There are two types of cabled moorings at the base of Axial Seamount.
1) A Deep Profiler hosts an instrumented deep wire crawler (McLane) that measures ocean properties from ~3000 m to ~ 200 m water depth. Power and data transfer are provided to the Deep Profiler via an inductive couple. An extension cable running from a Low-Voltage Node (LV03A) provides 375v power and 1GBs communications to the following instruments:
2) A two-legged mooring that includes an instrumented platform (12 feet across) at 200-m water depth and an instrumented winched Shallow Profiler that travels from 200 m to just below the ocean's surface. Power (375 v) and communications (1Gbs) are provided to this two-legged mooring via a Low-Voltage Node (LV03A). A science module (pod) on the 200-m platform, and the instrument pod on the winched profiler, can be installed/recovered using a robotic vehicle for maintenance efficiency. This means that the entire mooring does not have to be recovered each year, thus lowering operations and maintenance costs. The same is true for the Deep Profiler.
All data from the 200 m platform and winched Shallow Profiler are transmitted to the Internet in real-time, while a subset of data are transferred from the Deep Profiler. Once the Deep Profiler docks, all data are sent to shore using via the cable.