New Measuring and Data Transmission Equipment for Operational Oceanography at the Gelendgik Black Sea Test Site of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences

Abstract

The article describes the design and operational principles of the MDS-II bottom multimodem station, located in the coastal zone (depth of location 25 m) of the northeastern Black Sea at the Gelendzhik test site of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences. The station is connected to the coastal center by a bottom fiber optic cable, through which power is supplied to the station, and online transmission of measurement data takes place. The station is an underwater server to which one can connect a measuring device and get a real-time access to it, as well as remotely control on its operation. The design of an automatic stationary station for vertical sounding (SSVS) of the water column, which is also used at the Gelendzhik test site, is described as well. This station is moored close to the MDS-II multimodem station and is connected to one of its modems. The station consists of a bottom electric winch installed on the seabed and a floating module (probe) on a cable line wound around the winch drum. When the command “sounding” is given, the cable unwinds and the floating module, equipped with temperature and pressure sensors, floats and measures the water temperature profile from the bottom layer to the sea surface. Then the cable is wound on a drum, and the floating module returns to the bottom layer. A prototype of a new SSVS is being developed, which will allow sounding of the water layer with a thickness of up to 100 m. It will be equipped with a multiparameter probe that makes joint measurements of hydrophysical and biooptical parameters.