NEPTUNE Canada

VENUS Celebrates 6 Years!

08-Feb-12

Six years ago today, at 4:45 AM, 8 Feb 2006, the first VENUS instrument platform was plugged into the central node and brought online. Congratulations to VENUS for reaching this amazing milestone!! A lot has happened between then and now, and many more exciting plans are in the works for further development of the VENUS Coastal Network.

Looking Back

The original VENUS website (Aug 2002)

VENUS website after going live (Feb 2006)

Discovery Video of the VENUS Node Deployment.

Orcas Playing at Folger

01-Feb-12
We're hearing Orcas via our Folger Passage hydrophone right now!! Here's the link: Listening to the Deep Ocean. (Click Folger Passage on the LIDO map.)

Tiltmeters for Megaquakes

20-Jan-12

Japanese scientists have recently gained new insights in to the mechanisms involved in the massive magnitude 9.0 Tohoku-Oki earthquake that produced a devastating tsunami last March. Apparently, slow "silent slips" preceded the magnitude 7.3 foreshock that triggered the temblor.

Tiltmeters are one way to monitor such "slow slip" events, and we're looking forward to installation of a tiltmeter on our network, thanks to collaborations with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Related news story: A Tantalizing View of What Set Off Japan's Killer Quake.

Happy 2012!

01-Jan-12

Best wishes to all for a fantastic and productive 2012!

Website Update

09-Nov-11

Our website has a new look to match the new websites released today of Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) and the ONC Center for Enterprise and Engagement (ONCCEE).

ONC's new websites:

Ocean Networks Canada
ONC Center for Enterprise and Engagement

Folger Node Outage

25-Oct-11

Our Folger Passage node and all associated instruments have been offline since September 20. It has been diagnosed as likely due to a fault in or near the Folger Passage branching unit.

Repairs are scheduled for mid-November 2011, with the expectation they will be completed in November 2011.

Live hot vent Webcam

07-Oct-11

We now have live hot vent webcam video streaming from Grotto Hydrothermal Vent, located at a depth of 2186m on Endeavour Ridge.

The video is captured by Tempo-Mini, a unique device developed by France's IFREMER research institute. (Related blog post.)

Nootka Fault Earthquake

09-Sep-11

Exactly one week after an earthquake shook Alaska's Fox Islands, a magnitude 6.4 temblor struck near Nootka Island of BC's west coast. Our network gathered data from the event, shown and analyzed on the UnderPressure Blog.

Wiki Outage

20-Feb-12

We're working to resolve an outage on part of our website, including help help & instrument documetation, blogs and the Projects space. Hopefully we can get it back up soon, but still haven't diagnosed the cause at this point.

New Software Now Up and Running

10-Feb-12

Our Oceans 2.0 software suite has now been updated with numerous fixes and new features.

Release notes.

New Software Release

09-Feb-12

Updates to our Oceans 2.0 software suite are being deployed today. Interruptions to our web services, including data searches and downloads are possible. Wet plant and data collection from instruments will be unaffected.

Possible Service Outage Today

26-Jan-12

Thursday 26 January 2012, 2300 UTC (1500 Pacific Time): Our systems team needs to do a critical patch to fix the problems we were seeing with our new storage system.  We do not anticipate this causing any outages however there is always the possibility of a service disruption.

Ongoing System Problems

24-Jan-12

We're experiencing ongoing intermittent problems with our web-based systems and services. We're working hard to resolve these as quickly. Scheduled system maintenance work for Wednesday and Thursday this week has been canceled.

Website Outages, Jan 24-26

23-Jan-12

Upgrades to our storage array will result in a series of outages this week. These outages will NOT affect our wet plant or data collection.

Tuesday, 24 January, 15:00-16:30 UTC.

Migration of virtual servers will cause rolling outages to our web services, including dmas, Projects and the login and registration pages. Each outage should last 10 to 20 minutes maximum. Ability to submit searches will be compromised for 90 minutes at most.

Wednesday, 25 January, 15:00-21:00 UTC.

Firmware upgrades to our storage system are required to rectify a minor problem with the array and prepare for upcoming expansion. Estimated outage duration is 6 hours. During this outage, network response may be sluggish, as we will be forwarding all data search requests to our mirror servers at the University of Saskachewan. No new data will be ingested into our archives during this window, but cached data will be ingested once upgrades are complete.

Thursday, 26 January, 15:00-16:00 UTC.

Our projects and JIRA websites will migrate from Oracle to MySQL database back-ends in order to improve performance and administration for these services. Estimated outage duration is 30 minutes per service.

New Software Release

20-Dec-11

A new version of our Oceans 2.0 software has been released. This release includes many updates to both VENUS and NEPTUNE Canada software, including plenty of upgrades to DigitalFishers. New features and release notes.

Network Back Online

21-Nov-11

The branching unit at Folger Passage has been repaired and our subsea network, including Folger Passage, is now powered back up and back online. Most instruments have been restarted, except for those on our Regional Circulation Moorings, which will be restarted today.

Subsea Power Restored Temporarily

17-Nov-11

Subsea network power temporarily restored, beginning 2000 UTC, 17 Nov 2011 (1200 PST) until approximately 0100, 19 Nov 2011 (1700 PST, 18 Nov 2011)

Power has been temporarily restored to our subsea network until late tomorrow afternoon, when the network will be shut down again (see outage notice from 14-Nov-11). Most, but not all of our network instruments will resume online operation during this period.

Access to Oceans 2.0 and our data archives will not be affected.

