MBARI maintains a number of moorings for the purpose of gathering
long term oceanographic data. Each mooring consists of a bouy, an OASIS3 instrument
controller, and a configurable payload of instruments. The moorings are
regularly collected to perform mechanical maintenance and to provide the opportunity
to reconfigure them with a different set of instruments. This periodic maintenance
is known as a turnaround or deployment, and occurs approximately once per year
for each mooring. Currently, MBARI manages three sites near the Monterey Bay,
known as M1, M2 and M3, as well as two in the equatorial Pacific, EP1 and EP2.
For more general information about moorings, visit the MBARI
mooring website.
More information about deployment and maintence procedures may be found in the
maintenance HOWTO.
During a turnaround, the instrument payload is typically altered
to meet new research objectives. The instruments are mapped into available OASIS3
ports, and a power budget is created. The OASIS3 software is configured
to reflect the new instrument list, which may include writing drivers for new
instruments or making changes to existing drivers to fix bugs, modify operation
logic, or make other changes related to cooperation with other instruments in
the payload.
While these changes are being made, the OASIS3 can, cabling and instrument suite
are refurbished, gathered and assembled for test. When the software changes
are complete and there are enough instruments for a first-round test, the OASIS3
software is put into on-board Flash memory on the CF2 card, and testing is performed
on available instruments. Several iterations of the software may be tested as
changes are tested and as the instrument list is edited; Since most OASIS3 configuration
is specified at compile time, changes occur frequently during the mooring configuration.
During this time, instruments and cabling may be done using test hardware
There are typically two final tests done prior to deployment, performed with
final cabling and deployable instruments. The first is an 'open can' test, leaving
the OASIS3 can open for modification, but running the data acquisition software
for several days, checking it periodically to see that valid data is being produced
without interuption. Finally, the OASIS3 can is sealed and a similar test run
for about one week using deployment instruments and cables.
During the deployment, downloads are turned off and the oasis can is reset. Basic instrument function checks are made on deck using a console cable. If a tstring (CTD string) is being deployed, the CTDs are attached and each one is tested using an inductive modem. Time and date are set and checked. Once all instruments are functioning properly, the mooring is deployed, buoy first. Finally, the old mooring is retrieved.
After the mooring is deployed, with data downloads turned off,
the previous period's data is archived, and new data directories are created
for the new deployment's data. The configuration files, data headers, data collection
scripts and processing scripts are updated before resuming downloads.