VISIONS'14 Expedition
UW to Complete Construction of the NSF-funded Regional Cabled Ocean Observatory
Nearly 45 undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate students from the UW and other institutions will be participating in an historic at-sea enterprise this summer when a UW team completes construction of the first U.S. large-scale high-power and -bandwidth submarine cabled observatory. The VISIONS '14 expedition will take place on board the RV Thomas G. Thompson and will utilize the state-of-the-art underwater robotic vehicle, ROPOS. Students will be divided among seven legs during the course of the 83-day expedition, which is scheduled to begin on 13 July and end on 7 October 2014.
UW was tasked in 2009 with leading the design, construction, and early operations of this cutting-edge infrastructure for ocean science and education, which is a component within the NSF-funded Ocean Observatories Initiative. When fully operational in early 2015, the observatory will provide via the Internet real-time, round-the-clock, publicly available data on ocean processes from six representative study sites in the NE Pacific Ocean. The network features 575 miles of fiber-optic/power cables equipped with more than 100 instruments, including a mass spectrometer, many seismometers, and an HD video camera trained on an active hydrothermal vent field in the caldera of the Axial underwater volcano. Axial is highly likely to erupt within the next decade, so the HD video camera will provide viewers around the world with front-row seats for this event. This is just one example of the kind of new approaches to ocean science and education that will be enabled by the cabled infrastructure.
Students participating in VISIONS ’14 will be benefitting from the UW School of Oceanography’s long-standing tradition of providing hands-on, seagoing experience by working alongside seagoing engineers, scientists, and ship's crew members. The Seagoing Research & Discovery Course, taught by Professors Deborah Kelley and John Delaney, is designed to provide students with the experience of conducting interdisciplinary at-sea research using data collected by advanced oceanographic research instruments and vehicles. Students learn about all aspects of seagoing activities associated with a major oceanographic expedition and will stand watches in the ROPOS control room as well as attend and participate in daily onboard science briefings. Participating students are required to communicate their experiences via blogs on the cruise website and to post their research projects when completed. Plans for VISIONS ’14 call for streaming of live video from ship and seafloor via high-bandwidth satellite onto the Internet during the expedition, so friends, family, and colleagues will be able to follow along.
VISIONS ’14 work is scheduled at the cabled observatory's main study sites: two (Axial Base and Axial Caldera) are associated with Axial Seamount, an active underwater volcano 300 miles west of Astoria, Oregon; one is at the base of the continental slope, 60 miles west of Newport, Oregon; one is on the continental shelf at Southern Hydrate Ridge, the site of methane hydrate deposits. Two other cabled sites on the continental shelf are associated with the Endurance Array, the OOI coastal component led by Oregon State University.
Tasks scheduled for completion include the installation of paired sets of shallow- and deep-profiler systems at three of the six main study sites (Axial Base, Slope Base, and Endurance). These innovative, UW-designed cabled moorings operate from the seafloor to the ocean surface, even in depths of 3,000 meters. (See web stories here and here.) Each profiler carries a variety of instruments, such as fluorometers, current meters, and pressure and dissolved oxygen sensors, to capture data throughout the water column and send it back to shore in real time. Seafloor instrument packages at the base of the moorings will include hydrophones, digital still cameras, and zooplankton and optical attenuation sensors.
More details on installations scheduled for VISIONS14 are available at http://www.interactiveoceans.washington.edu/story/VISIONS_14.
