Deep Profiler V16

Tim McGinnis and Nick Michel-Hart of the UW Applied Physics Laboratory begin to disassemble and inspect the crawler recovered from the Deep Profiler Mooring at Axial Base. Credit: Mitch Elend, UW; V15.

The Deep Profiler at Axial Base docked in its charging station at the bottom of the mooring. The yellow profiler vehicle climbs up and down the mooring wire between the seafloor and the top buoy, collecting oceanographic data on thin layers in the water column.

Photo Credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF, Dive 1742, VISIONS14

The Deep Profiler vertical mooring hosts an instrumented, Mclane profiler modified by the UW Applied Physics Laboratory that measures ocean properties from ~2900 m to ~ 200 m water depth. Power and data transfer are provided via an inductive couple. The following instruments are included on the Deep Profiler: CTD, Dissolved Oxygen, 3-D Single Point Current Meter -Temperature, and Fluorometers (CDOM, Chlorophyll-a, Optical Backscatter).

There are three Deep Profiler Vertical Moorings on the Cabled Array that were installed in 2015. They are each paired with a Shallow Profiler Mooring and a Seafloor Instrument Array. They are installed at the base of the Cascadia Margin (Slope Base -PN1A), in shallower waters along the Oregon margin west of Newport (Endurance Array Offshore Site  - 600 m), and at the base of Axial Seamount near PN3A (~2700 m).