The Marine Physical Laboratory at Scripps Institution of Oceanography will upgrade a suite of general purpose oceanographic instruments that are used in long-term deployments on the sea floor. These versatile electronic instruments are used to record seafloor seismic and other signals for intervals of many months at high data rates. They were designed for low power consumption and adaptability in order that a variety of oceanographic sensors could be accommodated. The upgrades will allow for six-month or longer duration deployments with seismic, geodetic, electromagnetic, or other sensors. The recording medium will be increased to at least 1.2 Gbytes using one of more data recorders. A data compression scheme will be developed and ten instruments will receive new, precision timing devices. Low power, temperature controlled quartz oscillators will be installed in these instruments. Once upgraded, this suite of instruments will be capable of long-term deployments required of experiments such as those proposed in the Global Change RIDGE program and other individual research projects.
