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Diagram of JKEO1, Feb. 2007 - March 2008
The
JKEO mooring design is based on the KEO of which prototype is TAO moorings
in the tropical Pacific modified for the harsh conditions in the Kuroshio
Extension region. The
following description is based on that at KEO web site. The
JKEO mooring is a slack mooring with scope 1.40 because of the severe current
regime. The upper portion of the mooring is kept fairly vertical (but less so
than taut-line moorings) by using a reverse catenary design. Because the
mooring line is larger than the ocean depth, the subsurface pressure data
should be used to remap the observations onto nominal depths. With a watch
circle radius of approximately 6 km, mariners are asked to keep a safe
distance from the mooring. The
surface buoy is a 2.3 m diameter fiberglass-over-foam toroid with center hole
glassed over. It has an aluminum tower and a stainless steel bridle with load
cell to measure tension of the mooring. When completely rigged, the system
has an air weight of approximately 660 kg, a net buoyancy of nearly 2300 kg,
and an overall height of 4.9 m. The electronics tube is approximately 1.5 m
long, 0.18 m diameter, and weighs 27 kg. The buoy can be seen on radar from
4-8 miles depending on sea conditions. Non-rotating
3/8" (0.92 cm) diameter wire rope jacketed to 1/2" (1.27 cm) is
used in the upper 700 meters to guard against damage from fish bite. Plaited
8-strand 3/4" (1.9 cm) diameter nylon line is used for the next 4900m of
the mooring, spliced to 2280m of buoyant polyolefin mooring line. The anchor
was made from iron srab, and weighs 3100kg. All hardware is standard
equipment as used in other PMEL moorings and deployments follow the
traditional anchor last routine. As
with TAO mooring systems, the subsurface sensors clamp onto the wire rope
strength member that serves as the inductive element. Addressable modules on
the cable allow the system to be expanded for new sensors by adding the
appropriate hardware and software interfaces. Flexibility in the design also
allows the interface of additional sensors including barometric pressure and
ocean currents. Most measurements are made at a sample rate of 10 minutes,
with the exception of short-wave and long-wave radiation (2 minutes), and
rainfall (1 minute). These high temporal resolution data are recorded
internally and available after mooring recovery. Last updated on December 26, 2008 |
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Home/Overview
| Technical Info | Data
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Kuroshio Transport and Surface
Flux Group, Ocean General Circulation Observational
Research Program, Institute of Observational
Research for Global Change (IORGC), Japan Agency for Marine-Earth
Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) 2-15 Natsushima-cho
Yokosuka-city,Kanagawa, 237-0061, |
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JKEO web master |