The marine research vessel Aranda will be renovated to meet the needs of future marine research in the Baltic Sea. The renovation reduces the vessel’s operating costs, increases its energy efficiency and reduces its emissions. At the same time, the vessel’s modernisation makes it the Finnish marine industry’s flagship of competence in the design and construction of special-purpose vessels.
The planning of the renovation has started in 2015 and will continue till 2016. The actual renovation will occur in 2017 - 2018, during which the vessel will be out of operation for approximately six months.
Goal is to reduce the vessel’s operating costs and extend its service life
Aranda, which was deployed in 1989, no longer meets the needs of modern marine research. The requirements on vessels and particularly the instruments suitable for multidisciplinary, year-round research have developed rapidly over the last few decades.
The aim of modernising the vessel’s research equipment is to ensure the high quality of Finnish marine research, even at the international level, and to improve the modifiability of the equipment for different research purposes. In addition, the goal is to make communication at sea more efficient and diversified in order to meet the needs of the real-time reporting of experiments and research carried out at sea.
The goal of renovating Aranda is to reduce the vessel’s operating costs by investing in energy-efficient, low-emission solutions, which also makes it possible to use the vessel in researching low-emission fuels and other emissions from vessels. Another objective of the renovation is to highlight and strengthen the competence and competitiveness of Finnish companies with regard to the vessels’ production and use of energy, marine robotics, satellite communications, underwater acoustics and laboratory equipment. After its renovation, Aranda will act as the Finnish marine industry’s flagship for construction of special-purpose vessels.
© Photo: Panu Hänninen
Aranda plays an important role in international marine research
Aranda plays an important role in continuing marine research at an international level in Finland. In the future, its missions will be mainly related to the physical, chemical-biological, meteorological and geological study of the Baltic Sea. In addition, the vessel will be increasingly used for teaching purposes.
For 25 years, Aranda has functioned as the centre of Finnish marine research in the Baltic Sea, the North Atlantic and the Southern Ocean. The Finnish arctic competence in ice research, winter navigation and arctic technology is at a high level internationally, and Aranda has played a very important role in developing this competence. Among other things, it is the only marine research vessel that operates in the ice in the Bothnian Bay. In the future, the renovated vessel will offer new opportunities to deepen the Finnish arctic competence and marine research that are recognised around the world.
The vessel is an important part of the Finnish Marine Research Infrastructure consortium FINMARI, coordinated by SYKE; the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), the Finnish Meteorological Institute, the University of Helsinki, the University of Turku, the Åbo Akademi University, the Geological Survey of Finland and the Natural Resources Institute Finland are a part of the consortium. All of these research organisations utilise Aranda in their own marine research, and the vessel is also used by other research organisations in the Baltic Sea region, such as the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI).
More information
Research Vessel Aranda and research cruises
Senior Adviser Jukka Pajala, Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), tel. +358 295 251 491, firstname.lastname@ymparisto.fi