The Endurance Array

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Plan view map of the Endurance Array off Oregon. The Endurance mooring sites are at the 25 m, 80m, and 500m sites along the line off Newport. Gliders provide additional cross-shelf sampling and extend the sampling area north and south along the coast. The cables of the RSN are also shown.

Schematic diagrem of the Endurance Array

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Schematic diagram of Endurance Array platforms, focussing on the cross-shelf moorings and cabled nodes. Surface mooring/profiler pairs are shown at Offshore, mid Shelf and Inshore sites along with Benthic Experiment Platforms (BEP) and RSN cabled infrastructure. One of the cross-shelf glider lines will be coincident with the moored array.

Related Links

» The Pioneer Array
View information about the Pioneer Array.

Location, moored Arrays: Newport Line (44° 39’N, 126°W to coast); Grays Harbor Line (47° 0’N, 126°W to coast)
Water Depth: 500 m to 25 m

Platform Types: Three fixed platform sites at 25, 80 and 500 m water depth (the 80- and 500-m sites are cabled on the Newport Line, the remaining Endurance array sites are uncabled) supporting surface moorings, water column profilers and benthic boundary layer sensors, supplemented by six gliders.

Description of Infrastructure:
Newport Line

Two electro-mechanical (EM) surface moorings, with wind and photovoltaic power generation, satellite communications, and meteorological sensors(80, 500 m)
One EM surface mooring with battery power and satellite communications (25 m)
Two bottom-mounted winched profilers, one stand-alone (25 m) and one cabled to RSN seafloor infrastructure (80 m)
One hybrid profiler mooring with wire-crawler profiler and winched profiler, cabled to RSN seafloor infrastructure (500 m)
One uncabled benthic multi-function node (MFN) with sensors, electrical communications to the surface, and supplemental battery power provided by the surface buoy (25 m)
Two cabled benthic experiment packages (BEP) with fiber optic communications and power provided by connection to the RSN seafloor infrastructure

Grays Harbor Line

Two electro-mechanical (EM) surface moorings, with wind and photovoltaic power generation, satellite communications, and meteorological sensors(80, 500 m)
One EM surface mooring with battery power and satellite communications (25 m)
Two stand-alone, bottom-mounted winched profilers, one stand-alone (25, 80 m)
One hybrid profiler mooring with wire-crawler profiler and winched profiler
One uncabled benthic multi-function node (MFN) with sensors, electrical communications to the surface, and supplemental battery power provided by the surface buoy (25 m)
Two benthic experiment packages (BEP) with fiber optic communications and power provided by connection to the surface moorings (80, 500 m)

Six gliders operating on the mooring lines and to the north and south (see map)

The backbone of the Endurance Array includes three fixed sites spanning the slope (500 m), shelf (80 m) and inner-shelf (25 m). A transformative design element of the 500 m and 80 m sites on the Newport Line will be the cabled infrastructure that integrates the Endurance Array with the RSN cable. This CGSN-RSN partnership will extend the reach and capability of the RSN infrastructure into the coastal environment and allow the OOI to support synoptic experiments across a range of scales. The cabled infrastructure will support an extensive suite of core sensors deployed on winched profilers and at benthic boundary layer nodes. Equally important, the cabled infrastructure will enable benthic and water column experiments requiring high power, high bandwidth sensors. Surface moorings at the 500 m and 80 m sites will provide continuous meteorological and surface boundary layer measurements.

At the interface between the shelf and the near-shore zone, the 25 m site is both scientifically important and logistically challenging. Breaking waves and sediment transport driven by winter storms make relatively delicate surface buoy towers and buried bottom cabling impractical. Instead we will install a surface buoy hardened to overtopping by waves. The buoy will support surface water column measurements, two-way communications with the seafloor, and will provide power to benthic sensors. A standalone winched profiler will also be deployed at this site.

The three sites across the shelf and slope are associated with unique physical, geological, and biological processes. The Newport and Grays Harbor Lines are both affected by wind-driven upwelling and downwelling, but shelf stratification and upper-ocean properties are influenced differently at each location by the Columbia River outflow. By sampling in both locations, the PNW ocean laboratory will afford greater understanding of coastal ocean ecosystem response to climate variability. To bridge the distances between the fixed sites and allow adaptive sampling, we will use six autonomous gliders. These gliders will support sensors similar to those on the winched profilers. The gliders will operate along five east-west lines, from approximately the 20-m isobath to 126 W. The gliders will also run north-south along approximately 126 W.

Together, the gliders, surface buoys, profilers, and benthic nodes will provide near real time data from the air-sea interface, through the water column and to the sea-sediment interface. This full water column coverage at several sites with bottom cabled infrastructure provides experimental capabilities that are unique within the OOI.

Last updated: June 16, 2009