Deploy, deploy, deploy

After an overnight transit we arrived at the start of our third survey profile and we’ve been deploying receivers every 25 to 30 minutes. At this pace we will be maneuvering to deploy SUESI around 9 or 10 am. I better make this post quick so I can get some rest before then. Photos from today below.

We have several students and other volunteers on board who are new to marine geophysics, let alone seafloor electromagnetic imaging, so this morning Samer gave a lecture on how the seafloor EM receivers, the SUESI transmitter and other pieces of hardware work. Here he is explaining how we use acoustic ranging to triangulate the position of the receivers on the seafloor (see the post from two days ago for some data examples).
This little blue pressure case attached to the frame on the EM receiver contains a recording electronic compass, which we use to determine the instrument’s orientation on the seafloor (side note: the 316 stainless steel used on the frame behind it is non-magnetic so it does not distort the compass reading).
The receiver named Dogfish about to be deployed to the seafloor.
Another good sunset tonight.