News
Captain Eric Haroldson: 20 Years Aboard the Thompson
20+ Years on the Thompson; A Decade as Captain
Captain Eric Haroldson has lived half of his professional life as a captain aboard the R/V Thomas G. Thompson, which is operated by the School of Oceanography at the University of Washington. With a schedule of three months on, three months off, Haroldson spends roughly half his life at sea each year. And, when he returns to the vessel after three months on terra firma, he said, “The weirdest thing is that I can walk onto the ship after being away for three months and stand in the stair tower just after the galley. Same sounds same smells, everything’s the same. I click right back into it. It’s like I’ve never been gone.” Haroldson’s adjustment to land isn’t as smooth. He finds he needs to adjust to driving a car again and needs to have ceiling fans in his home to mimic the white and perpetual noise of the ship.
While onboard, Haroldson oversees offers 20 officers and crew, two marine technicians, and up to 36 scientists, depending upon the nature of the expedition. At home, he spends time making improvements to the home he built for himself in the woods.
In January, 2023, Haroldson marked a decade at the helm of the R/V Thompson. His journey started in the early 1980s, when he occasionally went to sea as part of the requirements for school and marine-related jobs. The seagoing bug finally hit him in full force in 1989, when he entered the California Maritime Academy. Four years later, he graduated with a third mates’ license and began a career focused on oil industry work.
His first job as a licensed officer was on an oil spill response vessel. After that, he sailed on oil tankers as a third mate. After the company he was working for was sold, he met some folks from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, which moved his career in the direction of oceanographic research. Haroldson sailed as third mate on a couple of Scripps’ ships, until the R/V Thompson needed someone to fill in for a couple of months in 1999. “That couple of months turned into 20 or something here, “ he joked.
Haroldson worked his way up to captain in a traditional way, starting as a third mate. After spending 365 days at sea, he was eligible to test to move up as a second mate. After another 365 days at sea, he tested for chief mate. With another 365 days at sea as chief mate and lots of additional classes and learning experiences, the next step was a master’s license, and ultimately followed by a captain’s license. Each step on the journey requires hands-on sea experience, as well as successfully learning (and passing) the requirements of the next job up the ladder with a host of new, different responsibilities.
Once Haroldson left the oil industry, he never looked back. “Not only is the work better aboard a research vessel, it’s more varied and interesting, not to mention important, but the variety is particularly important for those of us who have spent so much of their lives on the water.
He compared the work aboard an oil tanker – which ran between Valdez, Alaska and Exxon Benica in San Francisco Bay. “It was eight days to Valdez, a day and a half to load, followed by an eight-day journey to Benica, where we’d spend a day and a half offloading. The cycle constantly repeated itself and we could literally set our clock by it,” Haroldson explained. “When I started sailing oceanographic vessels, it was okay, well, this is more interesting, I was seeing something different every day. The variety of it gives the job definition and we manage the ship much differently.”
“As captain of a research vessel, we have the opportunity to work along-side scientists, which is great,” he added. “We sit around a table and together we figure out “how do we do this? Or how do we approach this? So there is not only the importance of the work that is happening onboard, but we have the opportunity to see the bigger picture of why this work is so important.”
[media-caption path="https://oceanobservatories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-10-at-3.05.25-PM.jpeg" link="#"]Captain Eric Haroldson looks out from the R/V Thompson’s bridge windows as Third Mate Todd Schwartz and AB Pam Blusk steer the ship thru the icy waters off Antarctica. Credit: Instagram.[/media-caption]While the ocean itself still presents the same challenges as it did 20 years ago when Haroldson began his journey, he has witnessed a lot of ancillary changes in how and where the ocean is used. “Ports are more interesting, with a greater variety of types of boats and people are fishing in areas where people didn’t fish ten years ago or so.” Haroldson added. He’s also witnessed the evolution of a more diverse crew, with women having a greater presence than in his early days aboard the oil tankers. At times, he’s sailed the R/V Thompson when all of the mates were female, and at other times, the crew has been more than half women.
Haroldson clearly relishes his job and provides a sense of safety, security, and humor while onboard. His greatest challenge seems to be always having to be two-steps ahead of everything in a realm where the rules and the physical condition under which he must safely operate his vessel are perpetually changing. This is no small task.
