Martha's Vineyard Coastal Observatory

The Martha’s Vineyard Coastal Observatory is up and the data is flowing at full speed now that the new T-1 line has been installed. Jim Edson and John Krauspe configured the new router and the difference in response was incredible. Many thanks to Linda Benway who got Verizon moving! Thanks also to Roy and Mel Nutting who were always on hand when the phone guy needed access to the lab.

Ed Hobart’s acqui program has been logging away and Janet Fredericks has been busy pulling all the data over from Bob Groman’s archive system. Janet is nearly ready to hand off the data display programs to a web page designer.

Field Ops
October has really been the month when the details have finally come together. John Ware installed Wade McGillis’ surf cam so we can see those waves. The public immediately recognized it as a camera housing and the next day we started getting calls asking how they could get access.

We now have a solid group of divers familiar with the node configuration.

The dive crew stuck with it through search-and-solve dive situations and some rather choppy rides home. Thanks go out to Sandy Williams, Fred Thwaites, Glenn McDonald, Esmail Ali, Oscar Pizaro, Andy Girard and Nan Trowbridge; a great crew with a lot of stamina!

We are hoping that we will soon be using surface supply at the site and are looking for more divers to train with this equipment. Anyone interested should contact Terry Rioux. Terry has really been pitching in to get our dive ops running smoothly.

New User
The most exciting news in October was the installation of our first new user, Craig McNeil from URI, a colleague of Wade McGillis. Craig’s research interests include air-sea gas exchange and chemical, physical and biological processes affecting dissolved gas distributions in the ocean. Craig’s prototype gas tension device (GTD) combines a Paroscientific pressure guage with a semi-permeable membrane to provide a direct measure of CO2.

Info Access
Back at the office Sheila Hurst has been busy helping us to implement a simple system for exchange of the necessary basic information between new users and the operations team. The MVCO news section now has our bi-monthly (?) progress reports, and the "Plugging In" section contains an info sheet with various technical contacts and forms for users to complete when they are ready to have a guest port assigned and configured.

News
Welcome aboard to Jim Irish who will be helping dauntless Jim Edson with some of the necessary but not at all fun organizational issues.

Personal congratulations are due to two of our team members who have not been around as much as usual this month. Both Steve Faluotico and John Ware, who have set up all the instrumentation, are newly wed and have been away on their honeymoons.

Another new soon-to-be-user is Peter Traykovski. He and Jim Irish are planning an ambitious installation as soon as they get a weather window, not easy at this time of year. Peter will be looking at sediment transport and mine burial issues using a scanning head sonar and current meter.

Sandy Williams is busy designing the ASIT (Air-Sea Interaction Tower) for next summer’s CBLAST experiment. He and Jim Edson are planning a busy spring with both the tower and installation of the new cable out to the 20m contour. It will be an exciting and unique operation.

Team Building
Most of MVCO is buried or underwater, not much shows, so it is probably a surprise to many who have been working only on their own aspect of MVCO to realize how extensive and varied a team has been required to get the observatory up to speed.

In addition to those already mentioned our chief engineer was Tom Austin, mechanical design was handled by Mike Purcell and Bob Petitt has been involved with the electronics and data communications system designs. PI Jim Edson has provided inspiration and everything else and Wade has hung in there as co-PI whenever more support was needed. Despite his new position as Department Chair Rocky Geyer is still an MVCO advocate and helping Jim to build a strong MVCO support team.

Butch Grant has built the electronics and he and Andy Girard have handled all the power and fiber terminations. In the shops, major fabrication of the node was done by Jeff Ekblaw and Esmail Ali, among others. John Romiza set up the met mast on the island and Marga McElroy worked on permitting and field logistics. Audrey Rogerson interfaced with development issues and Joanne Trompe and Dave Grey supported most of the photo documentation while Mike Lagrassa has handled most of the complicated contracting with more than ten major construction firms. Apologies to anyone we didn’t mention and thanks to all for a great team effort!

Feedback, suggestions or comments on this newsletter can be sent to mmcelroy@whoi.edu.

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