A complete cleaning (CTD validation, cleaned all sensors, chains, lines, and spar) at the CREWS Station in La Parguera, Puerto Rico, was done Tuesday, October 5th, 2010 by Wessley Merten. The groundtruth validation sensor was placed at 11:53 and was removed at 15:15pm. All surface and subsurface sensors were visibly intact. All rigging, lines, baseplates, sensors, and the spar were cleaned, but need more attention later this month. There were reports that the groundtruthing sensor was not transmitting or receiving data during the last complete clean. Therefore, prior to plugging the sensor I examined the interface and didn't see a source for a loose/bad connection. In addition, I inspected the cable that the sensor connects to and besides the significant biofouling that was removed I did not discover any damage.
The next cleaning will be performed within two weeks.
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
LPPR1 ICON/CREWS Navigation Light On-site Validation
This evening Wess Merten and Duane Sanabria went out to visit the CREWS station to perform a basic clean and validate that the light was or was not working after the end of civil twilight (~18:51). I recorded three videos: one at 18:55, another at 17:00, and the last at 17:19. The videos can be seen in movie format in the embeded movie below. The light is working, but does it work all the time?
When I arrived to the station today there were 4 brown boobies resting amongst the sensors. This is the most birds I have seen roosting atop the station.
In unrelated but related news, I spotted a juvenile Lionfish(5cm)on the outskirt of the station's reef while cleaning the peripheral lines.
When I arrived to the station today there were 4 brown boobies resting amongst the sensors. This is the most birds I have seen roosting atop the station.
In unrelated but related news, I spotted a juvenile Lionfish(5cm)on the outskirt of the station's reef while cleaning the peripheral lines.
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
CREWS Station Complete Cleaning in September
A complete cleaning (CTD validation, cleaned all sensors, chains, lines, and spar) at the CREWS Station in La Parguera, Puerto Rico, was done Tuesday, September 7th, 2010 by Wessley Merten and Duane Sanabria. The validation CTD was placed at 8:55am and was removed at 12:25pm. All surface and subsurface sensors were visibly intact. All rigging, lines, baseplates, sensors, and the spar were cleaned, but need more attention later this week. Since the last cleaning significant biofouling has grown on the many of the stations surfaces.
The navigational light has been out for the past month. This is according to local fisherman who use this station as a navigational beacon at night.
The next cleaning will be performed within the next week.
The navigational light has been out for the past month. This is according to local fisherman who use this station as a navigational beacon at night.
The next cleaning will be performed within the next week.
CREWS Station Complete Cleaning in May
A complete cleaning (CTD validation, cleaned all sensors, chains, lines, and spar) at the CREWS Station in La Parguera, Puerto Rico, was done May 27th, 2010 by Wessley Merten and Duane Sanabria. The validation CTD was placed at 8:45am and was removed at 12:15pm. All surface and subsurface sensors were visibly intact. All rigging, lines, baseplates, sensors, and the spar are very clean. New screens were placed on the deep and shallow CTD's.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Station back Online
The La Parguera ICON station is back online following the removal of an underwater light sensor by Wess Merton of UPR. This means that all told the station was offline for about eleven and a half days. The removal of the "deep" light sensor appears to have solved the power problems and the station has in fact recharged itself much more quickly than expected. In addition, all other instruments on the station appear to have returned to their prior states of operation. That is to say, other than the two sensors which were known to be malfunctioning (the acoustic wind sensor on the Vaisala Weather Transmitter, and the pressure sensor on the Falmouth "shallow" CTD), all station electronics appear to have survived this adventure unscathed.
As a reminder, the timeline of the station's failure and recovery is as follows:
The station's battery levels normally oscillate between about 12.7 V (nighttime lows) and 13.9 V (daytime highs). Right now (see graph at right, which shows hourly battery levels over the past month) the battery levels are still low but they are recovering a little every day and are expected to return to normal levels after a few more weeks.
As a reminder, the timeline of the station's failure and recovery is as follows:
- Wednesday, April 14th: last station transmission sent at 11:22pm local time.
- Monday, April 19th: remote analysis suggests that the station has lost power due to the failure of its deep light sensor. Parts required for removal of the instrument are shipped to UPR from AOML.
- Friday, April 23rd: the failed light sensor is removed.
- Tuesday, April 27th: first post-recovery transmission is received at 2:22pm local time.
The station's battery levels normally oscillate between about 12.7 V (nighttime lows) and 13.9 V (daytime highs). Right now (see graph at right, which shows hourly battery levels over the past month) the battery levels are still low but they are recovering a little every day and are expected to return to normal levels after a few more weeks.
Sunday, May 02, 2010
CREWs Deep BIC removal on April 23rd
On Friday April 23rd I went out and removed the Deep BIC as requested. Below are photos from the morning. The first is the sensor prior to removal.
In this photo the sensors cable had been removed from the spar by cutting the cable ties holding it in place. The deep CTD was wound up in the same orientation as the Deep BIC; this instruments cable was fixed back to its original position prior to the maintenance. Once the Deep BIC's cable was loose, the sensor was removed by unscrewing the two screws at the end of the mount.
Once at the surface, the sensor was gently laid on its side on a towel while I carefully removed the biofouling that had colonized the cable. Some mussels had managed to grow near the interface between the cable and the sensor possibly allowing a mode of entry for water to the sensor. After the biofouling was removed the cable was unplugged from the sensor and a female adapter plug was placed on the end of the sensors cable. This cable was wound up and placed on the spar as depicted in the photo below.
In this photo the sensors cable had been removed from the spar by cutting the cable ties holding it in place. The deep CTD was wound up in the same orientation as the Deep BIC; this instruments cable was fixed back to its original position prior to the maintenance. Once the Deep BIC's cable was loose, the sensor was removed by unscrewing the two screws at the end of the mount.
Once at the surface, the sensor was gently laid on its side on a towel while I carefully removed the biofouling that had colonized the cable. Some mussels had managed to grow near the interface between the cable and the sensor possibly allowing a mode of entry for water to the sensor. After the biofouling was removed the cable was unplugged from the sensor and a female adapter plug was placed on the end of the sensors cable. This cable was wound up and placed on the spar as depicted in the photo below.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
CREWs Station Surveillance
Surveillance was conducted this morning (Wednesday April 21st) at 9 am to verify that all in-water and above-water sensors were present, intact, and not hanging on by a thread for some odd reason. This survey was conducted after the station went unexpectedly offline last Thursday, April 15th. I'm happy to report that everything was present and visually intact, however an internal cause (i.e. failed cable, water logged sensor) may be the culprit of the outage and would not have been apparent during the visual census. Below are photos of the station from the surveillance.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)