SUBSEA NETWORK OUTAGE

14-Nov-11

Subsea network unavailable, beginning 0000 UTC, 15 Nov 2011 (1600 PST, 14 Nov 2011)

A full system outage is required to ensure the safety of repair personnel, as we work to restore power and communications to Folger Passage node. The outage will affect all underwater instruments; data collection will be stopped for the duration of the outage.

This outage will continue until repairs are complete, hopefully on or before 25 November. Access to Oceans 2.0 and our data archives will not be affected.

Website Problems

10-Nov-11

We're experiencing technical difficulties with our website, resulting from the recent update. We're working on it and hope to get the full website back up and running as soon as possible. 

Thanks for your patience.

System Outages Nov 15-25

03-Nov-11

Intermittent power disruptions to our underwater installations are expected, starting November 15, as we work to restore power and communications to Folger Passage node. Outages may occur at any time without warning during the operation. Operations are expected to continue through November 25, possibly longer if the weather is bad.

Data collection will be disrupted during outages; our data archive and associated web services will be unaffected.

New Software Release

19-Oct-11

Our Oceans 2.0 software has been updated with many new improvements. Release notes.

SUBSEA NETWORK OUTAGE

26-Sep-11

Subsea network unavailable Tuesday, September 27th
9AM - 5PM PDT (27 Sept 1700 UTC - 28 Sept 0100 UTC)

A full subsea network outage is required for troubleshooting power problems with Folger Node. Data collection will be stopped during the outage. Access to Oceans 2.0 and data archives will not be affected. 

Oceans 2.0 Software Update

22-Sep-11

A new revision of our Oceans 2.0 software (release notes) to be released today.

Subsea Systems Partially Restored

21-Sep-11

Our subsea systems are now back online, with the exclusion of the Folger Passage sites. More troubleshooting of the Folger Passage branching unit planned for the coming days/weeks.

SYSTEM OUTAGE

20-Sep-11

NEPTUNE Canada's entire subsea network suffered an outage at 20-Sep-2011 14:10 UTC. This appears to be a shunt fault located somewhere near Folger Passage node. 

Working with Alcatel-Lucent, we hope to diagnose, reconfigure and repower the network within 2 days.

NEPTUNE Canada's data archives and Ocean 2.0 facilities are unaffected by this outage, but data collection has been suspended until the network is restored.

New Software Release

12-Sep-11

A new version of our Oceans 2.0 software has been released. New features and release notes.

Cruise End

30-Sep-11

Our September 2011 installation & maintenance cruise has come to an end. The R/V Thompson has returned to port in Victoria and will depart soon to do maintenance and installation work for the VENUS network (VENUS cruise overview).

Riding out Weather at Endeavour

25-Sep-11

Our installation crew have successfully reconnected Main Endeavour vent Field (MEF) instrument platform to NEPTUNE Canada's operational network. COVIS, RAS water sampler & temperature probe and MEF short-period seismometer now online.

Weather conditions have worsened again, and the crew are waiting for weather windows for further deployments at Endeavour.

Endeavour Installations

23-Sep-11

The R/V Thompson and our installation crew have returned to Endeavour, where they hope to reconnect Main Eneavour Vent Field to the network.

Bottom Pressure Deployments at ODP 1027

22-Sep-11

Our installation work has been stalled for several days by bad weather at Endeavour. With more bad weather in the forecast, they are shifting work to ODP 1027 for deployment of 2 autonomous bottom pressure recorders.

Return to Endeavour

19-Sep-11

Barkley Benthic Pod 3 has been redployed along with a new HD video camera, high-resolution acoustic Doppler current profiler and a sediment trap.

Our installation crew have returned to the Endeavour area for cable lays and further installations.

Barkley Canyon Work

18-Sep-11

Wally the Crawler has been re-deployed to Barkley Hydrates and the temperature probe array recovered to ship for further testing. We hope to deploy Barkley Benthic Pod 3 today, before returning to our deep water locations for further installation work.

Pod 3 Recovered; Sheltering in Bamfield

17-Sep-11

Yesterday our installation crew deployed a temperature probe array and recovered Barkley Benthic Pod 3, with associated sediment trap and current profiler, for maintenance.

High winds and seas have prompted us to take shelter at Bamfield, where we're picking up additional parts and equipment to be used when we return to Endeavour. When conditions allow, our next dive will be to Barkley Hydrates to recover the temperature probe array (it developed a ground fault) and deploy Wally the Crawler.

Work at ODP 1027 and Barkley Canyon

16-Sep-11

Our installation crew have finished surveying for cable lays at Endeavour Mothra hydrothermal vent field. After deploying an autonomous bottom pressure recorder at ODP 1027, plans are to transit to Barkley Canyon for further installation and maintenance work.

Mooring Installed; Seismometer Replaced

13-Sep-11

Overnight, we successfully installed the NW Regional Circulation Mooring at Endeavour. This 250m mooring has 9 scientific instruments. We also replaced the short-period seismometer (SPS) there with an integrated bottom pressure recorder -SPS unit.

Installing NW Regional Circulation Mooring

13-Sep-11

Cable has been laid and we're attempting to install the northwest regional circulation mooring (RCM). This is 2nd of 4 planned for Endeavour.

Related blog post.

Laying Cable at Endeavour North

11-Sep-11

Our piezometer at ODP 1027 has been reconnected and the installation crew have arrived at Endeavour North to lay a 500m cable for the planned northwest regional circulation mooring.

September Cruise Underway

10-Sep-11

After little over a month's frenetic preparations since the end of our July cruise, we're back out to sea for 3 weeks of further maintenance and installations. Cruise objectives are ambitious, and we hope the weather will cooperate.

Cruise preview.