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Home / Academics / Academic Majors / Marine and Environmental Sciences / Marine and Environmental Sciences Research Assets

Science Research Facilities and Equipment

The R/V Michael J. Greeley is the Coast Guard Academy’s 36-foot research vessel, which serves as a unique resource for the Marine and Environmental Sciences (MES) program. Not only is the vessel an essential tool for students learning about scientific concepts in the marine and environmental sciences, but it also provides a platform from which students learn through direct experience about cutting-edge oceanographic sampling techniques.

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Manta neuston net with 60-cm diameter, 330 micron mesh and rigid aluminum frame for ocean sampling plankton, other neuston and plastic. Beach seine for fish and invertebrate sampling- 15 m x 1.8 m net with 1.8 x 1.8 x1.8 meter center bag (codend). Bottom Trawl net for demersal fish and invertebrate sampling from R/V Greeley –with 9.1m “flat” net; 9.1m headrope is supported by 3 floats and rides about 0.91 m off bottom when fishing; 9.1m footrope with chains;

Satellite ground station located on the roof of Smith Hall. with UHF/VHF Yagi antennas and the parabolic dish with radome is part of the worldwide Mobile CubeSat Command and Control (MC3) network.

Real-time kinematics (RTK) Receiver – Trimble R12 LT Base and Rover with TSC5 (Data Collector) and tripole, high-precision differential GPS positioning instrument.

Nanosatellite simulator (EyasSAT Desktop GEN 5) with COSMOS© command and control software interface. Astro digital flight computer development kit. Solis Software Systems Toolkit (STK) by AGI, Inc.

Pandora Spectrometer (Pandora) to measure atmospheric trace gases (O3, NO2, CH2O) by sunlight absorbance.

Hyperspectroradiometer built by Lawrence Livermore National Labs with 250, 10 nm bands and a spectral range of ~400-1000 nm.  Short-wave infrared (SWIR) camera.

Laser Laboratory including 2.5 J 1064 nm YAG laser system (Quantel), plasma vacuum chamber, direct current, one single RF (13.56MHz), and one variable frequency discharge plasma system, high-performance spectrometer with a volume-phase-holographic (VPH) grating and an intensified charge-coupled counting device (ICCD) camera with a range of 380 nm -1090 nm. Polychromator (General Atomics), Optics tables (TMC,Newport) and mounts.

Ritchey-Chretien telescope 20-inch aperture in a custom-made building in Stonington, CT on Coast Guard Foundation property.

Water distillation system (Barnstead model 525), polishing system for Type II water (Labconco Water Pro PS), ice machines, glassware washer with distilled water rinse, refrigerators (4), freezers (2), and ultralow freezers (-80 C) (3) for chemical and sample storage. Chemical storage with online inventory system (Quartzy) and SDS access. House air and vacuum.

Fume hood stations for synthesis, hot plates, stirrers, heating mantles, condensers, inert gas systems, ultrasonic baths, closed cycle chiller/recirculatory (4), roto-evaporators (IKA) (3), melting point apparatus (SRS Digi-Melt) (6), Teflon and oil vacuum pumps, microwave synthesis system (Biotage Initiator), flash chromatography systems (Biotage Isolara) (2), and vacuum solvent removal system (Biotage V10 ). Chemical structure drawing software (Chem Doodle), molecular modeling software (Spartan), and data processing software (ACD Spectrus).

Inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometer ICP-MS with autosampler (Agilent 7800/SPS 4). Microwave digestion system (CEM Mars 5)

High performance liquid chromatography HPLC systems with gradient pump, autosampler, UV DAD and fluorescence detectors (Agilent 1100) and electrochemical detectors (Thermo Ultimate 3000). Gas chromatography system with flame ionization detector (FID) and electron capture detector (ECD) (Agilent 7890). Gas chromatography – mass spectrometers GCMS with autosamplers and electron impact and chemical ionization source (Agilent 6890N/5975B Agilent 8890/5977B). Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatograph with FID detector (Zoex). Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatograph with time-of-flight mass spectrometer detector (Leco Pegasus 4D).

