MISSION AND EMPLOYMENT
After
arriving in Portugal, the ship was decommissioned while waiting for funding for
the installation of equipment and the conversion into a Hydrographic ship. On
May of 2007, after 18 months of work, the process of conversion ended.
Of the
scientific equipment of the ship, the multi beam echo sounder systems that
allows the execution of hydrographic surveys up to 11 000 meters of depth, the
acoustic current profiler enabling measurements of the currents up to 700
meters of depth, the sediment profiler for seismic surveys, and the sound speed
propagation profiler in water that enables data collection up to 2000 meters of
depth, are of special noteworthiness.
Since May
of 2007 and in the current ship´s configuration, the NRP Almirante Gago
Coutinho performed several scientific missions in national and international
waters, namely the support of naval operations and the hydrographic surveys for
the project of extension of the continental platform, and the oceanographic
campaigns for the study of marine environment in the range of several
environmental monitoring projects, such as the submarine observatory of
Nazareth´s canyon.
