R/V Atlantis

R/V Atlantis is seen from Easter Island, Chile. (Photo by Gary Chiljean, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Atmospheric scientist Jim Edson launches a radiosonde—an instrumented weather balloon—from R/V Atlantis. (Photo by Dave Stuebe, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

WHOI's R/V Oceanus leaves port while the R/V Atlantis prepares for its next cruise. The large tower on the bow of each vessel collects meteorological data. (Photo by Amy Kukulya, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Researchers and crew members struggle to deploy a spar buoy in rough seas during a January 2006 cruise of R/V Atlantis in the North Atlantic. The buoy measured the exchange of heat and moisture between the atmosphere and the ocean. (Photo by Terry Joyce, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

R/V Atlantis departs on another voyage from the Woods Hole dock in April 2006. The vessel is often at sea away from home port for several years.  Port calls are made in U.S. and foreign ports around the world. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

The research vessel Atlantis off Manhattan, New York in May 1997. (Photo by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

The submersible Alvin is framed by its launch/recovery system in a stern view of R/V Atlantis during a cruise off San Diego near San Clemente Island to study seafloor formation. (Photo by Christopher Knight, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

A spar buoy built in nearby shops is loaded onto R/V Atlantis for a climate cruise in the Northwest Atlantic. It was the largest piece of equipment other than the submersible Alvin to be deployed from the ship. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Senior research engineer Scott Worrilow (foreground) and boatswain Patrick Hennessy recover a sediment trap from the Pacific Ocean and return it to the deck of the research vessel Atlantis in November 2006. The trap—one of the many tools used by biologist Lauren Mullineaux and colleagues in the interdisciplinary Larval Dispersal along the Deep East Pacific Rise (LADDER) program—allows researchers to observe what type of animal larvae settle into ocean bottom waters. The biologists are trying to understand the different environmental conditions that lead different organisms to colonize different parts of the deep-ocean hydrothermal vent system. (Photo by Irene Garcia Berdeal, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Fireworks light up the sky above the Pacific Ocean on New Year's Eve 2006. Actually, the red streak was a flare fired during a safety drill. Crew members on the research vessel Atlantis instructed the science party in how to use the flares for sending a distress signal. (Photo by Patrick Ryan Jackson, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

The deep submergence vehicle Alvin slowly moves back into its hangar under the watchful eye of Expedition Leader and Alvin pilot Patrick Hickey. When not being raised or lowered into the water, the sub is moved from hangar to stern on a special track system to keep it steady and secure as its support ship Atlantis bounces around with the seas. (Photo by Christopher Knight, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

The crescent Moon watches over the painted sky of sunset in December 2006 in the equatorial Pacific Ocean off of Mexico. The A-frame of the research vessel Atlantis and the Alvin launching equipment are silhouetted by the setting sun. By the time the Sun would rose again, researchers were preparing to inject harmless sulfur hexafluoride tracers into the trough of the East Pacific Rise in order to study the mixing of water and the dispersion of larvae near a seafloor hydrothermal system. (Photo by Patrick Ryan Johnson, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)