During the VISIONS'14 expedition, it is anticipated that ~150 instruments will be installed to complete construction of the OOI Regional Cabled Ocean Network. The instruments include those that measure physical, biological, chemical and geological parameters to understand myriad processes that operate in the ocean. These include earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, currents, impacts of ocean acidification and global warming, and hydrothermal flow with linkages to biological communities. The instruments listed below are scheduled for installation during VISIONS '14:
- Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler
- Benthic Experiment Package
- Benthic Flow Meter
- Bottom Pressure and Tilt Meter
- CTD - Conductivity-Temperature-Depth
- Dissolved Oxygen Sensors
- Digital Still Camera
- Fluorescence Sensor
- Fluorometer (CDOM)
- High-Definition Video Camera
- Horizontal Electrometer Pressure Inverted Echosounder (HPIES)
- Hydrophone, Broadband
- Hydrophone, Low-Frequency
- Mass Spectrometer
- Nitrate Sensor
- Optical Attenuation Sensor
- Optical Backscatter Sensor
- Osmotic Sampler
- pH and Carbon Dioxide Sensors
- Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) Sensor
- Pressure Sensor
- Remote Access Fluid and DNA Sampler
- Resistivity Probe
- Seafloor Instrument Array
- Seismometer, Broadband Ocean-Bottom
- Seismometer, Short-Period Ocean-Bottom
- Spectral Irradiance Sensor
- Thermistor Array
- Turbulent-Flow Current Meter (VEL3D)
Optical Backscatter Sensor V
Optical backscatter sensors measure the amount of suspended material in the water column, including live phytoplankton, microscopic animals, and detrital (non-living) particles. In coastal regions, suspended inorganic material, such as clays and ...
Fluorescence Sensor V14
The fluorescence sensor measures the chlorophyll pigment fluorescence, which is a proxy for the concentration of phytoplankton in the ocean. Phytoplankton are the small single celled plants in the ocean and form the base of the food chain. ...
Nitrate Sensor V14
Nitrate sensors measure the nitrate concentrations in the ocean. Nitrogen is an essential element or nutrient in plant growth in the ocean, of which the dominant labile inorganic form is nitrate. Nutrients typically have higher concentrati ...
Spectral Irradiance Sensor V
Spectral irradiance sensors characterize the total amount of radiation (energy) present at each frequency or bandwidth in the spectrum separately. ...
Photosynthetically Active Ra
PAR sensors measure the Photosynthetically Active Radiation, which is the spectral range (wave band) of solar radiation from 400 to 700 nanometers that photosynthetic organisms are able to use in the process of photosynthesis. ...
Colored Dissolved Organic Ma
CDOM sensors measure the amount of Colored Dissolved Organic Matter in the water column. ...
Horizontal Electrometer Pres
HPIES is an instrument that utlizes three sensors to measure the horizontal electrical field, the bottom pressure, and the vertical acoustic travel time from the sea floor to the sea surface. The HPIES can be used in conjunction with CTDs to pro ...
Benthic Experiment Package V
The Benthic Experiment Package (BEP) is composed of a hazard-resistant frame, the inside of which hosts an UW-APL-designed Low Power communications housing, and a variety of sensors to measure oceanographic properties that include acidity (pH), ...
pH and Carbon Dioxide Sensor
The pH and CO2 sensors provide information on how CO2 flows through the environment, as well as information about ocean acidity. ...
Osmotic Sampler V14
Osmo samplers draw hydrothermal fluids into small capillary-like tubing and allow long-term sampling of diffuse and black smoker hydrothermal fluids, as well as fluids from methane seeps. ...
Optical Attenuation Sensor V
Optical absorption and attenuation instruments allows total scattering to be derived for living and detrital particles in the ocean. ...
Mass Spectrometer V14
Measurements of dissolved gas concentrations such as carbon dioxide, methane, and hydrogen sulfide are critical to understanding volcanic, chemical, and biological processes in submarine environments. Carbon dioxide in magma chambers helps drive ...
Low Frequency Hydrophone V14
Part of this detection and monitoring of seismic events will be provided by low-frequency hydrophones (2 Hz to 20 KHz) that are well suited to detect the hydroacoustic tertiary phase of T waves of oceanic earthquakes. These sensors also de ...
Turbulent-Flow Current Meter
A curent meter (tripod with red legs) measures local currents and temperature. When deployed in conjunction with a nearby broadband seismomteter, current meters can provide important data for processing of seismic information. Local currents can ...
Conductivity-Temperature-Dep
Sensors on the conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) instrument measure the salinity and temperature of seawater, which are fundamental to understanding the physical structure of the ocean. A dissolved oxygen sensor measures the available oxygen ...
Broadband Ocean-Bottom Seism
Broadband seismometers provide characterization of seismicity/earthquake activity along tectonic plate boundaries where two key phenomena can occur: large-magnitude subduct ...
Broadband Hydrophone V14
The high-frequency broadband hydrophone may be used to hear noises from oceanic creatures as well as human sources. ...
Bottom Pressure and Tilt Met
The Bottom Pressure and Tilt Meter (BOPT) is a custom instrument developed by Bill Chadwick of NOAA PMEL. The BOPT is designed to measure the inflation and deflation of the seafloor at the summit of Axial Volcano using a precision pressure senso ...
High-Definition Video Camera
The high-definition video camera on the OOI RSN cabled system will obtain very high resolution views of black smoker fluids and coupled biologial activity at the Mushroom hydrothermal sulfide chimney within the ASHES hydrothermal field on the we ...
Digital Still Camera V14
Only very rarely has there ever been long-term (~1-year) imagery taken of methane seep and hydrothermal vent sites, yet the information digital stills provide is crucial to understanding ...
Benthic Flow Meter V14
The benthic flow meter measures the velocity of fluids flowing into and out of the seafloor at methane seep sites, which is critical to determining the amount (flux) of methane, hydrogen sulfide, and other gases that are emitted into the overlyi ...
Seafloor Instrument Array V
The cabled Seafloor Instrument Array is associated with the paired Shallow and Deep Profilers and will document near-bottom and water-column processes. Instruments include the following: 150-kHz ADCP, Broadband Hydrophone, Acoustic Modem, Optica ...
Remote Access Fluid and DNA
The RAS (Remote Access Sampler) allows time-series temperature measurement in real-time and in situ sampling of hydrothermal vent fluids, while the PPS (Phytoplankton Sampler) allows filtering and preservation of microbial DNA. ...
Resistivity Probe V14
Known as the "Res Probe," this novel seafloor instrument is designed to go inside the "throats" of high temperature (up to 480°C) black smoker chimneys to measure the resistivity and temperature of the hydrothermal vent f ...
Seafloor Pressure Sensor V14
Real-time measurements provided by seafloor pressure sensors are of great importance because lunar tides, storms, and tsunamis strongly impact pressures at the seafloor and the flow of fluids into and out of the oceanic crust. < ...
Short-Period Ocean-Bottom Se
Short-period ocean-bottom seismometers (OBSSP) detect vibrations from small earthquakes ranging from 0.1 Hz to 100 Hz. These earthquakes are caused by local phenomena, such as melt movement beneath Axial Volcano and upward flow of hydrothe ...
Thermistor Array V14
A custom thermistor array, developed by UW RSN Project Scientist, Giora Proskurowski, is designed to measure the 3-dimensional distribution of temperatures within a diffuse flow site. In 2014.... ...
Acoustic Doppler Current Pro
An Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) provides a 3D water-current velocity for a small volume of the overlying water column by making very high-frequency acoustic (75- to 600-kHz) doppler shift measurements. Deployments of this ...