Advancing Coastal Biogeochemical Research Through the OOI Regional Cabled Array
On April 14th, researchers Deb Kelley [University of Washington (UW)] and Jonathan Sharp [Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, and Ecosystem Studies (CICOES)/NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL)] received funding for a collaboration to integrate unprecedented high-resolution, long-duration ocean environmental observations from the U.S. National Science Foundation Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) Regional Cabled Array (RCA) into coupled machine-learning and modeling frameworks, transforming monitoring and forecasting of Pacific Northwest coastal waters.
The partnership is funded by the UW College of the Environment Collaborative Research in Earth System Science and Technology (CRESST) program, made possible through the Paul G. Allen Fund for Science and Technology (FFST).
The project will support the incorporation of publicly available, research-grade RCA data into:
- a machine-learning-based approach to construct biogeochemical data products for the California Current Ecosystem (based on the GOBAI-O2approach)
- a separate effort leveraging the LiveOcean model to improve estimates of carbonate chemistry in the Pacific Northwest and Puget Sound.
Results will include gap-filled, gridded, four-dimensional estimates of oxygen, nitrate, and carbonate chemistry for critical ecosystems along the U.S. West Coast. RCA data spanning more than a decade, from the seafloor to near-surface environments from Deep and Shallow Profiler Moorings, will be incorporated into the models, along with complementary observational data from ships, floats, gliders, and other platforms.
Analysis workflows will be provided as Jupyter notebooks to enable reproducibility and facilitate adoption by other researchers.
Example illustration of satellite, ARGO Float, and RCA Shallow and Deep Profiler Mooring data to be incorporated into model integration tools aligning RCA observations with model outputs and satellite products. Credit: W. Ruef, University of Washington.