The first day of the ROXSI project was a staging day that consisted of an initial meeting of the teams who then quickly got to work on the unloading and assembly of all the instruments/gear needed for the project. There were a total of 71 instruments all of which needed to be unloaded, assembled, and prepped for deployment.

Just a few hundred grand in ADCPs waiting to be mounted

On the ADCP front, work began with the building of platforms for which ADCPs would be mounted. The battery and ADCP were both wrapped in tape in order to protect them from biofouling and speed up the cleaning process after deployment. Once they were sufficiently protected from sealife, a battery and ADCP were mounted to each platform.

Compass calibration station

In their fully assembled forms, each platform weighed in at a very healthy 140 lbs! These heavy platforms were then trollied from their assembly station to a table outside the beach lab for compass calibration. In order to perform a compass calibration on the ADCPs, the platforms had to be lifted up and rotated slowly around a single axis until the error margins (in degrees) were sufficiently low. 

Once the compass calibration was performed, the platforms were then trollied back inside to the beach lab where they were programmed and the final preparations before they were deployed began. 

The soloD pressure sensors had a much simpler assembly procedure, during which they were attached to their platform, programmed, and also underwent final preparations before their deployment. 

Meanwhile, at the dock, the boats were loaded with moorings and prepped for the deployment of instruments. 

post by Kaden Quinn