AWI - MBARI Test systems

All Weather, Inc. has teamed with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) to study the long-term effects of corrosive marine environments on Automated Weather Observing Systems (AWOS). AWOS systems are used worldwide by AWI customers to determine current weather conditions at airfields and heliports, and to broadcast up-to-the-minute reports to pilots. In an effort to identify potential corrosion issues at sites located in marine environments, AWI and MBARI have installed a test site about 50 meters from Monterey Bay in Moss Landing, California.The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (www.mbari.org) is a nonprofit research institution where scientists and engineers work together to explore and study the sea. Since 1987, MBARI has collected oceanographic data using robot submarines, surface moorings, drifters, sea-floor instruments, and ocean observatories. Located in Moss Landing, California, MBARI is supported primarily by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.MBARI has 20 years of experience deploying equipment in some of the harshest conditions on the planet. Much of the instrumentation is either submerged in the ocean or is mounted on ships or buoys and is subject to continuous exposure to salt-fog, salt-spray, and sun.AWI and MBARI have a mutual interest in careful study of the mechanisms that cause corrosion in various materials, and so have formed an alliance to share their accumulated knowledge and to jointly analyze the data accumulated from their new cooperative study.Test materials at the Monterey site use a variety of coatings and surface treatments, and will be closely monitored to observe the effectiveness of each in protecting equipment from corrosive environments. The test site will be photographed monthly as part of the study's detailed cataloging of the mechanism and progress of corrosion. Photographs and test results will be published here on AWI's website.Evaluation ReportThe test hardware and equipment installed at the MBARI test platform is evaluated monthly to monitor the effects of the marine environment over time. An ongoing record of the study's progress, complete with pictures of the equipment under study, is updated monthly and provided below in pdf format.MBARI Evaluation (2.5 MB file)