PAP

Porcupine Abyssal Plain Observatory

Array of moorings covering the entire water column and benthos with associated repeat ship occupations for process studies and collections not possible autonomously (eg benthic megafauna) Longest running multidisciplinary North Atlantic open ocean sustained observatory delivering atmospheric and physical and biogeochemical ocean datasets in near real-time.

Infrastructure Location

Study Area

Status / Maintenance

Data Information

TNA

The PAP-SO has over 20 years of history as a sustained time-series site. There are three main installations that form part of the PAP-SO.
1. Full depth mooring (0-4850m) with surface buoy, atmospheric measurements, upper ocean measurements
2. Sub-surface sediment trap mooring (3000-4850m)
3. Seafloor Bathysnap lander system for time-lapse photography and related seafloor studies
Since 1989 the site has been the focus for routine sampling for water column processes and benthic time-series during annual cruises. Autonomous installations offering year-round measurements began
in 1989 including a sub-surface sediment trap mooring and a Bathysnap time-lapse camera system. Since 2002, a full depth ocean mooring has been in place, producing multidisciplinary time-series data from the upper water column (~30m) and offering satellite transmission capability for near realtime delivery of datasets. The unique suite of multidisciplinary time-series datasets are vital for assessing the ocean health and have led to fundamental discoveries about biogeochemical fluxes (e.g. assessments of the North Atlantic carbon sink and productivity estimates) and deep-sea ecology. In addition, the site also has a complimentary suite of sensors measuring atmospheric variables. These are managed separately by the UK Met Office. The installation for providing these datasets is not costed here, but the meteorological datasets add value to ocean datasets, increasing the demand from users of the infrastructure.

Surface and upper ocean
Hosting: The surface buoy and full depth mooring can host additional instrumentation for atmospheric, air-sea interface and upper ocean monitoring.
Data: Atmosphere: Wind speed and direction, Relative humidity, Air temperature, sea temperature, Atmospheric pressure, significant wave height and period. Water column: Salinity, temperature, currents, pCO2, dissolved oxygen, nutrients, Chlorophyll-a

Sub-surface sediment trap mooring
Hosting: The sub-surface sediment trap mooring can host additional instrumentation at depths
between 3000 – 4800m depth
Data: particle flux and currents

Seafloor
Hosting: Lander system with Bathysnap time-lapse camera positioned on the seafloor at 4850m depth.
Additional sensors can be mounted on module and a complete description will be provided to this aim
during FixO3. Communication with surface via acoustic modem is planned during FixO3.
Data: time-lapse photography for seafloor ecosystem studies.