Sailing in and out of port at Newport Oregon is an example of staying two steps ahead of the game. Haroldson has to ensure that all ship operations are executed in a timely way so they can arrive at Newport at high tide slack water in daylight to avoid running aground. This requirement also provides the captain some flexibility in dictating scheduling. “If the weather is picking up and it will take a couple of hours to get to the site, there’s a decision to be made. Do you want to leave the dock and go out there and bounced around? Or does it make more sense to delay a little bit to the make the passage easier and more pleasant for everyone on board?”
Staffing creates another challenge onboard. Much like airline personnel, ship crew are limited in the number of hours they are allowed on the job. The maximum a crew member can work in a day is 15 hours. But if they work that full 15 hours, then for the next two days, they are only allowed to work up to a total of 20 hours. “We always have to be aware of the crew’s schedules and operate within these guidelines that help ensure safe operations.”
In looking back at his life on the water, Haroldson was enthusiastic about his path and optimistic of others who may follow him on a life well-lived a sea. “It makes for a challenging and rewarding life, and in some cases, there really are opportunities to travel and see the world. And, as long as one likes people and doesn’t mind being part of a community, it can be extremely gratifying—makes one appreciate life on and off the water.”
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Bio-Optics Sensor Summer School Applications Open
Are you interested in using OOI’s optical attenuation and absorption data in your research? Have you ever faced challenges finding and interpreting this type of data? If so, we hope you will consider applying for the 2023 OOI Bio-Optics Sensor Summer School.
The Ocean Observatories Initiative Facility Board (OOIFB) will host the summer school on July 17-21, 2023 on the campus of Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR. The course will focus on learning how to analyze and interpret the Sea-Bird AC-S measurements of optical attenuation and absorption. The AC-S is a hyperspectral instrument used to characterize the way seawater absorbs and scatters light and total scattering can be derived for living and detrital particles in the ocean. The OOI Program deploys the Sea-Bird AC-S on most of the OOI platforms, including coastal, cabled, and high latitude moorings.
Marine phytoplankton play an important role in ocean ecology and global biogeochemical cycles. The optical attenuation and absorption data from the AC-S provides information on the relative biomass of different phytoplankton size classes and phytoplankton functional types. In addition, other biogeochemical proxies, such as particulate organic carbon, may be estimated. The AC-S data also may be used to validate remote sensing measurements. These observations will be useful in addressing science questions covered by several OOI research themes including:
- Climate Variability, Ocean Circulation, and Ecosystems.
- Coastal Ocean Dynamics and Ecosystems.
- Turbulent Mixing and Biophysical Interactions.
About 25 advanced graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and early career scientists will be selected as participants for the summer school. Other career level researchers will be considered, based on space availability. Participants should have a general understanding of oceanography/biology. Only applicants from U.S institutions can be considered. Participation will be in-person only and all selected students must be available to attend all days of the course. Funding for reimbursement of travel expenses, accommodations, and meals is offered.
Additional details about the summer school program, as well as a link to the application form are available here.
Please submit your application by the end of the day on February 28, 2023. Selections and notifications will be made in March.
OOI Data Classroom at Sea
Ocean Data Labs researcher Sage Lichtenwalner took his data capabilities to the waves, so to speak, as he shared how Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) data can be used in the classroom with researchers and teachers aboard the R/V Neil Armstrong in early January. The OOI is funded by the National Science Foundation to collect ocean observations from five scientifically important sites in both the Atlantic and Pacific and make the data available over the internet for research and education.
Lichtenwalner, a research programmer at Rutgers University, was asked to join the cruise as part of an effort to build partnerships and future opportunities between STEMSEAS (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Student Experiences Aboard Ships) and several Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The cruise was designed to align with STEMSEAS’ objectives and be both immersive and experiential for 12 participants from ten institutions, including six HCBUs. The idea was for faculty to experience the cruise as students on other STEMSEAS expeditions do, and to take back what they learned from their onboard experiences to share with their students and classes. They traveled from Woods Hole, MA to Pensacola, Fla., from January 3-11, 2023.
Lichtenwalner provided participants with practical, hands-on ways to integrate OOI data into their courses. During the eight-day cruise, Lichtenwalner gave four presentations to the group, including a demonstration about how they can use the OOI Data Labs Manual in their classes. “The OOI Data Labs Manual is an easy, accessible way to use real ocean data to teach oceanographic concepts,” he said. “Educators have found that the real-time nature of OOI data inspires students, making them more engaged with the data because of their timeliness and relevance.”
Lichtenwalner’s presentations were part of a series of talks given by the STEMSEAS team and HBCU participants, which included hands-on activities and resources to build students’ problem-solving and scientific thinking skills. Participants also shared their research and teaching strategies to foster collaborative discussions.
