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Oden crane and basket retrieving a transponder.

Oden crane and basket retrieving a transponder.
Oden crane and basket retrieving a transponder.
Oden crane and basket retrieving a transponder.
Oden crane and basket retrieving a transponder.
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75369
Linder, Christopher
Oden crane and basket retrieving a transponder.
Still Image
09/11/2007
graphics/agave2/cl_20070731_agave07_transponders_022.jpg
Daffodils and robins are the first signs of spring-in New England, at least. On research cruises, one of the first signs that you are soon headed home is "popping" a transponder. They were the devices used to send and receive sound signals from robotic underwater vehicles flying near the seafloor. By taking the time it takes for these signals to reach the transponder (and multiplying by the speed of sound through Arctic seawater), scientists can determine how far away the vehicle is from the transponder. If you have two or three transponders, anchored by weights to the seafloor, you can determine the vehicle's location. But when the vehicle's missions are done, scientists like to get their transponders back. They "pop" them by sending an acoustic signal that releases the transponder from its anchor. The buoyant device floats back to the surface, where scientists fetch it. No problem, except in the Arctic where ice can get in the way. This time it didn't, and engineer Frank Weyer could hook it and haul it back, so that this transponder can see action in other oceans.
Photo by Chris Linder
© Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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