HOUGHTON – A National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) vessel is in town this week as part of two-and-a-half weeks of assisting Michigan Technological University research projects.

A Tech researcher doing microbial sample work joined the 55-foot R5501 on its trip from Muskegon last Monday and took a sample 13,000 feet down in Lake Superior near Sault Ste. Marie. It arrived in town Saturday, said Jamey Anderson, coordinator of marine operations at Tech’s Great Lakes Research Center.

The boat helped mechanical engineering assistant professor Andrew Barnard drop arrays for his work on sound waves generated by large vessels in the water. The clear, gel-filled acoustic array measures sound generated underwater by research boats.

“When a large research vessel goes out and does a survey, you don’t want the vessel to change the environment,” said Barnard, who specializes in noise control engineering. “You want to measure the environment as if the vessel wasn’t there … if you’re doing a fish survey, but your ship drives the fish away, you’re not going to get very good results.”

This week’s results will be used to provide a benchmark. The next step for a biologist, Barnard said, would be to see what species of fish might be sensitive to the sound.

Sound travels five times faster in water, which requires a larger measurement system than in air, Barnard said. It’s also harder to reach sensors to adjust them than in a laboratory, he said.

Thursday, Tech civil and environmental engineering professor will use the boat. On Monday, chemistry and biology professors will do additional work near Buffalo Reef by Gay. That will include inherent optical properties of the water to determine how characteristics of the water and atmosphere affect satellite penetration.

“Mostly the big concern there is ‘Are stamp sands from Gay affecting the reef?'” Anderson said. “Largely those measurements along the entire scale of Buffalo Reef are built by planes or from space, just because the scale is so massive … it gives us a chance to ground-proof a lot of that data.”