Multimedia Items
Gearing up for ocean observatories
Nearly a decade of community planning has gone into the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), to be reviewed this month by the National Science Foundation. Among the innovative elements of the…
Read MoreA River in the Ocean
Scientists at WHOI have been studying the Gulf Stream for decades. Physical oceanographer Arthur Rocky Miller, shown here in 1960, came to WHOI in 1946 and was among the first…
Read MoreOcean Observations
Research vessel Neil Armstrong bosun Pete Liarikos keeps a watchful eye on small boat operations during recovery of a surface buoy at the Global Irminger Sea Array of the Ocean…
Read MoreUniting for the Ocean
The president of the United Nations General Assembly, the Honorable Peter Thomson, recently toured WHOI and met with WHOI officials to discuss the UN Ocean Conference on June 5-9. WHOI will participate…
Read MoreGuiding Ocean Gliders
From the Coleman and Susan Burke Operations Room in LOSOS, Diana Wickman and WHOI’s other ocean glider pilots can monitor vehicles “flying” underwater thousands of miles away. When a yellow,…
Read MoreOcean Weather Station
Heavily instrumented buoys like this Coastal Surface Mooring (CSM) being recovered aboard the R/V Knorr, are part of the NSF-funded Pioneer Array, a network of moorings, gliders, and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs)…
Read MoreOceanCubes
A team from WHOI led by Associate Scientist Scott Gallager and the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) recently announced plans to install the first OceanCubes observatory in the…
Read MoreMulti-tasking in Ocean Research
The Sea Cycler winch, being deployed from the R/V Oceanus, is the largest component of the Global Hybrid Profiler and will eventually be included as part of the Ocean Observatories…
Read MoreWhere River Meets Ocean
WHOI geochemist Bernhard Peucker-Ehrenbrink samples a small stream in the “Ancient Forest” of the upper Fraser River basin as part of the Global Rivers Project. The region in British Columbia…
Read MoreOn the Path To an Ocean Observing Network
The week of May 16th, a panel of nearly 150 leaders of large research infrastructure programs visited WHOI for the Annual Review Meeting for the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI). This…
Read MoreMaintaining Ocean Vision
At WHOI’s Martha’s Vineyard Coastal Observatory (MVCO), Jay Sisson, Hugh Popenoe, and Jared Schwartz (left to right) switch out part of a “node,” a device that connects several ocean-monitoring instruments.…
Read MoreTransforming the way oceans are explored
At the MIT Museum during the recent Cambridge Science Festival, physical oceanographers Al Plueddemann, far left and John Lund, left, of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution explained how autonomous underwater…
Read MoreMola mola parade
A formation of four mola mola (ocean sunfish) paraded through the water past the starboard side of #RVNeilArmstrong last week, while mooring operations continued on the Ocean Observatories Initiative Pioneer Array, 130 miles southeast of Martha’s Vineyard. These giant omnivores are the largest bony fish (Osteichthyes) in the ocean, measuring up to 11 feet in height and weighing up to 2.5 tons. They get their common name from the fact that they can be sometimes be found turned sideways on the ocean surface basking in the sun. Leo Fitz, who has crewed on WHOI ships for decades said he’s never been so fortunate to see so many at once: ‘Never, it’s always one! Never THIS many!”
Read MoreObserving Mooring Deployment at Pioneer Array
Logan Johnsen, chief mate on the research vessel Neil Armstrong, stood watch on the bridge recently during a mooring deployment at the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) Pioneer Array. Instruments on the array record physical, chemical, and biological data from the seafloor to the surface and above around the clock, 365 days a year. Twice each year, a team from WHOI visits the Pioneer site, located about 100 miles south of Marthas Vineyard, to replace all of the moorings in the array and to deploy autonomous underwater vehicles that record data further afield.
Read MoreSatellite image showing Pinocchio’s Nose warm water intrusion along the Shelf
In 2014, satellite imagery revealed an elongated body of warm Gulf Stream water pushing onto the edge of New England’s continental shelf toward the southwest. Scientists have seen similiar phenomena…
Read MoreSatellite image showing Pinocchio’s Nose warm water intrusion along the Shelf
In 2014, satellite imagery revealed an elongated body of warm Gulf Stream water pushing onto the edge of New England's continental shelf toward the southwest. Scientists have seen similar phenomena…
Read MoreSphere implosion
A crushed subsurface flotation sphere is pulled from the Southern Atlantic Ocean in 2018. As part of the Ocean Observatories Initiative Global Argentine Basin Array, the sphere was part of…
Read MoreKnee-Deep
WHOI engineer Chris Basque deploys instruments for the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) Global Array as waves crash board the R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer. The array is laden with instruments which remain at…
Read MoreGood Omen
“I think it was a good omen, as everything has gone smoothly so far,” said WHOI senior scientist Al Plueddemann when describing the appearance of a snowy owl on the…
Read MoreFully Loaded
A coastal surface mooring lies beneath the A-frame on the research vessel Neil Armstrong, while two instrumented anchor frames sit next to the gangway waiting to be loaded aboard. The…
Read MoreGetting a Good Grip
WHOI Mooring Operations & Engineering lead John Kemp (center) and Senior Engineering Assistants Jim Dunn and Meghan Donohue work to add a YaleGrip to an electro-magnetic (EM) cable during a…
Read MorePoised for Action
Every six months, the imposing, sensor-laden moorings that make up the Ocean Observatories Initiative Pioneer Array need to be “turned”—hauled out of the water and substituted with clean, repaired, and…
Read MoreVisiting Mission Control
Senior Engineering Assistant Brian Kelly and Senior Financial Analyst Kim Sargent give elementary school students from the Mullen-Hall School a tour of the Coleman and Susan Burke Ocean Operations Room…
Read MoreShipping News
Ordinary seaman Derek Briggs (right) stands next to a surface buoy on the stern of the research vessel Neil Armstrong in April 2018. The ship had just docked in Woods…
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