X-Spar Prototype deployment:

With support from the WHOI Innovative Technology Program, supplemented by a grant from Eastman Chemical Co., a prototype X-Spar system was designed, fabricated and tested in February 2015 off the WHOI pier, and in the open ocean the following June near the OOI Pioneer Array. X-Spar 1.0 was fabricated from commercially-available 10-foot sections of 8-5/8"-diameter schedule-80 PVC pipe.  Standard couplings were used to join 3 pipe sections to form the main 10 m body of the spar. Closed-cell foam was injected into the pipe for reserve buoyancy in the event of tube leaks. A sealed aluminum battery case was joined to the lower end of the spar with a cable supplying power to the main controller and sensor package. A carbon-fiber mast mounted to the top of the spar tube supported the meteorological sensor suite approximately 7 m above the air-sea interface. The first prototype was fitted with a Vaisala WXT520 weather package with sensors for wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, relative humidity and precipitation, a WHOI UOP electronic compass and interface for the WXT520, and a controller to collect sensor and GPS position data and transmit the observations via Iridium cell phone to data servers ashore. A Sea-Bird SBE 37 conductivity and temperature sensor, mounted about 6 m below the sea surface and integrated into the ITP surface controller, completed the sensor system. The instrument was programmed to sample at a 1-minute interval, archive those data on board and transmit the raw data at a 4-hour interval. The sensors and controller functioned as programmed during the trial and good data were recovered from all channels.  Click below for data, photos, and videos from the deployments.