There has been considerable discussion and planning in the oceanographic community toward the installation of long-term seafloor sites for scientific observation in the deep ocean. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) has designed a portable mooring system for deep ocean deployment that provides data and power connections to both seafloor and ocean surface instruments. The surface mooring collects solar and wind energy for powering instruments and transmits data to shore-side researchers using a satellite communications modem. A specialty anchor cable connects the surface mooring to a network of benthic instrumentation, providing the required data and power transfer. Design details and results of laboratory and field testing of the completed portions of the observatory system are described

This paper presents a comparison between model predictions made with WHOI-Cable and actual measurements of the tensions in a deep-water oceanographic mooring. The mooring is part of the MBARI Ocean Observing System (MOOS) that utilizes an electro-optical-mechanical (EOM) cable to deliver power and communications to a sub-sea network of instruments. The predictions agree acceptably with the measured results, and improvements to the model and validation system that will be incorporated in the next deployment are discussed. Also presented is an outline of the information learned about the mooring cables service environment, both from the deployment results themselves and from the cable dynamics model.

Insulation life testing of an ROV tether cable was recently performed by MBARI and WHOI in cooperation with PCC and CTL. The testing was undertaken to determine whether higher cable operating voltages were possible for future ROV system designs and upgrades. The tests were performed on field-aged samples of 17.3 mm (0.68") steel armored electrooptical tow cable used in small, deep ROV systems such as MBARI's Tiburon and VMOI's JASON. The test results indicate that the cable is capable of long-term operation at higher voltages than presently used with these systems. Design work is now proceeding to incorporate this data into improvements in the power capacity of these vehicles. The paper reviews the basic architecture of ROV power transmission systems, discusses the factors affecting the insulation voltage stress, describes the cable test methods, and reports the results of the tests

Operating instrumentation for collecting time-series experimental data from remote benthic sites in the world's oceans has long been a challenging problem for oceanographers. A moored buoy system concept is presented that provides bi-directional near real-time communication to remote benthic instrumentation at flexible sites up to 4000 m deep using an electro-optical anchor cable. Designed to be deployed from regional class vessels, the mooring system is to be one of the main platforms for the MBARI Ocean Observatory System (MOOS) currently under development. The system concept supports a broad range of instrumentation and sampling strategies including benthic instrument clusters covering up to 10 km of seafloor, upper water column instrumentation and future AUV docking operations. Described are the functional requirements of the mooring system, the design approach, the results of the design trade-off studies completed and the resulting mooring concept design.

A problem common to many studies of harmful algal blooms (HABs) is a need for frequent collection of discrete water samples at many locations and depths, and subsequent enumeration of particular species captured in those samples typically by using light and/or electron microscopy. Collecting appropriate samples over relatively large spatial and temporal scales is limited by the time one can spend on station. Similarly, providing quantitative measures of the abundance of a wide variety of HAB species is often restricted by the time and labor necessary for microscopic observations. In sharp contrast, many physical, chemical and gross biological properties of the water column may be determined in real-time using a variety of airborne, shipboard, moored and/or drifting sensor arrays.,The disparity between the time required to gather and interpret physical and chemical oceanographic measurements versus the effort to identify and enumerate particular micro organisms in the same water column hampers our ability to study, predict and mitigate the negative effects of HAB phenomena. Development and application of species-specific molecular probes (DNA, antibody) has been heralded as one means to speed and ease the detection and quantification of a wide range of HAB species. In turn, it is assumed that our ability to view HAB events in the context of ocean physics and chemistry in near real-time will improve dramatically, as will our capacity for rapidly processing large numbers of samples. However, application of the probes for routine analysis of natural samples is presently hindered by the need for repetitive operations that typically demand trained personnel and specialized laboratory facilities. These requirements severely restrict the utilization of molecular probes for large scale ecological studies because the rate of sample processing is in many cases limited and application of the technology outside of a laboratory setting is difficult, if not impossible. In an effort to overcome these problems a novel instrument was designed to collect discrete water samples autonomously, concentrate particles contained within those samples onto filter disks, and automate application of species-specific DNA probes to identify and quantify particular organisms so captured. In addition to archiving discrete samples, the instrument is also capable of transmitting results of the probe assays in real-time to a remote location for data processing and interpretation. This presentation summarizes the development of this new tool, its use to date, and potential future applications.

Remotely operated vehicle (ROV) control and data systems require that many specialized input/output (I/O) functions be reliably performed in the hostile ocean environment. MBARI's new scientific ROV Tiburon uses a system of I/O multiplexers that are distributed around the vehicle, and connected to the main vehicle computer by high-speed serial links. The multiplexers perform fairly typical ROV I/O functions, but their hardware, software, and packaging has been specifically optimized for the ROV mission. This paper describes the design and application of these multiplexers, dubbed “Data concentrators”, aboard MBARI's new vehicle

MBARI is developing a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) capable of 4000 m depth and designed exclusively for support of oceanographic research. Performance and operational requirements led to an all electric design for the basic core vehicle. The vehicle's electric power system, described in this paper, delivers 15 kW to the various onboard loads, and allocates power using preset priorities when demand exceeds supply. Features of the power system include ground fault and overcurrent detection, switch isolation of all loads, motor regeneration control, and limited dual redundancy. A novel transformer cooling scheme minimizes acoustic emissions from the main power transformer