Image

Loading the Deck

A large blue-and-yellow surface buoy is hoisted aboard R/V Neil Armstrong in preparation for a cruise to the Coastal Pioneer Array of the Ocean Observatories Initiative. The buoy weighs approximately 10,000 pounds on land but floats in seawater. Its inner well compartment houses large batteries, processing electronics, and engineering instruments, while the buoy’s deck and tower serve as platforms for solar panels and wind turbines that provide additional power to the mooring’s numerous scientific sensors. Instruments on the buoy’s tower gather data about the atmosphere; others suspended from the mooring cable below or attached to its anchor make measurements of the water’s physical, biological, and chemical properties. (Photo by Véronique LaCapra, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)