[media-caption path="/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/group-shot.png" link="#"]Spending eight days at sea together provided participants with plenty of hands-on learning about sampling at sea, as well as opportunities to share research and teaching strategies they use when on land.[/media-caption]
Onboard the R/V Neil Armstrong, Dr. Magdalena Andres, a physical oceanographer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and co-Principal Investigator of the PEACH program, which is investigating physical processes that drive exchanges between the shelf and deep ocean at Cape Hatteras, served as chief scientist on the cruise. She put the visiting team to work, helping deploy instruments and make underway measurements as part of the “SWOT Adopt a Crossover Field Campaign—Cape Hatteras.” The project, funded by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, falls under the umbrella of the Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) Adopt a Crossover Consortium. Andres is part of a multi-institution research team that has “adopted” the site east of Cape Hatteras near the OOI Mid-Atlantic Bite array site, both to advance the community’s dynamical understanding of this key oceanographic region and to help validate measurements provided by the SWOT satellite which launched in December 2022. “SWOT promises to revolutionize our understanding of earth’s surface water. It’s exciting to have the STEMSEAS, HBCU, and Ocean Data Labs participants working side-by-side with the project’s scientists, engineers, students, and technicians on this forefront of ocean observing,” explained Andres.
[media-caption path="/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/IMG_5670-2-scaled.jpeg" link="#"]Loretta Williams Gurnell (right), founder of the SUPERGirls SHINE Foundation, is learning about atmospheric turbulence with a hands-on demonstration led by Dr. Alex Gonzalez from the Physical Oceanography department at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Alex is part of the NSF-supported DIYnamics Team, https://diynamics.github.io/pages/about.html, which is working to provide access to affordable materials for geoscience teaching demonstrations.[/media-caption]
While onboard, Andres had the team assist her in deploying current and pressure sensing inverted echo sounders (CPIESs) and XBTs (expendable bathythermographs), as well as collecting measurements with the ship’s CTD (conductivity, temperature, depth) profiler. CTDs measure vertical profiles of conductivity (a proxy for salinity) and temperature. XBTs collect profiles of temperature. CPIESs measure bottom pressure and vertical acoustic travel time data (a proxy for temperature and salinity profiles) and near bottom current measurements (velocity of ocean water). The CPIESs were left in place to collect data over the next 18 months.
In 2024, the OOI Pioneer Array will move to the Mid-Atlantic, not far from where the cruise deployed the CPIES and collected CTD casts. To prepare participants for future potential educational applications of OOI CTDs and other instruments in the area, Lichtenwalner made quick plots of the data collected along the way. “Doing real-time plotting to support operations is actually how I got started in oceanography, so it’s been fun to re-live that experience, while also introducing a new group of professors and educators to the power of using ocean data in real-life and in the classroom.”
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AGU Lightning Talks
Here is an opportunity to hear some of the latest findings and research in the works based on OOI data. Researcher presented their findings in one-minute lightning talks at the AGU Fall Meeting December 12, 2022 during OOIFB’s Town Hall. The presenters are listed by topic and time that they appear on the video. For questions, please don’t hesitate to contact the researchers directly.
- 0:10: Cesar Savage – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (virtual)
- 2:16: Artash Nath – MonitorMyOcean.com (virtual)
- 4:00: Karen Bemis – Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
- 5:45: Ettore Biondi – California Institute of Technology
- 7:46: Amy Bower – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
- 11:53: Marine Denolle – University of Washington
- 14:05: Jiaqi Fang – California Institution of Technology
- 15:45: Aleck Wang – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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Alex Wick: Conducting Sea-going Operations
OOI Coastal Endurance Array Deck Lead Alex Wick has been working on ships for more than a decade. He is a classic example of learning the ropes from the bottom up. After receiving a degree in marine biology from the University of Santa Cruz, he took some scuba diving lessons, but really didn’t know what he wanted to do.
Wick started his journey aboard ships in 2012 sorting tools for a marine technician onboard the R/V Point Sur, out of Moss Landing, California. When offered the job, he had no idea what he was getting into. He showed up in shorts, street shoes, with no personal protective gear (PPE) at all, and no at-sea experience.
But he learned quickly and advanced from sorting sockets to needle-gunning the deck, which involves removing all of the old paint with a needle gun before applying a new coat of paint. This activity was when Wick was given his first set of PPE – safety glasses, knee pads, hard hat, and gloves – which gave him a real understanding of their importance during five days of back-breaking work.
