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Ready to mow

April 13, 2010

A Remote Environmental Monitoring Unit (REMUS) 6000 vehicle sits on the deck of a ship during a 2009 mission. Three REMUS 6000 vehicles, designed by the Ocean Systems Laboratory at WHOI, are being utilized in the search for the wreckage of Air France Flight 447. The vehicles use side scan sonar to map the ocean floor in long overlapping lanes, known as “mowing the lawn.” After the data from large-scale surveys are analyzed and smaller fields of interest are identified, the REMUS 6000s can gather more detailed, up-close images using high-resolution cameras.

(Photo by Mike Purcell, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)