“We could explore the ocean from a vantage that we typically don’t have access to. That’s what FLIP provided.”
In August 2023, the Floating Instrument Platform, or FLIP, a unique research vessel used by scientists for more than 50 years, was decommissioned and sent to be scrapped. But that wasn’t the end of FLIP’s story—DEEP, a private company that develops underwater technologies, has now purchased the vessel and plans to modernize it for a variety of uses, including marine science.
FLIP, formerly owned by the U.S. Navy and operated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, was in service from 1962 to 2017. The vessel can flip from a long, horizontal platform to a vertical one. Submerging 90 meters (300 feet) of its baseball bat–shaped hull provided a remarkably stable platform from which scientific instruments could gather data without the interference of ocean waves. Over FLIP’s lifetime as a research vessel, it hosted scientists working in a wide array of scientific fields, from meteorology to geophysics to physical oceanography.
Aboard FLIP, scientists “can make more precise, more insightful measurements,” said David Ortiz-Suslow, an atmospheric and oceanic physicist at the Naval Postgraduate School who previously conducted research on the vessel. “We could explore the ocean from a vantage that we typically don’t have access to. That’s what FLIP provided.”
“We believe in what FLIP can be, and we’re very much here to help continue the amazing legacy that she has.”
News of FLIP’s retirement was a disappointment to a scientific community that cherished the vessel, Ortiz-Suslow said. Leadership at DEEP shared the sentiment, said Tom Hutton, mission planning and execution lead at DEEP. The company decided that obtaining FLIP aligned with DEEP’s plans to develop ocean research technology and intervened, purchasing FLIP and towing it away from the scrapyard in Mexico.
“We believe in what FLIP can be, and we’re very much here to help continue the amazing legacy that she has,” Hutton said.
“I hope that whatever they do with it, they keep with the spirit of FLIP and its role in marine science and marine exploration,” Ortiz-Suslow said.
FLIP is now stationed at the MB92 shipyard in La Ciotat, France, where DEEP plans to refit the vessel with updates to safety, seaworthiness, and comfort, Hutton said.
It will also be outfitted with instruments that can passively collect oceanic and atmospheric data, Hutton said. Beyond these core capabilities, DEEP plans to rebuild the research deck with removable labs. Researchers or other groups, such as the media or educators, will be able to use these “pods” to outfit the platform with the instrumentation they need, he said.
“We recognize that everyone has different requirements, so what may work for one person may not be optimum for someone else,” Hutton said. “We want to give the different users the ability to spec their own spaces.” DEEP expects FLIP to be available for work in 2026.
However, the specific instrumentation aboard FLIP is yet to be determined. Hutton said he hopes DEEP can engage with scientists during the refit process to ensure that FLIP continues to meet the needs of the scientific community.
“I would like to hear from scientists and researchers about what they’d like to see, not just in terms of scientific equipment but also in terms of how [FLIP] operated in the past and what could be improved,” he said.
—Grace van Deelen (@GVD__), Staff Writer
Citation: van Deelen, G. (2024), Flipping ship FLIP freed from fateful trip, Eos, 105, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024EO240508. Published on 12 November 2024.
Text © 2024. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.
Related