Installing oceanographic monitoring instrumentation on the seafloor

USGS research geologist Curt Storlazzi installs an instrument package on the seafloor of Maunalua Bay, Oʻahu. The platform, called a MiniPROBE, hosts six upward-looking acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCP), seven conductivity and temperature (CT) sensors, and eight self-logging optical backscatter sensors (SLOBS). The data collected from these bottom-mounted oceanographic instruments helped Storlazzi and his fellow USGS scientists to gain an understanding of circulation and sediment dynamics in Maunalua Bay’s coastal waters.