OCEAN OBSERVATORIES INITIATIVE (OOI)

Kendra Daly
University of South Florida

National Press Club Event

July 9, 2018
The Planet Earth is > 70% Ocean
WHY WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND OCEAN PROCESSES
Oceans play a central role in sustaining life on Earth.

Oceans cover > 70% of the Earth’s surface.

Oceans provide half of the oxygen we use to breath, they are critical
to global heat budgets and the water cycle, they regulate climate, and
influence weather patterns on land.

Oceans provide us with food, resources, jobs, transportation and

security, and many ecological services. Ocean-based businesses
contribute more than $500 billion to the world’s economy

The occeans are the largest carbon reservoir and support the greatest
biodiversity on the planet.
NOW: LONG-TERM OCEAN OBSERVATORIES
WHAT IS THE OOI?

Networked observatory of science-driven sensor systems that measure the

physical, chemical, geological and biological variables of the ocean, seafloor, and
near ocean atmosphere.

Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) - construction $386M

For comparison, the Mars rover program costs $2.5B.

The data are freely available to anyone.

The OOI puts ocean observing data into the hands of a vast user community of
oceanographers, scientists and researchers, educators and the public. 

http://oceanobservatories.org/observatories/
MARINE INFRASTRUCTURE
LOCATIONS
Four high latitude sites
•Station Papa
•Irminger Sea
•Argentine Basin
•Southern Ocean
Two coastal networks
•Endurance Array
•Pioneer Array
Regional cabled network
•California Current
•Axial Seamount
•Hydrate Ridge
OVERARCHING SCIENCE THEMES
Forcing and exchanges at the boundaries
• Ocean-atmosphere exchange
• Fluid-rock interactions
Dynamics of the boundary regimes
• Coastal ocean dynamics and ecosystems
• The subseafloor biosphere
• Plate-scale, ocean geodynamics
Dynamics and variability of the ocean volume
• Climate variability
• Ocean circulation
• Turbulent mixing and biophysical interactions
• Ecosystems
Across the boundaries and in the interior
• Carbon cycling, ocean acidification, ecosystem health
SCIENCE CONTEXT FOR OOI
To address the science themes, field
activities will be:
• Sustained for decades
• Capable of high temporal resolution
✦ Resolve (not alias) strong transients
as well as diurnal and tidal
variability
• Multi-disciplinary - physics, biology,
chemistry, geology, engineering
• Capable of providing many observations
in near-real time
• Interactive, rapid response with adaptive
sampling capabilities
• Provide critical data for predictive
models
OOI INFRASTRUCTURE AND DATA

89 Platforms
> 830 instruments
> 100,000 data products
OOI ROLE IN GLOBAL OBSERVING SYSTEMS

Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS)

Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS)

U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS)

Ocean Observatories Initiative (NSF’s contribution to IOOS)

OOI TRANSFORMATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES

Fiber optic cable network

Profiling Moorings

Resident AUV (in planning)

OOI Regional Scale Nodes
Potential Expansion Nodes

CABLED ARRAY & NEPTUNE Canada Nodes

High Powered Mooring
Neptune
ENDURANCE ARRAY Canada
Coastal Mooring
Cabled Coastal Mooring
Shore Stations
47°30’N Seattle RSN Cyber POP
•~900 km cable 130°W
•Fiber optic/power 127°30’W TO
UW
•10 kV Juan de Fuca
OPERATION
CENTER
•10 Gb/s Plate
AXIAL
MID-PLATE
3B
3A 5A Portland
Station NEPTUNE Pacific
Canada VENUS
PAPA
Endurance
45°N City
0 RSN Array
1D
MARS
HYDRATE 1B Newport
meters 1A 1C
TO
CI OPERATION
6000 CENTER

50 m contours
MENU
RESIDENT-AUV (IN PLANNING)
https://novae.ocean.washington.edu
 EXAMPLES OF SCIENCE RESULTS

Irminger Sea deep convection

Axial volcano seismic activity and eruptions

ht
Irminger Sea Deep Convection

The Irminger Sea Global Array observed particularly

strong and sustained cooling during the winter of
2014/2015, which led to record deep mixing in the
convection centers of the Labrador and Irminger Seas,
ht

a process that had never been directly observed in

this region. (de Jong et al. 2018)

Bob Weller, WHOI

 AXIAL VOLCANO: COMMUNITY TOOLS
Near real-time documentation of earthquakes at Axial
I William Wilcock, University of Washington
Maya Tolstoy and Felix Waldhauser, LDEO

http://oceanobservatories.org/2017/11/new-community-tool-near-real-time-earthquake-catalog/

Real time seafloor inflation rate of Axial Volcano

Bill Chadwick, NOAA
Axial erupted in 1998, 2011, and 2015.
Inflation rate indicates it could erupt again in 2020

https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/eoi/rsn/Forecasts.html
https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/eoi/rsn/Forecasts.html
 MENU

A small "dumbo" octopus sits atop a lobate flow at the summit of Axial Volcano - water depth ~ 1500 m (nearly 5000
feet beneath the surface). VISIONS '13 Photo credit: OOI-NSF/UW/CSSF
MENU