Work Package 2 / 3 TECHNOLOGIAL & PROCEDURAL HARMONISATION FixO3 General Assembly 14 th to the 16 th October 2014, Heraklion-CRETE Observatory 7 W1-M3A

WP 2 / WP3 – Technological & Procedural Harmonisation Task 2.1:Review of the current status of all fixed observing sites Task 3.1: Assessment of procedures Current status of the observatory (October 2014) Position: 009° 07’ 05.39”E 43° 50’ 04.26” N Ligurian Sea, 80 km offshore, 1200 m water depth Type: spar buoy (12 tons/51 m long) Payload: Team: 4 scientists / 1 technician Meteorological package Atmospheric pressure 2D-wind speed and direction Air temperature and relative humidity Short- and long-wave radiation Compact weather station Wave package Wave statistics (Hs, T, Dir) Roll, pitch, vertical acceleration Camera Oceanographic package Temperature (surface buoy: 0, 6, 12, 20, 28, 36 m)‏ Salinity (surface buoy: 6, 20, 36 m)‏ Pressure (6 m)‏ Bio-geochemical package Dissolved oxygen (6 m)‏ Chlorophyll-a and turbidity (6 m)‏ Nutrients (20 m) Turbolence package 3D-wind speed and direction Roll, pitch, yaw Acidification package pCO 2 FixO3 General Assembly 14 th to the 16 th October 2014, Heraklion-CRETE

Data management and data access: WP 2 / WP3 – Technological & Procedural Harmonisation Task 2.1: Review of the current status of all fixed observing sites Task 3.1: Assessment of procedures ParametersReal timeDelayed mode Atmospheric pressure√√ 2D-wind speed and direction√√ Air temperature and relative humidity √√ Short- and long-wave radiation √√ Rainfall√√ Sea temperature (6, 20,36 m)√√ Sea temperature (0, 12,28 m)√ Salinity (6, 20,36 m)√√ Dissolved oxygen (6 m)√√ Chlorophyll-a and turbidity (6 m) √√ pCO 2 (6 m) √ Data manager: Sara Pensieri Two files in MEDATLAS (ASCII) format each day, 6-h interval, available on the W1M3A ftp site. Near real-time data plots in the observatory portal. Significant results/highlights during the first year project MEDATLAS files containing near real time data available from the beginning of the project on the ftp site of the observatory. Products for service activity in test. Collision of bulk carrier UBC Livorno with the buoy on May 2, 2014 caused a postposition of the beginning of service activity and planned maintenance cruises. FixO3 General Assembly 14 th to the 16 th October 2014, Heraklion-CRETE

WP 2 / WP3 – Technological & Procedural Harmonisation Task 2.1: Review of the current status of all fixed observing sites Task 3.1: Assessment of procedures Infrastructure operating scheme: Deployment Repositioning at sea by means of tug or R/V. Deployment Repositioning at sea by means of tug or R/V. Pre-deployment Periodical recovery and structural maintenance. Pre-deployment Periodical recovery and structural maintenance. On the field Standard maintenance to scientific payload and apparatus. On the field Standard maintenance to scientific payload and apparatus. Observatory operating scheme: Acquisition Data are acquired and stored on board at 6 h interval. Acquisition Data are acquired and stored on board at 6 h interval. Transmission Part of the data are transmitted in near real time through an Iridium satellite link. Transmission Part of the data are transmitted in near real time through an Iridium satellite link. Data processing Received data are quality controlled and made available every day as MEDATLAS files to FixO 3 community and in a graphical format on the observatory portal. Data processing Received data are quality controlled and made available every day as MEDATLAS files to FixO 3 community and in a graphical format on the observatory portal. Pre-deployment procedures: Configuration and set-up of meteorological sensors if a failure is detected by the analysis of near real-time data transmitted ashore. Preparation of CT(D) and multiparametric devices to be ready for long-term deployment (battery pack, configuration, antifouling, installation of pump, pipes, etc.) Comparison of DO probes ready to be installed with analytic methods (i.e. Winkler) and/or reference freshly calibrated probes. Comparison with reference standard and/or reference newly calibrated sensors for CT(D), turbidimeter and pCO2 sensors. FixO3 General Assembly 14 th to the 16 th October 2014, Heraklion-CRETE

Deployment procedures: WP 2 / WP3 – Technological & Procedural Harmonisation Task 2.1: Review of the current status of all fixed observing sites Task 3.1: Assessment of procedures FixO3 General Assembly 14 th to the 16 th October 2014, Heraklion-CRETE Observatory Means. Spar buoy is launched at sea from a pier and towed to its operating area by a tug or a R/V. Deployment procedures. Buoy is towed to its operating area in the horizontal position and through ballast changes is “flipped” to the vertical position to become a spar buoy with a draft of about 40 m. Payload Means. Scientific payload is installed when the buoy is in position by people working directly onboard (for meteorological sensors, electronics - data acquisition, control, and telecommunication system -, power supply equipment) and by scuba divers for underwater sensors. Testing/Validation. Equipment is tested in the laboratory and only minor tests are possible onboard for the electronics part. Maintenance on board. Two persons can operate inside the small laboratory or on the trellis to install, recovery, check, clean, and service sensors and equipment. Scuba divers are employed to deploy and recover underwater instruments.

Data transfer. All acquired data are retrieved from the memory of the onboard acquisition system or from the internal memory of the instruments. Surveys. Annual oceanographic cruises are carried out in the North-Western Mediterranean Sea to monitor air-sea interactions processes and to investigate ocean variability. Data post processing. Application of quality control procedures and post-processing techniques to compensate the data for drift using the results of in-situ casts. ( “Data quality control procedure applied to the M3A buoys” (MFSTEP), “Quality Assurance of Real Time Ocean Data” (IOOS), “In-situ data quality control” (Coriolis), “Manual of Quality Control Procedures for Validation of Oceanographic Data” (IOC), “Handbook of Automated Data Quality Control Checks and Procedures” (NBDC), “Recommendations for in-situ data Near Real Time Quality Control” (EuroGOOS), “Data quality control procedures” (SeaDataNet), “Delayed-mode physical timeseries data with QC and calibrations applied” (MERSEA) ). WP 3 – Procedural Harmonisation Task 3.1: Assessment of procedures FixO3 General Assembly 14 th to the 16 th October 2014, Heraklion-CRETE On field procedures: CTD cast upon arrival to the site and at the end of the operations. Visual inspection of all brackets of the meteorological sensors. Check of the functioning of the fan within the thermo-hygrometer’s shield. Clean the dome of the radiation instruments and the detector of the precipitation sensor. Clean and maintenance of underwater sensors.