The KEO mooring design is based on the prototype TAO moorings in the tropical Pacific modified for the harsh conditions in the Kuroshio Extension region. The KEO mooring is a slack mooring with scope 1.40 because of the severe current regime. The upper portion of the mooring is kept fairly vertical (but less so than taut-line moorings) by using a reverse catenary design. Because the mooring line is larger than the ocean depth, the subsurface pressure data should be used to remap the observations onto nominal depths. With a watch circle radius of approximately 6 km, mariners are asked to keep a safe distance from the mooring. Non-rotating 3/8" (0.92 cm) diameter wire rope jacketed to 1/2" (1.27 cm) is used in the upper 700 meters to guard against damage from fish bite. Plaited 8-strand 3/4" (1.9 cm) diameter nylon line is used for the next 4900m of the mooring, spliced to 2280m of buoyant polyolefin mooring line. The anchor was fabricated from scrap railroad wheels, and weighs 3100kg. All hardware is standard equipment as used in other PMEL moorings and deployments follow the traditional anchor last routine. Diagram of KEO-3, May 2006 - May 2007 |
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