2007 WHOI, Scripps, OSU to Play Key Role in NSF’s Ocean Observatories Initiative
August 23, 2007
The Joint Oceanographic Institutions (JOI) has awarded a $97.7 million contract to an academic partnership led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), to support the development, installation, and initial operation of the coastal and global components of the National Science Foundation’s Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI).
The WHOI partnership includes Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, and Oregon State University’s College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences. This award completes the management team to construct and implement the $331.5 million OOI Network.
A press briefing formally announcing the contract was held at WHOI’s Dyer’s Dock in Woods Hole, Mass., on Thursday, August 23, 2007. Click here to read the national press release, or here for a regional press release on the program. Click on one of the following links to view video excerpts of the news conference: in RealPlayer — in Quicktime — in Windows Media.
Producers and editors seeking still and video/animated images to accompany their stories can preview the images spread among the pages of this Web site. Please contact media@whoi.edu for high-resolution or broadcast-quality versions.
The news briefing included:
The Honorable Tim Murray, Lieutenant Governor, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
The Honorable William Delahunt, U.S. Representative, 10th District of Massachusetts
The Honorable Therese Murray, Senate President, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Dr. Holly Given, Director of Ocean Observing, Joint Oceanographic Institutions
Ian A. Bowles, Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Daniel O’Connell, Secretary of Housing and Economic Development, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Dr. James Luyten, President and Director, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Mitchell Adams, Executive Director, Massachusetts Technology Collaborative
The observatory contract will be led and managed by a diverse team of scientists, engineers, and technicians. Learn more about them by clicking here.
Support for the WHOI-led coastal and global pieces of the Ocean Observatories Initiative will be provided through the Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction program of the National Science Foundation, with additional regional support from the John Adams Innovation Institute, Massachusetts Technology Collaborative.
Members of the media should click here for more contact information.
Instead of sporadic, expeditionary glimpses of the ocean from ships and subs, oceanographers would like to establish a permanent presence in the ocean. For a decade, researchers have been planning an infrastructure of long-term ocean-observing outposts that can transmit round-the-clock data from remote oceans to shore-based scientists. NSF's Ocean Observatory Initiative would provide $309 million for new ocean observing systems and infrastructure over the next 10 years. For instance, researchers are planning instrument arrays that combine surface and sub-surface bouys, moorings, gliders, drifters, and shipboard measurements that can monitor many complementary ocean processes. (Illustration by E. Paul Oberlander and Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Image courtesy of the OceanSITES program.)
The Martha's Vineyard Coastal Observatory, built in stages since 2000, allows scientists to measure small details of ocean process with minute-by-minute resolution, while also affording the opportunity to paint broader pictures of what is happening in the northwestern Atlantic over the longer term. (Illustration by Jayne Doucette, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)