Written by: David Rivera

One of my primary job duties within the NOAA Engineering Development Division is to provide operational and technical field support to various research groups within the Pacific Marine Environmental Lab here in Seattle (PMEL). This season I participated on two major research cruises with the Ocean Climate Station research group to service two deep water mooring systems- Ocean Station PAPA and the Kuroshio Extension Observatory (KEO). The moorings are currently collecting both oceanic and meteorological measurements for the purposes of improving weather modeling as well developing a more comprehensive understanding of air and sea climate interactions. The PAPA mooring site is located in the Gulf of Alaska while the KEO mooring site resides south of the Kuroshio Extension current off the coast of Japan.

Our mission on these two research cruises was two deploy and recover two new complete systems for continued climate monitoring. This year we were able to conduct the Ocean Station PAPA research operations in collaboration with Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans aboard the Canadian Coast Guard Vessel John P. Tully while operations for the KEO cruise were conducted aboard the Motor Vessel Bluefin, a Seattle based private charter vessel used to service NOAA’s National Data Buoy Center mooring array in the Pacific. Since being deployed the KEO buoy has measured 81 knot wind guests with 3 knot currents from a new tropical storm that’s approaching Japan. These were record-setting numbers for the KEO buoy. Read more on these updates on Ocean Climate Solution’s website here.