Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory

NSMRL was established during World War II with a three-fold mission: select personnel for training in the Naval Submarine School; instruct hospital corpsmen and medical officers in submarine medicine, and research the medical aspects of submarine and diving operations, including night and color vision, human engineering, and personnel selection. Today NSMRL's core research and capabilities include undersea warfighter health and performance, submarine atmospheric monitoring, bioeffects of underwater sound and blast, submariner psychological fitness, submarine human systems integration, diving and hyberbaric research, submarine survival, escape, and rescue, hearing conservation, and undersea health research.[3][4] Its achievements include:[3][4][5]

• Sea Lab 1 habitat project
• Disabled Submarine Escape and Rescue project
• "Rig-for-red" viewing
• Development of the International Orange color (Air-Sea Rescue Red)
• Studies of hyperbaric nitrogen narcosis
• Development of saturation diving and decompression tables
• Performance-based screening of color vision
• Personnel screening and assessment for enclosed environments
• Effects of atmospheric conditions on health and performance in enclosed environments
• Underwater acoustic signal discrimination and classification
• Bioeffects of underwater sound
• Search and rescue

NSMRL is located in Groton, Connecticut near the mouth of the Thames River and Long Island Sound.

• Two hyperbaric chambers, saturation and hypobaric capability
• 1000 m3 anechoic chamber
• 145 m3 reverberant chamber
• Ten sound-proof audio testing booths
• Vision and auditory research suites
• Technical library
• Waterfront access (submarines and diving)
• Diving work boat

The NSMRL auditory laboratory includes a large, 1,000 m3 anechoic chamber.[3][6] The suspended cable floor and fiberglass wedges provide an "echo-free" environment that is essential for efforts on spatialized auditory displays and transducer evaluation. Additionally, there are ten instrumented sound-proof booths and a reverberant room. These facilities are integral to the work on human-machine interfaces, combat systems displays, hearing conservation, audio signal enhancement, noise reduction techniques, and diver hearing.

The laboratory has a 142 m3 enclosed atmosphere testing environment and facilities for cardiopulmonary and metabolic workload assessment.[3][6] It also has maintained close collaboration with the Royal Navy and its facilities at Alverstoke, England on several projects.[3][6] NSMRL's diving research program is supported by a saturation diving chamber certified to pressures simulating 350 fsw and a fully instrumented hyperbaric treatment chamber.[3][6] Both chambers are capable of supporting multi-diver teams and associated medical, physiological, and exercise equipment. The laboratory also maintains an enclosed 25-foot Boston Whaler equipped with GPS and radar to support open water diving research.[3][6]

• National Board of Diving and Hyperbaric Medical Technology – Non-profit organization for education and certification in diving and hyperbaric medicine
• Institute of Naval Medicine, of the Royal Navy
• Naval Medical Research Command
• Naval Medical Forces Pacific
• Bureau of Medicine and Surgery

• NSMRL website
• Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society
• Rubicon Research Repository^[Usurped!]
• DUMC Archive