[media-caption path="/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Alex.jpeg" link="#"]Alex Wick has been deck lead for Endurance Operations since 2018. Credit: Darlene Trew Crist ©WHOI.[/media-caption]
Wick started repainting the deck of the boat. The captain, at the time, recognized Wick’s work ethic and dedication and continued to expose him to shipboard duties. From one cruise as a deck hand, he advanced to an 84-day expedition to Antarctica. He jokes that at the time he didn’t even know how to use a ratchet strap, which is widely used to secure heavy equipment on ships and elsewhere.
“The captain told me to secure a small boat under the A-frame,” said Wick. “I had no idea how to do, but figured it out. With one day of oceanographic experience under my belt, I was off to Antarctica.” As it turned out, it was the best possible hands-on learning experience for Wick, which ultimately led to him spending about 500 days at sea and his role with the Endurance Array team today.
“There was nothing like driving a boat in Antarctica with a guy with a crossbow on the bow of the boat directing me around chasing Minke whales,” added Wick. “We would come up alongside one of them, shoot a crossbow bolt into its dorsal fin to retrieve a bio-sample. I thought it was the coolest thing ever.”
This Antarctica expedition provided Wick with the foundational knowledge he now uses aboard the R/V Thomas G. Thompson during bi-annual recovery and deployment expeditions for the Coastal Endurance Array. His time on the Point Sur taught him how to run winches, use the A and J frames, which support the lifting of heavy equipment in and out of the ocean, and most importantly, how to work on a ship in a safe manner.
After Antarctica, Wick spent six years as a deck hand and marine technician, where he developed an innate understanding of how all the pieces move on deck. Jonathan Fram, who often serves as chief scientist for the Endurance expeditions likens Wick to a symphony conductor. “He directs the operations while always having an eye on each member of the ‘orchestra’ and what they should be doing at certain times. This orchestration is critical to getting the heavy equipment we deal with on and off board without incident.”
Wick moved to Oregon State University when his wife was accepted into a PhD program there. He was hired on as a marine technician on the R/V Oceanus, where he sailed for up to 100 days a year. But, a man of many interests, Wick grew tired of being away from home for such long stretches. He missed his family, mountain bike, fishing, and other activities afforded by living in Oregon. He applied for the job as deck lead with the Endurance Array team and has been on the job since December 2018.
His first trip to the dock in Newport after a fall Endurance expedition, where he saw the massive amount of equipment moved on and off the ship and in and out of the water, provided Wick with his leadership philosophy.
“I think that the person running the deck should be basically completely hands off. That way, we are able to actually observe everything and see the bigger picture of what’s happening,” said Wick. “As we’re doing recoveries or deployments, I’m always thinking of the next pieces of the puzzle. I want the folks on the back deck and on the bridge to know what to expect, so everyone knows what’s ahead and can plan for what they’re going to be doing.”
From the seeds of his earliest experience aboard the R/V Point Sur, Wick is totally committed to overseeing a safe operation. “The deck lead is responsible for everyone’s safety and making sure we’re doing things appropriately,” he explained. “Sure unexpected things can happen, but back deck operations can and should be done safely. I feel a great responsibility for making sure that everybody comes back with all their digits and we all return to shore having successfully completed the job and return to our family and friends.”
Wick’s favorite part of the job is working with the team. He joked, “We are all part of the communal suffering. Doing the same thing together. We have a lot of big toys that we get to play with safely. And, it really is special at sea. It’s cool to see the whales breaching, the dolphins racing the ship, the bioluminescence, and skies filled with stars. No matter how crusty and jaded we might be, it takes a team to put these moorings in the water, and deep down, I think we all really enjoy doing this.”
Wick has served as deck lead for six Endurance expeditions and has overseen the movement, deployment and recovery of 270 tons of scientific equipment. Not a bad record for a kid who started out sorting tools.
[media-caption path="/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Alex-2.jpeg" link="#"]Wick choreographs the recovery and deployment of the Endurance Array moorings. Credit: Darlene Trew Crist ©WHOI. [/media-caption]
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Science Highlights
Researchers from around the globe are using OOI data to identify short-term changes and long-term trends in the changing global ocean.
The Science Highlights included in the report below were compiled from quarterly reports submitted by the Ocean Observatories Initiative to the National Science Foundation from 2020-2022. They represent only a fraction of the scientific findings that are based on OOI data. A complete list of peer-reviewed publications based on OOI data can be found here.
