New Research Capabilities

Advances in sensors, platforms, software, subsea robotics, subsea cabling, telecommunications, remote power generation, and many other areas have made possible a new era of ocean discovery. The OOI will combine these advances to enable long-term, high-resolution, linked observations at multiple horizontal and vertical scales.

• Integrated observations on three scales offering a permanent presence in the coastal ocean, global ocean basins, and on the seafloor
• A common cyberinfrastructure managing a diverse, high-volume data stream
• High frequency, long time-series sampling by advanced suites of sensors
• Scales of resolution ranging from seconds to decades and millimeters to hundreds of kilometers
• At cabled nodes and selected mooring sites, unprecedented power and fast, two-way data transfer
• Continuous data feeds to global models
• Capability to observe transient events such as ocean fronts, eddies, storms, eruptions, earthquakes, and harmful algal blooms
• Adaptive sampling and controlled experiments by instruments that can track unexpected changes and accept commands from shore
• Capability to support new sensors for interdisciplinary research
• Powerful instrument testbeds to support the next wave of innovation and foster new discoveries that will, in turn, move research in unforeseen directions