Mooring deployment for wave project concludes in Alaska

Alaska Center for Energy and Power (ACEP) researchers have concluded three weeks of fieldwork on the Beaufort Sea in support of the government-backed wave power initiative.

The work included mooring deployments, and conducting oceanographic surveys on the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management-funded project, and another survey for Sandia National Labs.

The researchers deployed five moorings and one weather station, collected hundreds of miles of bathymetry data, and completed dozens of CTD casts, bottle samples, and sediment grabs, according to ACEP.

Work will continue on the Beaufort Sea in September 2018 to retrieve a temporary mooring before the winter ice comes in and to download photos from two cameras attached to the weather station.

Researchers will then return a year later in summer to conduct additional oceanographic surveys and swap out existing moorings that will remain installed until summer 2020, ACEP said.

The research is funded by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and Sandia National Labs.