MVCO – Existing Infrastructure

http://www.whoi.edu/mvco

Janet Fredericks
MVCO Coordinator
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
NSF Sensors Workshop
September 2004
MBARI
Existing WHOI Observatories
H20 – cabled deep ocean
LEO-15 – cabled coastal (WHOI engineering)
MVCO – ethernet-enabled, cabled coastal

Station W2
Ice Tethered Profiler Program
Acoustically Linked Moored Buoy Observatory
Moored Cable Development for Moored Buoy Observatories
Ultra-moor – long-term (five year) moored systems
Marthas Vineyard Coastal Observatory

Vision – Jim Edson & Wade McGillis

Engineering – Tom Austin & Mike Purcell

Scientific Advisor – John Trowbridge

EE Support – Steve Faluotico
Dive & Marine Ops – Jay Sisson
** Plus Scores of others **
http://www.whoi.edu/mvco
3KM offshore
15 meter isobath
Beam installed 4m
below surface
Cabled to bottom
What’s a node?
Collection of guest port boards, custom built by
WHOI engineers, to provide 12V and or 24 V
power to each port and to define the
communications protocol for each port

A communications server and switch connecting

each port to each other and to the outside world
also resides in each node

Ground fault monitoring, as well as leak detection

in the 12 m Node, is also provided
What’s a node?

Instrument
(Serial or Ethernet) NODE

12 & | 24V
Core Instrumentation: Data Flow

Real-time
Data from Instrument Shore lab logger

Fire wall

WWW MVCO Data Processing,

Archiving and Web Serving
Fire wall
Data Structure
Time stamp (YYYYydayScnd)
Instrument ID
Data collection (S0n, A0n, C0n)

Eg, 200324501200ADCP.C09
Other Users
Access to power and
communications, with a gui to
control their port(s)
Often request dive support, ship time
coordination and “mini-nodes”
Met Mast Instrumentation (10 ports)

Camera for beach images – every 5

minutes
Sonic 3D – wind velocity and temp
VaiPTU – relative humidity, pressure
and temperature
In the past there was also pC02
(Licor)
12 meter Node Instrumentation (15 ports)

RDI – Workhorse 2 Hz sampling for

wave parameterization and velocity
profiles
Paros – measures pressure for tide
SBE CTD – salinity and pressure
Pencil beam sonar – ONR/WHOI
Acoustic tests for AUV navigation
issues
ASIT Instrumentation (19 ports)
Mininode - 7 serial ports filled (motion pak,
Son3D, VaiPTU, IR …)
Mininode – 3 serial ports filled (laser
altimeters)
Serial O2 Sensor
Mininode– pCO2/Licor and pumps
Mininode– 3 ADVs frame on the bottom
ASIT – continued
TSK – Wave height (serial)
Mininode – 5 serial instruments/3 pumps
for OASIS – U Maine/ Dalhousie mounted
on a 4 meter tripod placed near the base –
optics/ partical flux/ floculation (LISST,
AC9)
Mininode – NASA flow cytobot, IR, SeaCat
Linux data acquisition system
TAPS – serial
Mini-node
Use the power 12 and/or 24 volts and
Ethernet capabilities to power a PC-104
stack (usually Windows accessed via
VNC)
Add a commercially available relay card
and coms board to provide 8 individually
controlled 12V ports on each mininode
Allows users to utilize ProComm/Mfgr
Software/ NTP time servers … archives
data … acts like shore lab data acquisition
System Monitoring
Check and log port use statistics
Check router traffic using MRTG
Using CRON, check the file size and
date of the core instrumentation and
notify staff when too old or short via
email (daily once noticed, until
cleared)
USERS – surfers are the worst!
System Monitoring
Check and log port use statistics
Check router traffic using MRTG
Using CRON, check the file size and
date of the core instrumentation and
notify staff when too old or short via
email (daily once noticed, until
cleared)
USERS – surfers are the worst!
System Monitoring
Check and log port use statistics
Check router traffic using MRTG
Using CRON, check the file size and
date of the core instrumentation and
notify staff when too old or short via
email (daily once noticed, until
cleared)
USERS – surfers are the worst!
System Monitoring
Check and log port use statistics
Check router traffic using MRTG
Using CRON, check the file size and
date of the core instrumentation and
notify staff when too old or short via
email (daily once noticed, until
cleared)
USERS – surfers are the worst!
Troubles
Frustrations with lack of reliability (need
better connectors, more funding to
provide redundancy)
the cost of coastal research (ship time,
connectors, divers, cables …)
BURN OUT - desperate for more support!
One Heck of a Long Field Program!
What’s next
MUST find a way to better finance
operations to support the user
communities
assure maintenance of the infrastructure
continue to implement improvements to
provide redundancy and reliability ….
Including more core sensors, so they can
be swapped out for maintenance
What’s next ….
Add wireless for functionality and
redundancy in modes of communication
Boats
Moorings
ASIT
Shore Lab
Shore Lab to mainland
What’s next?
Expand geographic coverage
Network of moorings
AUV integration – docking stations?
Expand length of run in cables (DSL?,
fiber? … other ??)
Nearshore node?
Safety Enhancements
Landing at ASIT
Video for pumps
What’s next?
Data Analysis
Scientific Data (Core Instruments)
Engineering Data from Nodes
Network Analysis

Data Management
gui-based port/IP assignment for better
management
Improve MetaData handling
Conclusion: MVCO is good ☺
New opportunities for coastal investigation
available by having access to

“limitless power” (100W/port)

data in real time
a variety of relevant data (core
instrumentation and other investigators)
a stable platform for air-sea investigation