Program Update – February 2013

OOI Program UpdateThe Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) program in February continued progress toward connecting the user community with the observatory.

A Webinar to discuss OOI 2013-2014 Deployments is scheduled for March 19, 2013 3:30-4:30 EDT.  The webinar, hosted by Tim Cowles, OOI Director, will discuss an update of recent OOI activities related to 2013 and 2014 deployments.  We also will provide an overview of the default sampling strategy for the instruments to be deployed at Station Papa in the Gulf of Alaska (summer, 2013) and in the Irminger Sea (summer, 2014). The Webinar will include a question and answer session.  Participants may submit questions in advance via the OOI website and will be able to submit questions, via chat, during the Webinar session.

To register click here
(please register by March 15th).

Progress was also made this month within the Cyberinfrastructure (CI) portion of the Ocean Observatories Initiative. The group’s 40 software technicians, programmers, and other computer specialists are developing an integrated ocean network system that will allow the OOI to gather data from over 770 sensors deployed at sea, and to communicate with the devices and deliver new commands.

Testing of Release 2 continued through the month with overall positive feedback from beta testers; testing includes a simulation using a remote pressure gauge on line in a tank at the University of Washington. CI continues to refine processes for logging, tracking and responding to user feedback and we are grateful to those who have offered invaluable feedback.

Lastly, the Cyberinfrastructure group has relocated to the Eckart Building on Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) Campus.  Since being organized in 2007, the OOI Cyberinfrastructure team had been spread around the Calit2 building on the UCSD campus. But as of January 2013, the group is now based at SIO.

Work continues in preparation for this year’s scheduled OOI deployments of the Regional Scale Nodes (RSN) cabled seafloor instruments off Oregon and Washington, the Coastal Global Scale Nodes (CGSN) Station Papa array in the Gulf of Alaska, and partial deployments of the CGSN Pioneer and Endurance Arrays (off the East and West coasts, respectively.). All but one Critical Design Reviews (CDR) has been completed for equipment in the west coast cabled array, with the last review scheduled to be completed in March.  All CDRs for the CGSN systems to be deployed in 2013 have been completed.

Additionally this month, a CDR was conducted for the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) and underwater docking station for the AUV.  The AUVs and docks, scheduled for deployment in 2014, will be part of the Pioneer Array located off the coast of New England.  The docks will provide locations for AUVs to recharge and transmit data back to shore, expanding the length of time they can be deployed, and allowing for multiple missions in the six months between deployment and recovery.