Infrared spectrometer with ATR and long-path gas cell (Thermo Nicolet is10). UV-Visible spectrometer (Shimadzu). Two-dimensional fluorescence spectrometer (JY FluoroMax), Raman spectrometer (Ahura), fiberoptic spectrometer (Ocean Insight). NMR – multinuclear 400 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer for one- and two-dimensional spectra (Bruker).

Ion mobility spectrometers (Smiths Detection 500DT, 600). Portable mass spectrometer (MX908). Safe for drug storage and DEA license.

Plate reader (Molecular Devices SpectraMax M5), gel imager (Biorad ChemiDoc), ultracentrifuge (Thermo), PCR Machines (Biorad CFX-96)(2), micro UV-visible spectrometer (GE NanoVue), Microscopes (LaboMed) with image capture system (Zeiss), fluorescence microscope (BZ-X series, Keyence), Autoclave and biological BSL2 safety cabinet.

Flash point measurement (Seta), viscosity measurement system, Karl Fischer water measurement apparatus (Mettler Toledo), bomb calorimeters (Paar). Temperature and humidity environmental chamber (Espec), UV exposure chamber (Air Science) dissolved oxygen and conductivity meter (YSI), air particulate counter, ozone generator, UV-A and UV-C solar detector, volatile organic compound sensor (RAE Systems), hydrogen detector (Hy-Alerta), carbon dioxide sensors (Vernier), high temperature furnace (Thermo/Lindberg).

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Sponsor Family Application

Thank you for submitting your application to be part of the Sponsor Family Program. Your application will be processed in the upcoming week. Coast Guard Academy’s policy on background screening now requires all adults (everyone 18 and older living in the home) who volunteer to mentor, teach, coach or sponsor cadets, whether on or off Coast Guard Academy grounds, to be screened every 5 years. They are required to provide personal information (name, birth date and social security number) for the purpose of conducting a criminal background check.

The Security Officer at the Coast Guard Academy, CWO2 Gina Polkowski, is overseeing this process. Her email is: Gina.M.Polkowski@uscg.mil.

Sponsor Family designations fall into several different categories. Below are the guidelines to help you determine how best to meet the background screening requirement:

  1. If you are Coast Guard active duty you do not need to apply for an additional Background Check. You will be vetted through the Coast Guard system by CWO2 Polkowski.
  2. If you are a Civilian working for the Coast Guard you do not need to apply for an additional Background Check. You will be vetted through the Coast Guard system by CWO2 Polkowski.
  3. If you are non-Coast Guard Active Duty, you are required to provide proof of your current security clearance or National Agency Check that is to be emailed by your Command Security Officer (CSO)/ Security Office to CWO2 Polkowski at  Gina.M.Polkowski@uscg.mil.
  4. If you are non-Coast Guard civilian who has a current security clearance or National Agency check, you are required to provide proof of your current security clearance or National Agency Check that is to be emailed by your Command Security Officer (CSO)/ Security Office to CWO2 Polkowski at  Gina.M.Polkowski@uscg.mil.
  5. All civilians in the families who are 18 years or older and do not have a security clearance or a National Agency Check are required to be vetted through Mind Your Business, the third party vendor hired by the Coast Guard Academy for the vetting process.

After you complete your application, please e-mail the Sponsor Family Program Coordinator at CadetFamilySponsorProgram@uscga.edu. In your e-mail, you must include the e-mail address and phone number of every adult living in the home. The Sponsor Family Coordinator will then initiate the background check process and you will receive an email with further instructions.

Important things to note:

There is a Sponsor Family Training that is a one-hour training which we ask sponsors to attend once every four years. This training is designed to give you an overview of the program, what is expected of you as a sponsor, and what you can expect from your cadets. This training will also help familiarize you with the cadet regulations onboard CGA. You will be notified via e-mail once the training is scheduled.

The matching process of swabs to families will occur during July and August. Please bear with us and remain flexible through this process. There will be a meet and greet scheduled on Campus, typically in late August. This will give families an opportunity to formally meet their cadet if they have not already done so. Details on this will also be via email.

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