MVCO Waves Newsletter - June 17, 2003
(Click here for pdf version)

MVCO has had a very busy spring season as summer field projects are now beginning. There has been so much interest in integrating a broad range of water biogeochemical measurements that Associate Scientist Wade McGillis is pulling together funding to lay a second power cable from the 12-m node to the ASIT. This will increase the system's available power at the 15-m site from 2 KW to 4 KW. Our power-hungry biologists are anxiously awaiting this enhancement.

New Instruments

In addition to a successful redeployment of the Olson/Sosik Flow Cytobot, two new instrument packages arrived at the ASIT site this month, and by the time the August CBLAST (Coupled Boundary Layer Air-Sea Transfer) program is installed all nineteen of the ports will be in use.

Scott Gallager and crew deployed the Autonomous Vertically Profiling Plankton Observatory (AVPPO) about 120 m south of the ASIT. The AVPPO (above right, on deck of R/V Connecticut) collects data on the vertical position and taxonomic composition of the plankton together with environmental data on cm scales in high-energy shelf regions of the ocean. It consists of a video plankton recorder coupled with a broad suite of hydrographic instruments. The profiler floats to the surface once an hour and is pulled back down into its cradle by an underwater winch.

The deployment objectives are multi-factored: First, to provide high temporal resolution (one profile per hour) water column data on temperature, salinity, light transmission, up and down welling irradiance at five wavelengths, chlorophyll fluorescence, CDOM fluorescence (Dissolved Organic Matter), dissolved oxygen (DO), and phyto and zooplankton composition and abundance at a vertical resolution of 1 cm or better. Secondly, it will provide preliminary data on the usefulness of a permanent profiling system at the MVCO site to detect the effects of stratification on the vertical distribution and composition of the plankton community in relation to strong wind events and data from remote sensing platforms. In the long term, it will be significant in assessing the overall importance of coastal monitoring of the carbonate system within a climate observation context.

Real-time plots of the data are available on the website http://4dgeo.whoi.edu/vpr both as a simple time series and as color contours. Scientists interested in acquiring full resolution, unbinned data should contact Scott Gallager.

CBLAST is UP

CBLAST collaborators are beginning summer deployment operations. Al Plueddemann has installed his Fanbeam Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) about 10m south of the ASIT. This type of ADCP has a beam pattern covering about 180° and about 45° upwards. It is oriented towards the SW and will be used to monitor Langmuir circulation or near-surface circulation cells that form when the wind slacks.

Jim Edson and his team have also started to mount the air-side instruments on Mike Purcell's downward telescoping mast. Multiple instrument groups at three levels will monitor the fine-scale fluxes, transfers of gases and energy between the ocean and atmosphere.

Marine contractor Chip Shultz and crew recently installed clamps on the legs. The massive beam that will support the water-side instruments is being assembled in our shop and will soon be attached to the clamps.

This illustrates some of the key processes the CBLAST program will be investigating, including wind influences on near surface currents.

Planning Issues

As our user group grows we will need to work hard at keeping communication open and coordinating activities. Everyone should remember to include both Dive Manager Jay Sisson and Ops Manager Marga McElroy in the planning loop. This will avoid space and resource conflicts while helping to assure efficient and economical sharing of vessels and deployment costs.

User Group News
The spring meeting provided some good ideas for disseminating feedback on user experiences and information. As our knowledge grows concerning different deployment strategies, we need to make the information easily accessible to maximize our efficiency. We are going to establish three on-line news groups, roughly as follows:
whoi.mvco.users for general user communication; whoi.mvco.alert for alerts such as the system will be down today, etc.; whoi.mvco.cruise_reports for cruise or data reports to be archived. There's still time to provide input on these news groups (see contact information below).

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

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