Sunday, August 28, 2011

Electronics installation, three of three

[Reminder: you can click on any of these pictures to see a larger version thereof.]

Our third and final day at the pylon was on Saturday, August 27th.

Our originally scheduled departure day was Thursday, August 25th, and since the underwater instruments were all working properly it was decided that most of the installation team (Derek, Rachel, Ross) would leave on schedule. I extended my stay by four days to wait for weather and seas to ease up and hopefully give me one more day at the pylon to troubleshoot the misbehaving anemometer.

We couldn't do this last operation by rowboat, since I needed a working surface where I could (1) retrieve the "brain" and the anemometer, (2) power the brain off the boat battery and connect the anemometer, and (3) use my laptop to connect directly to the brain and determine what was wrong with the wind sensor. Some way had to be found to bring a larger boat around the island to Lao Lao Bay.

Unfortunately, Wednesday and Thursday saw some of the worst weather of our stay, and TS Talas formed on the Thursday from all of the stormclouds that had been plaguing us. I consulted with Kraig Church of Seafix, Inc. and he eventually settled on Saturday as the last best chance to get a boat to Lao Lao Bay. By then the departing TS Talas had pulled away most of the stormclouds but it left seas on the usually-calm western side of the island a lot rougher in its wake.

Happily the Seafix folks were able to get a good-sized boat to Lao Lao Bay as planned and Saturday morning's operation came off as planned. We also met up with David Benavente (CRM) and Steven Johnson (DEQ) who shadowed me all week for training purposes.

As planned, I retrieved the ailing anemometer and the station's "brain" to the boat for diagnosis. It turns out that one of the wires had broken loose from the connectors we use atop the pylon and had to be replaced. Our operation was drawn out longer than expected because of confusion I experienced when my anemometer wiring diagram did not match the wiring I'd previously connected to the datalogger (in March of 2010, so memories were no longer fresh). It turns out that there are two different versions of this manual, one by the instrument manufacturer (RM Young) and one by the datalogger manufacturer (Campbell Scientific), and the latter manual which I'd brought with me had the wrong wiring information for our sensor. By trial and error I was able to determine the correct wiring of the sensor and out of an abundance of caution I installed the project's "spare" anemometer in place of the instrument that had originally been installed and found to be non-working.

Once we finished with the troubleshooting, all equipment was reinstalled and this time CRM's David Benavente donned the protective gear, climbed the station, and turned it on! Again we packed up the station and left not knowing whether everything was working but this time the news from land was good: all systems operational! A picture of the completed station follows:



We are deeply grateful to our hosts on the island: from Coastal Resources Management (CRM) David Benavente, Rodney Camacho, Guy Macaranas and others; from the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ, Steven Johnson; from Seafix Inc, Mark Blackburn, Kraig Church, Jesse (our Saturday boat operator) and others. Speaking for the installation team of Derek Manzello (UMiami/CIMAS), Rachel Kotkowski (NOAA Corps), Ross Timmerman (UHawaii/PacIOOS) and myself (UM/CIMAS), we very much appreciate the warm welcome we were given out in the field and on land, this operation would not have been possible without the enthusiastic support of CRM, DEQ and Seafix.

(signed)
Mike Jankulak

photo credit: Steven Johnson

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Electronics installation, two of three

Our second day in the field was on Tuesday, August 23rd. Logistical complications abounded!

The boat trips around Saipan's southern point the previous Friday had been pretty rough, but as we got further into our stay the seas worsened considerably. A large area of stormclouds had lingered over the entire area since we arrived, part of a tropical system that later developed into TS Talas (on August 25th). We tried to return to the pylon on Monday, August 22nd but the seas prevented the boat with all of our instruments from rounding the southern point and reaching Lao Lao Bay, so we aborted that day's trip.

For Tuesday (the 23rd) conditions were no better, and with only two days left to work before returning we had to consider other options. We brought the installation contractors (Seafix Inc., led by Mark Blackburn and coordinated by Kraig Church) back into the conversation. We discussed the possibility of chartering a larger boat that could safely navigate the higher seas but in the end we accepted Kraig's offer of the use of his cliff stairs (to bring our equipment down to Lao Lao Beach) and rowboats (to row out across the relatively calm waters of the bay to the pylon). I rowed our equipment out on the rowboat with a second boat towed behind and two CRM/DEQ folks in the water to help steer. The divers drove further up the road to enter the water below the golf course. This would be our first-ever rowboat-supported station installation (see photo at right).

All in all things went reasonably well. Steven Johnson (DEQ) stayed in the boats to hand up tools and equipment while I worked up top, and CRM folks (including Rodney and David) stayed in the water to help maneuver the two boats closer to the station when necessary. We started by running the five underwater cables so that the divers could begin installation of the underwater instruments. These included the "deep" light sensor or BIC, the "deep" Teledyne CTD, and the "shallow" Seabird/PacIOOS CTD with add-on chlorophyll and turbidity sensors, all of which wer permanently installed. Pictures of the BIC, "deep" CTD and "shallow" PacIOOS CTD (in this order) here follow:





A fourth cable was for the "groundtruth" CT which was left connected throughout the installation and after but will shortly be retrieved by CRM/DEQ. A fifth cable was for a second "extra" CT planned for deployment at the "shallow" level near the PacIOOS CTD. Unfortunately this second CT was dead when we pulled it out for testing after its 16-month rest in storage, but this sensor's cable was installed and connected and the programming is running on the station, so it can be added on whenever a repaired/replaced sensor comes available.

The pylon-top instruments included the Vaisala "Weather Transmitter" or WXT, a surface light sensor (BIC), an anemometer with electronic compass, a barometer, and an air temperature sensor. The last step was to install the main electronics board (what we sometimes call the "brain"), connect everything up, and turn on the power switch. We were missing the required radio transceiver antennas throughout this operation (they have now arrived in Saipan and have been added to the CREWS storage box for use during future operations), but without a larger boat (and boat battery) we could not have communicated with the station anyhow. So we left the station without knowing whether it was working properly.

From land that afternoon and evening, the results were found to be mostly positive: the station was indeed communicating by digital cellular modem, which marks a milestone of the first time a CREWS station has been deployed using this communications method. All installed instruments were operating correctly except one, the analog anemometer, whose wind speeds were all reporting near zero and whose directions were only intermittently non-zero.

One more day at the pylon would be required to diagnose and fix whatever was ailing the anemometer.

(signed)
Mike Jankulak

all photos by Derek Manzello

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Electronics installation, one of three

On Friday, August 19th the electronics installation team made our first visit to the pylon. The underwater team was made up of Derek Manzello (UMiami/CIMAS), Rachel Kotkowski (NOAA Corps), and Ross Timmerman (UHawaii/PacIOOS). At the pylon-top was yours truly, Mike Jankulak (UMiami/CIMAS). We joined in the boat by Coastal Resoures Management (CRM) and Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) folks, including David Benavente, Rodney Camacho and Guy Macaranas (from CRM) and Steven Johnson (from DEQ).

The main electronics were still required on land for a full systems test to take place the following day (Saturday), but we wanted to get out to the station at least once before the weekend, look around, and begin our work. On this visit we installed the station batteries and navigational light as well as the extended platform mount for the underwater light sensor (see photo).

(signed)
Mike Jankulak

photo credit: Derek Manzello