Station Papa, North Pacific

Location: 50°N, 145°W
Water Depth: 4250 meters

• Global Hybrid Profiler Mooring composed of a wire following profiler and a surface
  piercing profiler
• Two subsurface Mesoscale Flanking Moorings with fixed sensors and acoustic
  communications to gliders
•  Three gliders with extended endurance and acoustic communications to the Mesoscale
  Flanking Moorings

The global component of the OOI design includes a network of moorings at critical, yet undersampled, high-latitude locations such as Station Papa in the North Pacific. The array at Station Papa will be occupied in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which maintains a surface mooring there. As one of the oldest oceanic time series sites, with surveying conducted in the area since 1949, Station Papa has been an
important location in the global network of OceanSITES. OOI will add to the existing infrastructure at Station Papa by adding three additional moorings to the area as well as mobile platforms (gliders) that will sample in the space between the moorings. The array will be composed of a Global Hybrid Profiler Mooring made up of two types of profilers: a surface piercing profiler operating from ~150 m to the surface, allowing satellite data telemetry, and a wire following profiler operating from ~230 m to 3900 m. Two additional subsurface Mesoscale Flanking Moorings will be deployed to form a triangular array ~50 km on a side. These flanking moorings have their uppermost flotation at ~40 m depth and instruments at discrete depths along the mooring line. Gliders, equipped with acoustic modems to relay data to shore via satellite telemetry and will sample within and around the triangular array. These gliders will carry multidisciplinary sensor suites will be commandable to alter their sampling patterns.

Note: Click to enlarge table.

Note: Click to enlarge table.

Note: Click to enlarge table.