Updates

Safety training happens as soon as the ship is underway. Here Andy Robinson dons a survival suit and demonstrates how to get air out of it for maximum effectiveness.

IMG_9893 And we are off! The Coastal and Global Scale Nodes team is aboard the R/V Neil Armstrong headed to the Mid-Atlantic Bight for the first deployment of the Pioneer Array there. This is the view from the ship as we head to sea for the next 10 days.

Pioneer MAB surface moorings and vehicles were loaded on the RV Neil Armstrong.  The team setup the moorings for deployment, verified instrument operation, and prepared the shipboard labs for cruise operations.  

The CGSN team monitors the testing and burn-in of the Pioneer MAB Prawler profiling vehicle, the Shallow Water Mooring controller and towers.  The testing will confirm that the vehicle is successfully communicating inductively to the controller, and the controller is telemetering the data to shore.    

It is definitely a team effort!  Chris Basque, Eric Hutt, John Jordan, John Kemp, Matt Latvis, Nico Llanos, Kris Newhall, Jim Ryder all on deck completing the connections of the electromechanical chains and stretch hoses to the surface moorings and Near-Surface Instrument Frames.  

Meghan Donohue assembles an Anchor Recovery Module (ARM).  The ARM includes the anchor for the Multi-Function Node (MFN) as well as a flotation module and recovery line.  The flotation module and recovery line allow the MFN anchor to be recovered, leaving nothing behind, and minimizing the impact to the seabed environment.    

John Lund and Mike McCarthy assemble the tower for the new Pioneer MAB Shallow Water Mooring.  The tower will hold data telemetry modules and aids to navigation such as GPS, lights, and radar reflectors.  

Expanded and Upgraded!  WHOI mechanical engineer Dan Duffany, with input from the OOI-CGSN team, designed the new Near-Surface Instrument Frame – Large (NSIF-L, right).  The NSIF-L will be deployed on the Pioneer MAB Central Surface Mooring and will accommodate the original OOI instrumentation as well as the new Imaging Flow Cytobot, particle size, and turbidity sensors.  The NSIF-L, when compared to the standard NSIF (left), also has room for future…

On their way.  Here Kris Newhall, Jim Ryder, and Chris Basque, with support from WHOI Facilities, remove the Pioneer MAB Coastal Surface Moorings from their stands, tip and secure the buoy for transport to the WHOI dock.  The next step will be loading the buoys on the RV Neil Armstrong.

Three Pioneer MAB Coastal Surface Moorings, along with their Near Surface Instrument Frame (NSIF) and Multi-Function Node (MFN) and risers, operating and collecting test data prior to mobilization on the RV Neil Armstrong.  The moorings operate for several days to test all systems, including data delivery to the OOI Cyberinfrastructure, prior to deployment.