forest --Hydrology: Stream temperature and discharge measurements.
• Tongass National Forest --Maintenance and construction work on trails, cabins, airstrips and recreation areas.
• Okanogan National Forest --Trail maintenance, Pasayten Wilderness.
• Cherokee National Forest --Maintenance of trails.
• Santa Fe National Forest --Fire lookout service, Barrillas Peak and Clara Peak lookouts.
• Ochoco National Forest --Fire lookout service, Wolf Mountain lookout.
• Plumas National Forest --Fire lookout service.

U.S.D.I. National Park Service

• Glacier Bay National Park --Maintenance of cabin and airstrip.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

• Boundary survey work, Millwood Reservoir, Arkansas.