Recovery and Deployment of Station Papa Array and University of Washington Mooring
A team of 11 scientists and engineers will be aboard the R/V Sikuliaq for a 17-day expedition (May 29 -June 15, 2024) to recover and deploy three OOI subsurface moorings and two open ocean gliders. The team also will be recovering and deploying a waverider mooring for the University of Washington. Other onboard activities will include conducting water and other sampling while underway. The Global Station Papa Array is located in the Gulf of Alaska, about 620 nautical miles offshore. The ship will depart from and return to Seward, Alaska, with a transit time to the array of about 2.5 days. The Array is located in a critical region of the northeast Pacific with a productive fishery subject to ocean acidification, low eddy variability, and impacted by the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's Kris Newhall is serving as Chief Scientist. Check back here for regular updates.
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Location
The Global Station Papa Array is located in the Gulf of Alaska. Station Papa Array consists of a triangular set of moorings (white circles), with the sides of the triangle having a length roughly 10 times the water depth to capture mesoscale variability in each region.
Ship
The 261-foot R/V Sikuliaq is one of the most advanced university research vessels in the world, capable of breaking ice up to 2.5 feet thick.
Updates
Regular posts about life aboard the ship, work accomplished, and encounters with marine life.
