General

Stainless-steel buoy Vida was manufactured and deployed in operation in 2008 by the company Manta d.o.o.. The buoy's hull is made of stainless steal 6 mm thick. It is 2.5 m in diameter and the height of the upper-most sensor (the anemometer) is 5 m. The buoy is fixed with three chains, which are attached to the buoy's hull at points separated by 120 degrees around the hull's perimeter. The chains connect the buoy to three concrete anchors on the seafloor at a depth of 22 m.

On the buoy there are the following instruments:

The following instruments are located on the buoy: a 3D acoustic anemometer from Gill's Instruments (height 5 m), an air temperature and humidity sensor from Vaisala (height 3.5 m) ,at aproximatelly the same height above sea surface there is a CO2 sensor. An Xsens motion sensor (accelerometer/compass tilt sensor) is located in the hull of the buoy just below the top cover of the hull and under the mast. Aproximatelly 3 m bellow Sea Surface a CTD probe is setup attached to the buoy hull. A Nortek As AWAC current meter is located on the seafloor at 22 m depth along with an oxygen optode (Aanderaa). There are three monitoring webcams. An underwater camera is located on the bottom of the buoy at about 2 m depth. The buoy is also equipped with three solar panels and a methanol fueling station.

Inside the buoy's hull are the:

power supply electronics, lead batteries and a fuel cell,
safety control electronics (sensor to monitor CO2 gas inside the hull, open-hatch IR sensor and three sensors to measure water levels).
data acquisition electronics

The communication system is an ethernet microwave link, functioning at two frequencies (two transmitters, one at 2.4 GHz, another at 5 GHz). Data are transmitted with a speed of at least 5 Mbit/s.

All connecting cables between the instruments measuring the atmosphere and the electronics are passed through the mast, while cables connecting underwater instruments with the electronics go through a 'pipe' of about 0.3 m in diameter. One end of the pipe penetrates the bottom of the buoy's hull then passes through the top plate of the hull, to a height of about 1 m where it turns down and goes back through the top plate of the hull. In this way the cables enter the buoy's hull from the sea.

The maintanance of the buoy is guaranteed by our collaboration with the Slovenian Environment Agency.