Program Update – October 2012

The Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) this month attended the MTS/IEEE Oceans 2012 Conference at the Virginia Beach Convention Center, Hampton Roads, VA as part of a larger Consortium for Ocean Leadership presence.

OOI scientists were represented at the conference in a special session hosted by the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) program – “IGNITE the Crowd.”  This was a fast-paced session of five minute talks by ten dynamic leaders in the ocean observing field.  These leaders included two of OOI’s own – Scott Glenn and Mike Crowley from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. 

A large focus of both talks was the importance of observational data not just for scientific discovery and understanding, but also for enhancing the education of the next generation of scientists.  Glenn and Crowley are both a part of the OOI Education and Public Engagement (EPE) team, which focuses on building tools to simplify the large stream of OOI observational data into a more integrated package that can be used for learning purposes.  Glenn is the Principal Investigator of EPE and Crowley is the Project Manager.

OOI data were also highlighted in a recently published peer reviewed journal article authored by Gawarkiewicz, et al., “Direct interaction between the Gulf Stream and the shelfbreak south of New England” – in the August 2012 issue of the journal Scientific Reports. 

The findings described in the paper were initiated by fishermen alerting physical oceanographers Glen Gawarkiewicz and Al Plueddemann from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) of unusual conditions on the outer continental shelf south of New England.  The result of this investigation was a discovery that the Gulf Stream diverged well to the north of its normal path beginning in late October 2011, causing the warmer-than-usual ocean temperatures along the New England continental shelf.  A portion of the data used in this study came from instruments on OOI temporary test moorings placed 12 km south of the shelfbreak.

Also this month, the OOI released a Request for Proposals for Fuel Cells to be used on the Coastal Global Scale Nodes (CGSN).  Click here to read more about the RFP.

And new on the OOI website this month, is a photo tour of the Primary Node Installation.  The installation of the primary nodes for the Regional Scale Nodes component of the OOI infrastructure in the Northeast Pacific Ocean, completed in Aug. 2012, was a significant construction milestone for the OOI program.  Click here to visit the Photo Tour.

For more information on the OOI please visit the OOI Website or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.