[embed]https://issuu.com/oceanobservatoriesinitiative/docs/ooi_science_highlights_autosaved_.pptx?fr=sNzM0ZjQ2ODUxNTQ[/embed]
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A Visual Report of OOI in 2022
OOI Biogeochemical Sensor Data Best Practices and User Guide: Open Community Review
The Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) Biogeochemical (BGC) Sensor Data Best Practices and User Guide is the result of an NSF-funded (OCE2033919) grass-roots community effort to broaden the use of OOI biogeochemical sensor data and increase community capacity to produce analysis-ready data products. The guide includes five chapters: The Introduction (Chapter 1) provides information on the OOI program, including data access, processing, and recommended end user QA/QC relevant to all OOI biogeochemical sensors, and Chapters 2-5 cover the following groups of BGC variables and associated sensors: Dissolved oxygen, nitrate, carbonate chemistry, and bio-optics.
This effort brought together an international group of 39 ocean observing experts, across all career stages, from 19 institutions and 5 countries, each of whom brings expertise on biogeochemical sensors, data analysis and ocean observing infrastructure, as well as research expertise in ocean biogeochemistry. The initial OOI Biogeochemical Sensor Data (OOI BGC) Working Group was formed in July 2021 through an open application process. A three-day virtual meeting in July 2021 launched the Working Group, with consensus-building activities to develop the scope and structure of the Best Practices and User Guide. From July 2021 to June 2022, the Working Group drafted a beta version of the Best Practices and User Guide that went through two rounds of internal review within the Working Group. A draft version of this document was Beta Tested by 14 current and prospective OOI BGC data users, who joined the Working Group members for a 3-day workshop in June 2022 to provide feedback that has since been used in revising and finalizing the document.
The OOI Biogeochemical Sensor Data Best Practices and User Guide is now complete, and has been submitted to the Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS). As a next step, we are seeking to gain GOOS endorsement of the document. In order to do so, the guide must undergo a rigorous community review process whereby comments are publicly invited and adjudicated. We now invite community members to review the guide and submit comments by February 28, 2023. After completing the open review, we will revise the document based on the reviewers’ comments and upload an updated, final version to OBPS.
We encourage feedback from everyone, including both disciplinary experts and users new to each of these sensor types, as well as both experienced and new users of OOI data. Reviewers are welcome to provide feedback on the entire document, or on chapters or sections that are of particular relevance to their interests or expertise.
How to review the OOI BGC Sensor Data Best Practices and User Guide
We are aiming for a transparent and open community review process, and as such, all reviewer comments and responses to them will be public. We invite reviewers to provide feedback on the OOI Biogeochemical Sensor Data Best Practices and User Guide via two different pathways:
- Reviewers may comment directly into a Google Doc version of the guide in the form of comments added to the text. This will be most useful for comments or to suggest revisions on specific sections of the text. We request that reviewers sign in via Google or include their name and email in their comments so that we can identify and, if needed, follow up with individuals providing reviews.
- Reviewers may submit lengthier and/or more overarching comments via an online form. All submissions to this form can be viewed here.
OOI at AGU 2022
[media-caption path="/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/agufront2-scaled-e1603490292321.jpeg" link="#"]OOI will be very much present in person at the AGU Fall Meeting 2022. Come visit us at the OOI booth #1321 in the exhibit hall and mark your calendar for the sessions below. [/media-caption]
This year, OOI will be in person at the AGU Fall Meeting 2022 in Chicago from December 12-16. We will have a booth (#1321) in the exhibit hall and will be in person to present sessions and posters. The following is a compilation of OOI-related presentations at this year’s fall meeting. If we’ve missed any OOI-related sessions, please contact dtrewcrist@whoi.edu and we will be happy to add them. Hope to see you in person this year! Share your AGU news at #AGU22.
