2012 swapout: aftermath (5 of 5)

The AOML team consisting of Pamela Fletcher (UF/SeaGrant) and Mike Jankulak (UM/CIMAS) returned to Fort Lauderdale on Friday, August 31st, 2012.

All evidence so far indicates that the swapout operation was successful in its goals:  to swap out all meteorological and oceanographic instruments, to replace all underwater cables, to install new rechargeable batteries, to deploy SeaBird Microcat CTDs and their new programming.  Data obtained from the in-boat radio connection and the GOES satellite transmissions suggest that all of these sensors are operational, and have remained so during the station's first four days of uptime.

One possible area of concern is the station's satellite transmitter.  Since the station was not operational for the preceding four months, there was no recent data on how well its satellite transmitter (and its associated antennae) were working.  The station has for quite some time shown a pattern of dropping transmissions chiefly in the nighttime hours, and it was believed that this was caused by failing batteries (and should therefore now be resolved).

However, the station's first four days of operation have shown decidedly mixed transmission results.  These are:

• August 31st:  23 of 24 transmissions received
• September 1st:  13 of 24 transmissions received
• September 2nd:  13 of 24 transmissions received
• September 3rd:  23 of 23 (so far) transmissions received

These numbers suggest that there may be something wrong with the station's GOES transmitter, and that this condition may be intermittent.  More time will be needed to observe the station's transmitter performance and determine whether a particular fault can be identified.  One possible explanation is the previously-noted (mentioned here, with photo) observation of the transmitter's satellite antenna with its peeling paint and the possible implications for moisture intrusion.  Another factor may be that the new batteries have not yet been fully charged by the solar panels, although they achieve higher voltages with each passing day.

In any case, problems with the transmitter should not affect station sensors and data collection which appear, as of this writing, to be fully operational.