ACO Acknowledgements

[These acknowledgements are not an endorsement by the University of Hawaii of any particular product or vendor.]

The ACO was made possible by the collaborative efforts of many individuals and organizations. We wish to acknowledge and praise these important efforts.

The ACO development and deployment was supported by research and instrumentation grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to the University of Hawaii (UH), to the Applied Physics Laboratory of the University of Washington (UW/APL), to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Ship time and WHOI Jason ROV work were also supported by the NSF during ACO cruises in 2008 and 2011.

NSF and the Office of Naval Research provided support for the USNS Zeus to recover, cut, terminate and relocate the HAW-4 cable to Station ALOHA in 2007.

AT&T transferred the HAW-4 fiber optic telecommunications cable to the Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii for a nominal fee. Without this in-kind donation and subsequent support of our work at the Makaha cable station, this project would not have been possible.

The University of Hawaii School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology (SOEST) provided significant engineering, networking and other personnel support for development and deployment of the ACO.

Mark Tremblay (AT&T, retired) and Dave Harris (UH) spent many very long days in the Makaha Cable Station, troubleshooting the shoreside and underwater fiber optic connections.

Captain Rick Meyer and the crew of the R/V Kilo Moana provided outstanding support of the cruise and the ACO deployment operations. Captain Ross Barnes and the UH Marine Center staff worked hard to accommodate the demanding logistics.

The Jason group from the WHOI Deep Submergence Laboratory, led by Matt Heintz, were exceptionally professional, hardworking, and innovative in contributing to the successful deployment of the ACO. Their contributions to testing of the fiber optics in coordination with the group at Makaha helped push the project over the top.

The SOEST Oceangoing Technology Group worked hard to support our work, especially with many deck operations in rough weather and at night.

Teledyne/ODI hosted the March 2010 underwater connector workshop that led to improvements in connector strategies for ocean observatory work. ODI provided connectors to the project at substantially reduced cost.

The video camera was provided by funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to David Karl (UH/CMORE).

The acoustic micromodem was provided by Lee Freitag (WHOI), funded by NSF.

SonicWALL provided state-of-the-art firewalls for the project at a critical point during testing and development of the ACO. These firewalls enabled us to not only protect the ACO network, but also facilitated its move from the laboratory, to the ship, and the transition to testing and operations at the Makaha cable station during the ACO deployment. Dave Parry provided great encouragement and support.

AdRem provided important support to the project by donating licenses for us to use their network monitoring software, NetCrunch 6.5. This real-time network monitoring platform gave us a consistent interface and many tools to configure, monitor, diagnose and repair the ACO network as it evolved.

Ben Macone and colleagues at SonTek provided outstanding technical support during our late-stage upgrades of ADPs.

Dave Romanko and his colleagues at WET Labs supported our development work, including the loan of an instrument for bench work.

Sea-Bird provided very fast turnarounds on calibrations and a repair.

Sixnet provided excellent technical support at critical points before deployment.

Observatory, Junction Box and HEM design and construction

Mark Tremblay, Dave Harris, Jim Jolly, Jim Babinec, Zensho Heshiki, Fred Duennebier, Bruce Howe, Grant Blackinton, Bill Doi, Kimball Millikan, Mario Williamson, Kent Sadanaga, Jefrey Snyder, John Yeh, David Hashisaka, Allison Andrews, Cameron Fumar

TAAM mooring design and construction

Jefrey Snyder, David Hashisaka, Allison Andrews, John Yeh, Nicholas Seymour and Cameron Fumar.

Special thanks to Woods Hole engineers John Kemp, Jeff Lord, Will Ostrom, and Jim Ryder for important advice about design and deployment.

Video camera tripod design and construction

Grant Blackinton, Jeff Drazen, John Yeh, Mario Williamson

AMM bottom node design and construction

UW/APL: Tim McGinnis, Mike Kenney, Chris Sianni

Network and data management design and development

MBARI: Tom O'Reilly, Kevin Gomes, Duane Edgington, Kent Headley, Steve Etchemendy, Peter Braccio, Bob Herlien, Todd Ruston

NCAR: Marla Meehl, John Hernandez

UH: Brian Chee, Ross Ishida, Pat Townsend, Sharon Stahl, Chris Zane, David Lassner, Martyn Griffiths, Fernando Santiago-Mandujano, Paul Lethaby, Joseph Gum, and Jim Potemra