Updates

Everything is loaded and the team is ready to go.  The Global Surface Mooring, the largest Irminger Mooring, is placed beneath the a-frame ready for deployment.  Chris Basque, John Jordan, Mackenzie Stuart prepare deck equipment and complete the final connections of all the riser components.  The riser connects the buoy to the anchor, but also has conductors for powering and communicating with fixed instruments at various water depths along the…

It can be a tight fit.  Before loading, the Global Surface Buoy must be assembled, and instruments mounted and cabled.  Here Mackenzie Stuart prepares to place the buoy well and tower into the buoyancy foam.  Once that is done, James Kuo and Chris Basque get to work mounting the instruments and running the power and data cables.  The buoy will then be loaded on the vessel and the remaining mooring…

The R/V Neil Armstrong has arrived in Reykjavik! The team has started loading all the Irminger materials onto the vessel. Once onboard, the team will perform final assembly of the moorings and make ready for departure.

Once the mooring build is complete, the mobilization team can focus on the mobile assets.  Three gliders are planned for deployment at the Irminger Array and satellite and acoustic communications must be tested prior to mobilizing on the research vessel.  The vehicles are placed outside and in proximity to the subsurface moorings to verify sending and receiving of data.  Acoustic communications are used by the gliders to collect data from…

The Irminger cruise team continues to make progress building the moorings in Reykjavik, Iceland. The mooring systems are integrated and then “burned in.” This is a test period for the power, data, telemetry, and instrument systems to ensure everything is operational prior to loading the vessel. Above James Kuo and Irene Duran verify the operation of subsurface instrument frames.

The Irminger mobilization has begun!  The team is in Reykjavik, Iceland building and testing the Irminger Array Global Surface Mooring, Hybrid Profiler Mooring, and Flanking Moorings.  John Lund, the cruise Chief Scientist, and his team are assembling the Global Surface Mooring buoy well and tower.  The well houses the power, data collection, and telemetry systems for the mooring.  Meteorological instruments, wind turbines, and solar panels are mounted on the buoy…