Posts Tagged ‘Global Station Papa Array’

STATION PAPA: This is the back deck of the RV Sikuliaq while in transit to the Station Papa Array.  Visible are all the buoyancy spheres, recovery flotation, and mooring wire reels needed to deploy the three subsurface moorings.

The RV Sikuliaq is returning to Seward, Alaska after completing a successful Papa 10 cruise.  The vessel is loaded down with recovered Papa 9 moorings and the recovered University of Washington/Applied Physics Laboratory Waverider system.  The Papa moorings will be shipped back to Woods Hole, Massachusetts for refurbishment and deployment next year.

The final step in a flanking mooring deployment….Jim Dunn cuts away and deploys the 6000 lb mace anchor.

Everyone pitches in where they’re needed most…Kris Newhall is the Chief Scientist on Papa 10, supports deck operations, and here acts as a mobile desk for James Kuo as he completes final comms checks on a flanking mooring. (Kris is holding laptop).

Mooring and instrument systems are checked multiple times prior to deployment.  Here Dan Bogorff and James Kuo perform one last communications check on the hybrid profiler mooring sphere and controller cage prior to overboarding.

  The OOI version of a pit crew.  As the Papa Team brings the hybrid profiler mooring onboard, the profiling vehicle is removed before continuing with the recovery.

Here Carmen Greto, an RV Sikuliaq technician, monitors the deployment of a conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) rosette.  The CTD measures salinity, temperature, and pressure at multiple depths along with taking water samples.  These measurements provide a baseline comparison for the newly deployed Papa instruments.

An Alaskan local stops by for a visit…a seal dropped by the RV Sikuliaq to give the Papa team some advice on buoy recoveries.