Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART)

Surface Buoy

Photo Courtesy of PMEL

The surface mooring uses a 2.5 m diameter fiberglass over foam disk buoy with a gross displacement of 4000 kg. The mooring line is 19 mm 8-strand plaited nylon line with a rated breaking strength of 7100 kg and is deployed with a scope of 0.985. This maintains a tight watch circle to keep the buoy positioned within the narrow cone of the acoustic transmission. Two downward looking transducers are mounted on the buoy bridle at a depth of 1.5 m below the sea surface. A multilayered baffle system of steel, lead, and syntactic foam shields the transducers and cushions them with rubber pads for a soft mount.