Leaps and Bounds at the Shore Station
Friday, July 29, 2011
Crated equipment awaiting installation at the OOI shore station in Pacific City.
--Photo by Chris Hoyt, University of Washinton OOI Field Operations Manager
Equipment awaiting installation
Anticipation intensifies, even as the recent flurry of activity at the OOI shore station in Pacific City has begun to subside. Installation and operational checks have been completed on all but the Line Monitoring Equipment* component of the Submarine Line Terminal Equipment**, land cables are extended from the shore station and spliced to ocean cables at the beach manhole, and fine details are being attended to as the Power Feed Equipment*** installation nears the end. We've seen significant progress amidst an assortment of challenges and gained a fair amount of knowledge in the process. Images portray before and after scenes in the shore station equipment room.
We'll have about a week to catch our breath, before launching into a rigorous two-week operational check of the Power Feed Equipment, followed by testing and commissioning of the Line Monitoring Equipment, both of which incorporate the submarine cables presently being laid in the ocean. A significant milestone indeed!
--Chris Hoyt, University of Washington OOI Field Operations Manager
*The Line Monitoring Equipment monitors the health of the fiber-optic lines and locates any cable faults.
**The Submarine Line Terminal Equipment consists of Transmission Terminal Equipment with multi-channel transmission capability for transmitting data to and from the undersea observatory nodes, the Line Monitoring Equipment, and an Element Management System that will be used to monitor optical line performance and amplifier status.
***The Power Feed Equipment powers all the undersea nodes and science-gathering devices, as well as the optical line amplifiers on the submarine fiber-optic cables.
