Flying high

WHOI/MIT Joint Program student Chris Murphy tests a newly-built SeaBED autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) at the WHOI dock in 2009. The AUV, shown here without its outer “skin,” was developed in Hanumant Singh’s Lab of the WHOI Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Department. SeaBED AUVs, which can fly slowly or hover over the seafloor, have been utilized on missions ranging from shallow coral reef surveys to searches for deep sea hydrothermal vents.

(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)