Axial Base Deep Profiler Mooring (RS03AXPD)

The Axial Base Deep Profiler Mooring located near the base of the Axial Seamount at the far western edge of the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate, at ~2,600 meters water deep. Axial Seamount is the largest and most magmatically robust volcano on the Juan de Fuca Ridge. Axial Seamount is far from the continental shelf (>350 km) and represents an open-ocean or pelagic site in the continuum of observing scales represented in the OOI’s Cabled Array. Here, large-scale currents including the North Pacific Current, the subpolar gyre and the northern end of the California Current interact. These currents transport heat, salt, oxygen, and biota, all of which are crucial to the region’s ecosystem. However, their variability arises from forcing as varied as tides and winds to interannual (El Niño) to decadal (Pacific Decadal Oscillation) timescales. Because of its close proximity to the magmatically active volcano, instruments on the profiler may also capture perturbed water masses resulting from underwater eruptions at the summit and along the flanks.

As with other Cabled Deep Profiler Moorings, this mooring contains a Wire-Following Profiler that transmits data both through WiFi, as well as through an inductive link at its basal docking station that is connected to the cable.  The Wire-Following Profiler hosts six instruments and moves through the water column along the mooring cable, continuously sampling ocean characteristics over a specified depth interval (150 meters below sea surface to near bottom).  The fiber-optic cable provides the mooring with significant power and bandwidth and is co-located with a Low-Power Jbox, that collects complementary water property data.

Instruments

This site includes following instruments. To learn more about an instrument type, select its name on the left. To see the relevant data streams for a particular instrument, select the instrument code in the first column which will take you to the OOI Data Portal.