Scientists will use a powerful sonar mapping system and a robotic vehicle equipped with high-definition video cameras to explore hundreds of square miles north of the Indonesian archipelago, providing an extraordinary glimpse of one of the globe's most diverse, complex and little-known marine ecosystems.

"The world's oceans are great mysteries to us, but there are few greater mysteries than this area in Indonesia that we're going to be exploring," Craig McLean, who oversees oceanic exploration for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in an interview.

A major goal is to create a high-resolution map of the ocean floor that will help scientists better understand how tsunamis form and make more accurate models to forecast the earthquake-spawned waves in the future. The region straddles a series of fault lines, making it very seismically active. In 2004, an earthquake off western Indonesia triggered tsunamis that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

"There actually is a reasonable degree of artistic fiction included in most world maps that portray the ocean," McLean said. "Our job, among many, is to fill in those blanks."

Indonesia's Minister for Marine Affairs and Fisheries Fadel Muhammad said scientists also want to explore ecosystems living around underwater volcanos, some of which remain active.

The exploration might even point the way to cures for human diseases. Though the mission is not primarily designed to snap up thousands of samples of plants and sea animals, Indonesian scientists will collect specimens that could have medicinal qualities, such as attacking harmful bacteria or fighting the spread of cancer cells. An example of such a compound is discodermolide, a potential cancer drug extracted from a deep-water sponge.

Okeanos Explorer
Known as “America’s ship for ocean exploration” the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer is a new type of research vessel. 95 percent of the ocean is still unexplored—and the Okeanos Explorer, in partnership with NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration (OER), is going to help change that.

The ship will travel around the globe to map the seafloor and characterize largely unknown areas of the ocean. Interesting seafloor features can be discovered with the deep water multibeam sonar mapping system. Sites will be further explored with the ship’s Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), which can travel down to a depth of 6,000 meters. Images and high-definition video from the underwater vehicles will be sent from the vehicle to the ship to the shore in real-time. This technology is referred to as “telepresence.” The ship’s V-SAT, or very small aperture terminal, (housed in the ship’s giant golf-ball dome) is able to send this information through Internet2, a high-speed internet connection commonly used by Universities.

The Okeanos Explorer is the only NOAA ship to have a dedicated ROV. Although ROV’s have been used on other NOAA ships, they are typically removed at the end of a mission. Having a permanent ROV makes it easier to deploy at any time throughout the field season. On the Okeanos Explorer, there is an integrated control room for operating the ROV and run telepresence communication. Having the screens and computers permanently wired to the ship makes it more efficient to sustain long-term exploration in remote areas of the world.