Monday, 12 December 2022
08:00 – 09:00 CST(09:00 – 10:00 EST) Online Only
V11B-02 Detecting the syn- and after-eruption process of the Axial Seamount with ambient noise interferometry
Chao J Lee, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China and Youyi Ruan, Brown University, Providence, United States
09:00 – 12:30 CST (10:00 – 13:30 EST) McCormick Place – Poster Hall, Hall – A
V12B-0045 Developing a Catalog of Automated Focal Mechanisms for Microearthquakes at Axial Seamount Based on Waveform Correlation
Maochuan Zhang1, William S D Wilcock1, Felix Waldhauser2, Kaiwen Wang2, David Paul Schaff2, Maya Tolstoy1 , and Yen Joe Tan3, (1)University of Washington, School of Oceanography, Seattle, WA, United States, (2)Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY, United States, (3)Chinese University of Hong Kong, Earth system science, Hong Kong, China
09:16-09:23 CST (10:16-10:23 EST) McCormick Place – N426c
ED12A-03 Accessible Oceans: Exploring Ocean Data Through Sound
Amy S Bower, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, United States, Jon Bellona, University of Oregon, School of Music and Dance, Eugene, OR, United States, Jessica Roberts, Georgia Institute of Technology, College of Computing, Atlanta, GA, United States, and Leslie Smith, Your Ocean Consulting, Knoxville, TN, United States
09:43-09:53 CST (10:43-10:53 EST) McCormick Place – S103cd
S12C-05 Listening to Fin Whales with Distributed Acoustic Sensing: A Study in Opportunistic Acoustics
Agatha Podrasky, David Podrasky, Megan Everingham, Noah Clayton, and Thomas Coleman, Silixa LLC, Missoula, MS, United States
15:00-18:00 CST Exhibit Hall – Visit OOI’s Booth #1321
18:30-19:30 CST (19:30-20:30 EST) McCormick Place – S106a Note: Attendance at this event can be either in person or virtual.
TH15B Ocean Observatories Initiative Facility Board (OOIFB) Town Hall
Annette M DeSilva, University of Rhode Island, Graduate School of Oceanography, Narragansett, RI, United States and Kendra L Daly, University of South Florida, College of Marine Science, St. Petersburg, FL, United States
Tuesday, 13 December 2022
08:00 – 09:00 CST (09:00 – 10:00 EST) Online Only
OS21B-09 Centimeter-Scale Mapping of Four Hydrothermal Vent Sites at Axial Seamount: Low-Altitude Surveys Combining Multibeam Sonar, Lidar, and Color Stereo Photography
Jennifer Brophy Paduan1, David W Caress1, Eric J Martin1, Michael Risi1, Chad D Kecy1, Giancarlo Troni2 , and David A Clague1, (1)Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Moss Landing, CA, United States, (2)Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Watsonville, CA, United States
10:00-18:00 CST Exhibit Hall – Visit OOI’s Booth #1321
14:45 – 18:15 CST (15:45 – 19:15 EST) McCormick Place – Poster Hall, Hall – A
OS25E Process Studies, Educational Activities, and Technological Advancements Using Data and Infrastructure from the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI)
James B Edson1, Edward Paul Dever2, Deborah S Kelley3, Albert J Plueddemann1 and Anthony Koppers2, (1)Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, United States(2)Oregon State University, College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Corvallis, OR, United States(3)University of Washington Seattle Campus, School of Oceanography, Seattle, WA, United States
OS25E-0961 Overview of ambient noise research and outreach with OOI hydrophones
John Ragland, University of Washington Seattle, Seattle, WA, United States, Felix Schwock, University of Washington Seattle Campus, Electrical Engineering, Seattle, WA, United States, Zhaoyu Liu, University of Washington Seattle Campus, Human Centered Design and Engineering, Seattle, WA, United States, and Shima Abadi, University of Washington, School of Oceanography, Seattle, WA, United States
OS25E-0962 Multiyear ocean sound levels at the Northeast Pacific OOI Sites and Beaufort-Sea Arctic recorded using calibrated moored hydrophones
Robert P Dziak1, Samara Haver2, Haru Matsumoto3, Lauren Roche3, Jason Gedamke4, Meghan F Cronin1, Phyllis J Stabeno1 , and William W. Chadwick Jr5, (1)NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Seattle, WA, United States, (2)NOAA/OSU Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies, Newport, OR, United States, (3)Oregon State University, CIMRS, Newport, OR, United States, (4)NOAA Fisheries, Office of Science and Technology, Silver Spring, MD, United States, (5)CIMERS, Newport, OR United States
OS25E-0963 Neural Implicit Compact Representation to Compress Distributed Acoustic Sensing Data
