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The aerial view of Carrie Bow Cay details the
locations of the data acquisition system and sensors that make up the environmental
monitoring system. Oceanographic sensors are mounted at
the end of the boat dock (western side of the island) in a stilling tube with the pressure
sensor located 58cm above the sea bed. The water level above the sensor varies, due
to the changing tidal elevation, from ~0.2m to ~0.5m.
This location was selected because it offered easy
mounting and access to the instrument from the dock, the communication cable could
be strung along the underside of the dock for protection, and it is in open
water. The ocean sensors are connected by a 250-foot cable that
runs the length of the dock, then through underground PVC pipe to the main
building to the data acquisition system.
The data acquisition system,
located in a second story storage room in the main building, is also
connected to a tipping bucket rain gauge and meteorological instrumentation
(wind monitor, pyranometer, barometer, and temperature and relative humidity
sensors), solar panels, radio communications antenna and lightning protection
equipment mounted on a twenty-foot aluminum tower (Glen Martin
Engineering). The tower is secured to a platfrom on the second level so that
the top of the toweer is !39 feet above ground levelthe second story deck
railing
To avoid impact from trees and other wind obstructions that might effect
the measurements, the rain gauge was mounted on the far eastern edge of the
roof where the roof is almost flat.
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