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An Ocean YoYo

April 23, 2009

A moored profiler is deployed from research vessel Oceanus in the western subtropical North Atlantic for climate change studies. Moored profilers take repeated measurements of ocean currents and water properties by traveling up and down a subsurface mooring cable. It operates at depths of 50 meters (165 feet) down to the sea floor at 5,000 meters (3 miles) or more. The profiler carries an acoustic current meter and an instrument to measure temperature and salinity, and has the capability of carrying other instruments, such as  bio-optical and chemical sensors. This instrument and others involved in ocean observations will be on display at the Cambridge Science Festival at the MIT Museum, 265 Mass. Ave. Cambridge, Mass., on April 25, 2009. The event is free and open to the
public. (Photo by John Lund, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)