Yiyu Ni1, Shaowu Pan2, Nathan Kutz2, Bradley Paul Lipovsky1 , and Marine Denolle1, (1)University of Washington, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, Seattle, WA, United States, (2)University of Washington, Department of Applied Mathematics, Seattle, WA, United States
OS25E-0964 Multi-Year Study on the Impacts of Assimilating OOI Glider Data on Cross-Shelf Vertical Structure in the Northeast Pacific Ocean
Caitlin Amos, US Naval Research Laboratory Post-Doctoral Scholar, Washington, DC, United States, John J Osborne, US Naval Research Laboratory, Ocean Dynamics and Prediction, Stennis Space Center, MS, United States, and Gregg Arthur Jacobs, US Naval Research Laboratory, Ocean Sciences Division, Stennis Space Center, MS, United States
OS25E-0965 Columbia River Plume Variability in Summer 2022
Edward Paul Dever1, Craig M Risien1, Christopher E Wingard1, Jonathan P Fram1, Parker MacCready2, Piero F Mazzini3, Stuart Pearce1, and Jonathan Whitefield1, (1)Oregon State University, College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Corvallis, OR, United States, (2)University of Washington, Olympia, WA, United States, (3)Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, VA, United States
OS25E-0966 Analysis of AC-S (Spectrophotometer) Proxies for Ecosystem Variables using the OOI Endurance Array off the Coasts of Oregon and Washington
Nicholas Romero, California State University Monterey Bay, Marine Science, Seaside, CA, United States, Christopher E Wingard and Edward Paul Dever, Oregon State University, College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Corvallis, OR, United States
OS25E-0967 Seasonal to interannual variability of salinity on the Northeast U.S. continental shelf
Svenja Ryan, Caroline Ummenhofer, and Glen Gawarkiewicz, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, United States
OS25E-0968 Relocation of the OOI Pioneer Array
Albert J Plueddemann, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, United States and Derek Buffitt, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering, Woods Hole, MA, United States
OS25E-0969 Improvements to the COARE Bulk Flux Algorithm using OOI Surface Flux Data
James B Edson1, Douglas C Vandemark2, Hyodae Seo1, Marc Emond2, Cesar Sauvage1 , and Carol Anne Clayson1, (1)Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, United States, (2)University of New Hampshire Main Campus, Durham, NH, United States
OS25E-0970 The Application and Quantification of Systems Engineering Techniques as Applied to the Ocean Observatories Initiative
Matthew Palanza and Paul Matthias, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering, Woods Hole, MA, United States
Wednesday, 14 December 2022
10:00-18:00 CST Exhibit Hall – Visit OOI’s Booth #1321
16:15-16:45 CST Exhibit Hall – OOI’s Booth #1321
Q & A about the Relocation of the Coastal Pioneer Array to the Southern Mid-Atlantic Bight. OOI Coastal and Global Scale Nodes Principal Investigator Al Plueddemann will be on hand to answer your questions about plans and progress on the relocation of the Pioneer Array.
Thursday, 15 December 2022
10:00-18:00 CST Exhibit Hall – Visit OOI’s Booth #1321
Friday, 16 December 2022
09:00 – 12:30 CST (10:00 – 13:30 EST) McCormick Place – Poster Hall, Hall – A
S52C-0077 Unraveling the Distribution of Microseism Sources with Submarine Distributed Acoustic Sensing
Jiaqi Fang1, Ethan Williams2, Yan Yang2, Ettore Biondi2 , and Zhongwen Zhan2, (1)California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (2)California Institute of Technology, Seismological Laboratory, Pasadena, CA United States
10:00-13:00 CST Exhibit Hall – Visit OOI’s Booth #1321
Read MoreRCA and ROPOS: A Long-Term International Collaboration
A Canadian and American team worked side-by-side for 45 days in August in the NE Pacific Ocean during the eighth operations and maintenance expedition for OOI’s Regional Cabled Array (RCA). The team used the Canadian remotely operated vehicle (ROV) ROPOS to conduct maintenance operations on RCA’s underwater cabled observatory spanning the Juan de Fuca Plate and at water depths from 80 m to 2900 m. Intense operations included the recovery and reinstallation of 222 instruments and a 2700 m-tall, two-legged Shallow Profiler Mooring. This expedition took place on the global class research ship the R/V Thomas G. Thompson, operated by the University of Washington (UW). Twenty-six students joined the cruise as part of the UW at-sea experiential learning program called VISIONS.
