Transforming Ocean Research
The OOI will transform research of the oceans by establishing a network of interactive, globally distributed sensors with near real-time data access, thereby enhancing our capabilities to address critical issues such as climate change, ecosystem variability, ocean acidification, and carbon cycling.
Recent technological advances in sensors, computational speed, communication bandwidth, Internet resources, miniaturization, genomic analyses, high-definition imaging, robotics, and data assimilation, modeling, and visualization techniques are opening new possibilities for remote scientific inquiry and discovery.
The OOI will enable innovative developments across all of these fields and will contribute to maintaining American leadership in scientific advancement as well as providing exceptional educational opportunities.
- Final Network Design (updated April 2010)
- Project Execution Plan (Nov 2009)
Through One Integrated Observing System
The OOI will enable multiple scales of marine observations that are integrated into one observing system via common design elements and an overarching, interactive cyberinfrastructure. The coastal-scale assets of the OOI will expand existing observations off both U.S. coasts, creating focused, configurable observing regions. Regional cabled observing platforms will ‘wire’ a single region in the Northeast Pacific Ocean with a high speed optical and high power grid. The global component addresses planetary-scale changes via moored open-ocean buoys linked to shore via satellite.
