Posts Tagged ‘Global Station Papa’

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.

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).