ROPOS is operated by the Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility (CSSF). The vehicle was specially designed for cabled observatory work, bringing in components from the oil and gas field, and a uniquely designed Remotely Operated Cable Laying system (ROCLS) that allows the vehicle to install extension cables extending for several kilometers on the seafloor. Their work culminated in 2014 during an 83-day cruise onboard the R/V Thompson, which resulted in the installation of >15,000 m of extension cables (in total, ~33,000 m of extension cables was installed on the seafloor), >140 instruments, and platforms on the six-state of-the art moorings with instrumented profiling vehicles. They also installed 18 junction boxes at the key experimental sites using their underbelly latching system that allows the vehicle to directly secure loads up to 4,000 lbs beneath the vehicle. This latching system was adopted by the Deep Submergence Facility ROV Jason, which has conducted multiple RCA maintenance cruises.
[media-caption path="/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/R2209_20220812_091705_launch_ME.Axial-Base_Science-Pod_install-2.jpg" link="#"]The Shallow Profiler Science Pod being deployed with ROPOS during Leg 1 of the RCA 22 cruise at Axial Base. Credit: M. Elend, University of Washington, V22.[/media-caption]
During this latest expedition, ROPOS conducted 60 dives over 33 at-sea days. Keith Tamburri led seven members of the ROPOS team, who worked 12 hours on, 12 hours off for 45 days. Operations are more similar to industry with as little time on deck as possible for the ROV, typically about three hrs before ROPOS reentered the water. Team work is exemplified during ROPOS operations where two pilots each operate a manipulator to conduct complex operations. The ROPOS team was joined in the dive control laboratory by varying members of the RCA’s team, who directed ROPOS activities on the seafloor and throughout the water column, and the VISIONS’22 students who stood 4 hour watches. (A list of ROPOS and RCA team members can be found here).
During this 8th RCA recovery and deployment expedition, the R/V Thompson traveled to all of the RCA sites. ROPOS recovered and redeployed a diverse array of instruments and four small seafloor substations that provide power and communications to instruments on the seafloor and to the instrumented Deep and Shallow profiler moorings. The ROV also was used to install a 500 m long extension cable that allowed bringing the Southern Hydrate Ridge live again. ROPOS also recovered equipment and samples for externally funded principal investigators, including several novel instruments developed by scientists in the US and Germany. ROPOS tasks were many and varied. The vehicle emplaced packages up to 3200 lbs in weight and the pilots skillfully used the manipulators to do everything from scrubbing biofouling off cables to unplugging and plugging in instruments to the seafloor cable
In addition to RCA operations, ROPOS was used to help advance scientific investigations involving instruments added onto the RCA cabled network. For example, as part of an Early Career award to for Dr. Rika Anderson at Carleton College, ROPOS conducted sampling dives using a Universal Fluid Obtainer on the ROPOS porch to sample fluids for follow-on analyses of microbes and viruses. Through another NSF award to Dr. Wilcock and his UW colleague Dana Manalang, ROPOS installed a first of its kind acoustic network on the western and eastern rim of Axial Seamount and within its caldera to examine deformation within the caldera. A suite of CTD instruments were also turned within the caldera to test the hypothesis that brines are emitted from the subsurface associated with submarine eruptions as part of and NSF award to Dr. William Chadwick at the Oregon State University. Lastly, ROPOS inspected a Quantification sonar and recovered an Overview Sonar on Southern Hydrate Ridge as part of a project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research to MARUM at the University of Bremen, led by investigators Gerhard Bohrmann and Yann Macron. In addition, their 4K high-definition camera was cleaned and a CTD turned. The sonar and camera instruments are another example of an international collaboration.
“Our ROPOS team really enjoys working with the team from the University of Washington, School of Oceanography and Applied Physics Laboratory, who are responsible for the RCA. They are a professional, well-organized, efficient, friendly, and mutually respectful group, which makes these long missions at sea productive, efficient, and successful,” said Keith Shepherd, General Manager, Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility. “And for this cruise, in particular, it was a real pleasure working along with UW undergraduates onboard as part of UW’s at-sea experiential program VISIONS. The students brought a curiosity, enthusiasm, and energy that were always welcome during the long hours in the dive control van.”
Added Kelley, “It really takes a tremendous amount of time, effort, and teamwork to pull off an expedition of this length and complexity. We are grateful to have had the opportunity to work again with our Canadian colleagues. It was an excellent international collaboration to help maintain and expand the capabilities of the RCA. “ Because of the complex nature of the undersea work required to keep the RCA operational, few facilities are trained and equipped to execute such operations.
[media-caption path="/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/ROPOS-ROCLS_IEEE-copy-2.jpg" link="#"]ROPOS with the cable laying system ROCLS attached during the 2014 deployments of the extension cables. Credit: M. Elend, University of Washington, V14.[/media-caption]
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