AKU flight w ESP-Honu and 5 Archive Cartridges

Apr 15-18, 2017

This was flight to coincide with the CALCOFI ship, the R/V Shimada.  We were to take a sample at the chl-max near the ship while they did their CTD cast.  These two filters would be compared.  Multiple problems with LRAUV and ESP.  LRAUV launched on Apr 14 without a wet-test of the mission.  That afternoon vehicle sounded its water alarm (water in payload section).  Brett braved weather and recovered that afternoon but considerable damage to vehicle.  Stayed late that evening and repaired.

Next morning (Saturday, Apr 15) Scott, Kevan, Brett, Jim opened Honu.  5-10 ml of water present.  Eventually discovered loose swagelok fittings upstream of the bulkhead valves.  These tightened, and we raced to make the Shimada rendezvous.  Met north of M1, and put vehicle in water.  took ~2 hrs for mission to finally load and begin; Shimada had drifted 500m to our southwest when sampling took place.  Multiple vehicle/instrument issues after that; poor communications to vehicle.  Incorrect cartridge volumes used the protocol so syringes kept bottoming-out.  Vehicle recovered Apr 18.  Three filters recovered; chl-max, and two at 10m. 

Del Mar w/ ESP Waldo

Apr 18, 2017

Deployment for Jon Zehr.  Employed M/V Merlin with Walt Crampton and Jared ?  Divers from SCRIPPs with Rich Walsh.  Van 4 with 5'x9' Uhaul w/ramp trailer.

Used ESP-Waldo sitting ~10m.  Two battery cans and CTD.  MELO worked sporadically for 2 days, then stopped.  Last location said: 

which places it north of the Del Mar buoy (see attached map of prior year deployments from Uwe Send).  

Jun 6, 2017

Rich Walsh of SCRIPPS went to buoy and swapped the non-working MELO with a newer one that we had sent down.  We are now getting hourly (correct) positions.

Sept 6, 2017

Final recovery of Waldo.

AKU flight w ESP-Honu and 5 Archive Cartridges

Apr 27- May 8, 2017

This was part of a 5-vehicle launch (Tethys, Daphne, Aku w/ ESP Honu, Ahi, Opah).  Gabe Foreman arrived from UH to help with piloting.  Adam Jones helped launch Aku and Opah.

Ran multiple simulation to test the mission.

On Weds, May 3, tried first 'real' concurrent sampling.  Cartridge 1 threw an alignment error--could not push on plunge valve.  We labeled that cartridge 'wet' and moved to cartridge 2.  But this notification not written to file, and was lost when power was cycled.  Thus, we thought we were onto cartridge #2, but in reality were on #1 (which started working....).  Sampling was as follows:

 All cartridges started filtering at 60m depth while vehicle ascended to surface, where filtering stopped.  WF took CTD casts in the same area at same time.  Kevan took 2L each from each of these bottles: 60m, 40m, 20m, 10m, surface and mixed the 10L in a carboy.  From that carboy, he sampled 1L through a cartridge on tackle-box, and 1L (x3) on peristaltic.  Sample #2 had 1L (x3) through the tacklebox cartridge.  Francisco took 1L from each of those depths and peristaltic filtered.

 Because of the cartridge number mix-up, Honu returned with a dry #5 cartridge, which we ran as a negative control in the lab.  Investigation of the alignment issues is ongoing.

Summary of 3G flights to this point (Dec 2017):

Makai flight w ESP-Koa and 60 Archive Cartridges

Dec 12 - 19, 2017

We decided to generate 5 'blocks' of behavior (below) each testing a certain collection scheme, with replicates.  Combined samples for Ed with samples for eDNA work.

Out of 60 cartridges, 15 are controls (9 pre-experiment + 6 post-experiment); 45 will be fired offshore.
The 45 field samples are divided into 5 blocks, each block containing 9 samples.
In each 9-sample block, firings are in triplicate bursts: 1, 2, 3 in one continuous burst; then 4, 5, 6; and then 7, 8, 9.

Scientists and engineers will jointly select appropriate sampling locations in consideration of oceanographic features as well as LRAUV operation safety.

Block 1 (Bathymetry alert due to deep sampling):
Mission files:
chlpeak_sampling_InAboveBelow.xml, in donut mode.
depth_sequence_sampling.xml
First, vehicle transits to M1-northeast: 36.760, -122.012
Then, kick off mission, setting waypoint to M1. Vehicle will do an horizontal search for high chl between M1-northeast [36.760, -122.012] and M1 [36.750, -122.022]; set the hi-chl spot as the sampling location; run a cylinder around the sampling location
Run chlpeak_sampling_InAboveBelow.xml:
3 samples at vertical chl peak depth
Then, run depth_sequence_sampling.xml:
3 samples at 100m depth
3 samples at 250m depth
Total: 9 samples, ~15 hours (presuming 1hr filtration time + 0.5hr processing time for each sample + initial horizontal hi-chl search and cylinder time).

Block 2 (Bathymetry alert due to deep sampling):
Mission file: smear_sampling.xml, in donut mode, on the first 3 samples.
Mission file: depth_sequence_sampling.xml, in donut mode, on the remaining 6 samples.
3 samples smearing between 5m and 100m depths
3 samples at 100m depth
3 samples at 5m depth
Total: 9 samples, ~14 hours (presuming 1hr filtration time + 0.5hr processing time for each sample)

Block 3:
Mission file: isotherm_sampling.xml, in donut mode.
Initial horizontal search for high chl in local area; set the hi-chl spot as the sampling location; run a cylinder around sampling location
3 samples at the temperature corresponding to the vertical chl peak.
3 samples at chlpeak temp - deltaT1
3 samples at chlpeak temp + deltaT2
Total: 9 samples, ~15 hours (presuming 1hr filtration time + 0.5hr processing time for each sample + initial horizontal hi-chl search and cylinder time).

Block 4:
Mission file: chlpeak_sampling_InAboveBelow.xml.xml, in drift mode.
Initial horizontal search for high chl in local area; set the hi-chl spot as the sampling location; run a cylinder around sampling location
3 samples at chl peak depth
Vertical perturbation to reacquire chl peak
3 samples at chl peak depth
Vertical perturbation to reacquire chl peak
3 samples at chl peak depth
Total: 9 samples, ~16 hours (presuming 1hr filtration time + 0.5hr processing time for each sample + initial horizontal hi-chl search and cylinder time + vertical perturbation time).

Block 5:
Mission file: depth_sequence_sampling.xml, in donut mode
Scientists determine a horizontal feature, and set a certain depth for sampling
3 samples at the set depth on one side of feature
3 samples at same depth in feature
3 samples at same depth on other side of feature
Total: 9 samples, ~16 hours (presuming 1hr filtration time + 0.5hr processing time for each sample + transit time)

Vehicle recovered Dec 19, and discovered pulled wire on toroid valve.  Toroid pins never moved, so each sampling event pumped through ring (thus the constancy in filtering times).  All filters were preserved with RNALater, but none had any biomass.  Severe disappointment.  Next flight will be late January 2018.

plot_map_delmar_pos_20170414.pdf (application/pdf)