Station Papa 11

STATION PAPA: The Station Papa moorings are replaced on a yearly schedule.  Here the OOI-CGSN team recovers the Hybrid Profiler Mooring. The yellow vehicle seen on the mooring wire is a Wire-Following Profiler (WFP).  The vehicle moves up and down the wire sampling the water column for salinity, temperature, pressure,  dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, and current…

STATION PAPA: The RV Sikuliaq and the science party have been experiencing some rough weather, but they still need to get the work done!  This is a recovery of a Flanking Mooring that has been deployed for almost one year.  The recovered equipment will come back to Woods Hole, MA for repair and refurbishment, and…

POGO Fellow Aditi Sharma is using down time aboard the R/V Sikuliaq to share her experiences during her first time at sea on a research vessel.  Her comments are insightful and provide an insider’s view of life aboard the Sikuliaq.  You can read her blog here. Bookmark the site as she updates her posts regularly.…

STATION PAPA: India-based POGO Fellow Aditi Sharma has been busy aboard the R/V Sikuliaq in spite of the cold weather and stormy seas. It is summer in India with temperatures in the 90 plus degrees Fahrenheit.  While she’s adjusting to the temperature, she’s ably “learning the ropes” of shipboard science by participating in many fantail…

STATION PAPA: Everyone needs to pitch in when deck operations are happening.  Here Jim Edson (right), the Ocean Observatories Initiative Principal Investigator handles tag lines during overboarding of equipment.  Tag lines are used to stabilize lifted equipment and ensure the load does not move or swing in an unsafe manner.

STATION PAPA: The CGSN team successfully deployed a Hybrid Profiler Mooring (HYPM) at the Station Papa Array.  The HYPM is in a water depth of ~4000m and is equipped with two profiling vehicles that move up and down the riser wire at regular intervals to collect data for almost the full water column.

STATION PAPA: Onboard the Sikuliaq is the OOI-CGSN team to perform the yearly Station Papa Array maintenance, but there is also a team from the University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory (J. Talbert, A. Larson).  UW/APL joins the OOI cruise to maintain a Waverider buoy also at Station Papa.  The two teams support each other…

STATION PAPA: While in transit, the OOI-CGSN team needs to prepare the various mooring components before arriving on site. Here Kris Newhall, Jim Ryder, and Keith Shadle spool the riser wire for a Flanking Mooring from a reel onto a winch in the correct orientation for deployment.