September 17th, 2009

Yes, we got it !

The buoy has been successfully moored at its final location with full instrumentation on board!

After more than a month of testing meteorological instrumentation and ADCP, the buoy has been moored at a final location in the Blanes Canyon Head at 41° 36.3' N; 2° 52.8' E (NW Mediterranean Sea).

The buoy is now equipped with all planned oceanographic instrumentation. How long the excellent health conditions of this living organism will remain? That's the big question. It can be one more day or even a year. We don't know!

Human activities in the area and eventual extreme environmental conditions are potential hazards for the buoy system. Anyhow, we will continue checking every day the overall functioning of all the instrumentation via telemetry. We will continue making fortnightly inspections of the buoy on board the CEAB's vessel Dolores. At the same time we will perform vertical profiles of the oceanographic conditions in order to detect eventual derive of measurements of sensors. We plan to perform major inspections of the buoy structure and the instruments every six months on board R/V García del Cid.

Please have a look to different phases of the mooring operation!