Floating Lab 

Our work on R/V Melville was part of a research program to develop and test instrumentation for studies of the upper ocean. In Hawaii, we studied ocean eddies, surface waves, and measured the background underwater sounds created by breaking surface waves. We deployed the instruments in June 2008 and recovered them on a subsequent trip in July 2008. We deployed similar instruments into Hurricane Frances in 2004 to study how the ocean and air interact during a tropical storm, information critical for predicting hurricane strength and its impact below the ocean surface.

— Eric Terrill, Director of the Coastal Observing Research and Development Center at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego