Page 48: of Marine Technology Magazine (April 2005)

RDSea and Associates, Inc. (RDSea), based in St. Pete Beach,

Fla., has recently been awarded a prime contract from the First

Institute of Oceanography (FIO),

State Oceanographic Administration,

Qindao, China to design, build and deploy a complete "Air-Sea

Interaction" buoy and mooring sys- tem for climate research in the eastern

Indian Ocean (IO). Partnering with systems integrator Down East

Instrumentation, LLC, of Cary,

North Carolina, engineering has begun on a state-of-the-art buoy sys- tem that will transmit subsurface oceanographic data along with a full suite of meteorological observations at the sea-surface via the Iridium

Satellite Constellation back to China.

The FIO-Buoy development and deployment is in support of the

Indonesian Ocean Observing System (IndOOS) and its' mooring compo- nent The Research Moored Array for the African-Asian-Australian

Monsoon Analysis and Prediction

Program (RAMA). The project will consist of long-term measurements of currents in the Equatorial region of the IO using acoustic Doppler cur- rent profilers (ADCP) along with temperature, conductivity and pres- sure sensors (moored CTDs).

Funding for the IndOOS falls under the Climate Variability &

Predictability (CLIVAR), World

Climate Research Program (WCRP).

Contributing countries consist of:

India, Indonesia, Australia, the USA,

France, and China. Contributors to the FIO-Buoy system are: Mooring

Systems, Inc. (Cataumet, MA), sub- contracted to build the buoy and mooring, Teledyne RD Instruments (San Diego, CA), Teledyne Benthos,

Inc. (North Falmouth, MA), Sea-Bird

Electronics (Bellevue, WA), and ORE

Offshore (West Wareham, MA), all are assisting with the science and technology transfer to the IO-rim countries to help establish their own observing capabilities in the region and to promote an oceanic observing level in the Indian Ocean and under- stand its' role in the global climate system.

RDSea's foundation was built on

Federal programs such as the

Equatorial Pacific Ocean Climate

Study (EPOCS), the Tropical Ocean

Global Atmosphere Project (TOGA) and the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) Program that is ongoing today in the Pacific, maintained by

NOAA's National Data Buoy Center (NDBC, Stennis Space Center, MS).

RDSea is presently under contract to assist NDBC and Science

Applications International Corp. (SAIC) on TAO with the transition of the array ADCPs to updated tech- nology and scheduled to soon depart on NOAA Ship Ka'Imimoana from the Republic of the Marshall Is. (Kwajalein Atoll) to recover the last remaining "Narrow Band" ADCP deployed along the equator.

Ironically, RDSea President and

Founder, Rick Cole was on the

NOAA research cruise that deployed the very first ADCP along the equa- tor at 170W in 1987 by the

University of South Florida (USF).

Rick has been employed by USF's

Ocean Circulation Group for the past 20 years working on blue and shallow water physical-oceanographic pro- grams spanning the Pacific and

Atlantic Oceans, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. people & companies 48 MTR April 2009

RDSea and Down East Instrumentation

Partnership in the Indian Ocean

Left: Jeffrey Kinder, Managing Director, Down East Instrumentation, LLC

Right: Rick Cole, President, RDSea and Associates, Inc.

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