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Surface View

August 22, 2017

Surface moorings in the NSF-funded Ocean Observatories Initiative have buoys that are among the largest and most complex platforms of their type deployed in the ocean. That includes buoys at three of the four NSF-funded Global Array sites and those at the Coastal Pioneer Array (not pictured). The top of the buoy supports instruments that monitor atmospheric and meteorological conditions as well as solar panels and wind generators to power instruments on and beneath the buoy. Instruments below the buoy’s waterline and in the instrument cage suspended from the black electro-mechanical chain record oceanographic data in key locations around the world. (Photo by Thomas Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)