ADCP firmware, mounting stabilized, CT cleaning schedule

[The following is an excerpt from an email from Jack Stamates (FACE project) that touches on some topics concerned this station's ADCP, its underwater mounting, and plans for regular cleanings of the CT.]

On May 22nd, 2009, Jack writes:

To fill in some details, RD has offered us a firmware Beta version but I am reluctant to deploy it because, if it hangs the instrument up, I am in deep trouble.  (I would need to recover the instrument and open the case.)  Once the Firmware is declared operational (which should be soon) I will give it a try.  Today, the divers stabilized the mounting which was drifting a bit.  They also cleaned the CT sensor.  This will now be done monthly.  The divers reported that there was a fair amount of fouling.

programming update, station photos

A view of the completed PVGF1 station, showing the meterological sensors (foreground) and the USCG channel marker where the oceanographic sensors are mounted (background).  The station electronics are wholly contained within the box to the left.

The CREWS/FACE station at Port Everglades today had its datalogger programming updated, and at the same time its locally-stored data were collected from memory.  These data downloads will be used to "patch" the archives where any of the hourly satellite transmissions failed to get through, and they also include data from the ADCP which does not report its data to the datalogger for near-real time dissemination.

New programming updates will now make it possible for us to feed this station's data to the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC), whence they will be included in the WMO's Global Telecommunications System (GTS), making them available for use by national weather services all over the world.  Look for the station's NDBC reports at:  http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=PVGF1

new station installed, a CREWS/FACE hybrid

A new monitoring station has been installed in the shipping channel leading to Port Everglades.  It is a collaboration between the Florida Area Coastal Environment (FACE) program and the Coral Reef Early Warning System (CREWS) technology developed by the Coral Health and Monitoring Program (CHAMP).  Both programs operate out of NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML).

Showing an overview of all operations:  the dive boat, the channel marker, the running of cables, the trench that was dug, the hard plastic tube that would be buried in the trench, and the sandbags that would be used to weight down the cables at the channel's bottom.

The electronics technicians at work.

The weatherproof box with the station's datalogger, satellite transmitter, and extensive battery backups.

The station includes meteorological sensors (wind, air pressure, air temperature, relative humidity, precipitation) and controlling electronics in a package installed on land, on property controlled by the US Navy.  These electronics are powered by a land-based power feed (essentially everything is just plugged into an electrical outlet) but incorporate a series of four rechargeable batteries capable of running the systems for more than a week even in the absence of the external power feed.  The land-based portion of the station is connected by cabling to two underwater instruments installed directly on the nearby USCG channel marker #7, an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) and a Conductivity/Temperature sensor (CT).  Salinity measurements are calculated from the conductivities and temperatures reported by the CT.

All instruments save the ADCP will report in near-real time.  The ADCP will log its measurements internally and its data will be downloaded manually on a roughly monthly basis.

Current data are available online (http://www.coral.noaa.gov/static/data_pvgf1_Web_12.html) and will soon be fed automatically to NOAA's National Data Buoy Center (NDBC).

Port Everglades Station Online

New station deployed March 19, 2009, at

26.093 ° latitude, -80.109 ° longitude