Following nine months of highly successful Cabled Array operations, the University of Washington Cabled Array team is once again gearing up for their second Operations and Maintenance cruise VISIONS’16. The 38-day expedition will be aboard the R/V Sikuliaq, hosting the remotely operated vehicle Jason. As of April, 2016, 80% of the cabled instruments are still streaming live data to shore, over 700 users are accessing streaming seismic data from IRIS, and data are now becoming available through the Ocean Observatories Initiative Data Portal. Since last summer, high definition video has been streaming live 8 times a day from the summit of Axial Seamount, >300 miles offshore and from >5000 feet beneath the oceans’ surface. Three shallow profilers have made over 1600 trips from 600 ft water depth to near the oceans’ surface. Each of the winched profilers streaming data live from 18 instruments each that include pH, CO2, current meter, dissolved oxygen and CTD sensors, and digital still cameras. During the Cabled Array VISIONS’16 cruise, UW scientists from the School of Oceanography and engineers from the Applied Physics Laboratory will recover and reinstall >100 instruments, two science pods on each of the Shallow Profiler Moorings, and recover and reinstall two Deep Profiler Moorings. Testing and refurbishing of instruments and infrastructure is ongoing as we get ready for another exciting month at sea.
