The oceanographic buoy was moored back at the OOCS station again last 25th Nov 2011. Now, all instrumentation (24 sensors) and telemetry work properly.

The main objective of the observations in this season is to characterise the preconditioning events leading to the phytoplankton late-winter bloom (also called spring bloom). The coordinated meteorological and oceanographic measures by the buoy will provide unique information about these events.Although the planned review period for the buoy was one month, this time extended by a few weeks more due to the continuous and heavy rains that took place during this period. Rain is not good ally at the time of the buoy revision as it remains outside. Therefore, the service engineers (Eduardo and Ramon Munoz) had to wait for several days up to find clear sky days to perform their activities.

During the revision period the following maintenance activities were carried out:

- Replacement of the inductive cable coupler (ICC) by a new one. The former ICC had bugs that caused errors of inductive CTDs’ telemetry. After reviewing the old coupler, a bug was found in the cable electrical continuity. So the problem was on cable and not on the coil of the coupler. The problem was solved by changing both the cable and the ICC.

- Replacement of the surface thermometer. The former thermometer began to show data drifted towards very high values at daylight hours ​​since last August. The sensor was replaced by a new one (thermistor 107). Nevertheless, the new thermometer fail to provide reliable temperature data at daylight hours. This failure may be due to failure in the sequence of electrical resistances along the cabling system. Present air temperature data are those provided by the extra thermometer attached to the relative humidity sensor. 

- Review of solar panels. One of the two solar panels was not working at all and was causing a gradual discharge of the battery. A single panel was not enough to fully charge the battery for the beginning of the fall. In contrast, a single panel was sufficient in summertime. Anyhow, an external breakout box that had disrupted the flow of current was replaced. Thus, the two solar panels are now fully operational and charging the battery as expected providing correct and sufficient voltage.

- Repair and replacement of the fibreglass roof of the float. Several cracks showed the fiberglass covering the float. Cracked parts were replaced by new ones and the rest of fibreglass cover was strengthened. Thus, the current float shows a more solid structure.

- A new calibration factor for the light sensor (PAR) attached to the inductive CTD moored at 26 m depth was applied. Currently, the PAR value provided by the sensor is correct.

- All the electrical connections were checked. Gel desiccant bags of silicone in all the boxes were replaced.