Posts by Amber Coogan
New to OOI? Start Here.
Whether you’re just getting started with OOI data or looking to incorporate it into your research or teaching, OOI offers a variety of online resources to help you get up to speed. Explore step-by-step tutorials, learn the basics of the Data Explorer, discover how to compare time series data, and browse educational resources designed for instructors and students. These free tools make it easier to find, visualize, and use OOI data for scientific research and classroom learning.
Resources include:
- OOI Tutorials:
- Getting Started with Data Explorer
- Compare Time Series Data with Data Explorer
- Educator Resources
OOI Participates in Air–Sea Interaction Symposium at URI
Jim Edson, Lead Principal Investigator of the OOI, recently participated in the Air–Sea Interaction Symposium hosted by the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography. The event honored the significant contributions of renowned researchers Alex Ginis and Tetsu Hara to the fields of air–sea interaction and marine meteorology.
During the symposium, Edson presented OOI research and observational capabilities, highlighting the observatory’s role in advancing understanding of ocean-atmosphere processes. The gathering brought together scientists, students, and leaders from across the marine meteorology field to share new findings, discuss emerging challenges, and strengthen collaborations.
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Credit: URI/GSO[/caption]
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Credit: URI/GSO[/caption]
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Credit: URI/GSO[/caption]
Read More NSF OOI Descoping Update for the Community
June 18, 2026 | NSF Update on the Ocean Observatories Initiative →
Dear OOI Community,
As many of you may now be aware, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has initiated a major descoping of the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) Major Facility. The official statement is available here.
The OOI recognizes the importance of this announcement to the many researchers, educators, students, engineers, partners, and community members who have contributed to and relied upon OOI data over the past decade. We want to provide additional context for the community as we work through the details of this transition.
NSF’s descoping plan includes the phased recovery and removal of in-water infrastructure from the Endurance, Pioneer, Irminger Sea, and Station Papa Arrays over the next approximately 15 months. At the Endurance Array, the descoping process is already underway, with final recovery activities scheduled for June 2026. Recovery of the Pioneer Array is currently planned for June 2027, while the Irminger Sea and Station Papa Arrays are expected to be recovered during the summer of 2027, subject to ship scheduling and operational constraints.
As infrastructure is recovered from each array, the associated real-time data streams and observing capabilities at those locations will come to an end. However, all previously collected OOI data will remain accessible through the OOI Data Center. The Regional Cabled Array (RCA), the OOI Data Center, the Program Management Office (PMO), and Community Engagement activities will continue operating through September 30, 2028.
We encourage investigators to continue:
- Using OOI datasets in proposals, publications, and presentations
- Referencing OOI-enabled science outcomes in community discussions and reports
- Supporting student and early-career researcher engagement with OOI data
- Identifying opportunities for data driven research and cross-program collaborations using the existing observational record
Over more than a decade, OOI has delivered the world’s most advanced continuously operating ocean observing systems, supporting science, engineering, education, and workforce development across the ocean sciences community. We are profoundly grateful for the extraordinary efforts of the scientists, engineers, operators, educators, students, and partners who made this facility possible and who continue to advance its legacy through the use of its data.
Thank you for your continued engagement and support.
Best regards,
Jim Edson
Principal Investigator, NSF Ocean Observatories Initiative
Senior Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Announcement on NSF OOI Descoping
June 18, 2026 | NSF Update on the Ocean Observatories Initiative →
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has initiated descoping of the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) Major Facility.
This plan includes the removal of all in-water infrastructure from the Irminger Sea, Station Papa, Endurance and Pioneer Arrays, subject to ship scheduling and other operational constraints. All recovered equipment will be retained by the operating institution pending further guidance from NSF.
The OOI Regional Cabled Array will remain operational for the foreseeable future. NSF intends to ensure continuity of the Data Center capabilities in support of ongoing OOI operations.
We encourage the community to use the ten-plus years of OOI data by including it in proposals, publications, presentations, and conversations with colleagues. Continued engagement demonstrates the scientific impact and wide-ranging applications enabled by the OOI and its data, underscoring its importance as a resource for the oceanographic community.
Read MoreA tear off the Pacific Northwest coast is helping scientists understand earthquake risk
NSF Announcement: Early Career Opportunities for Scientists and Engineers
On Monday, May 11, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) will release vacancy announcements of particular interest to early career scientists and engineers. The staff in these positions work with program directors to plan and analyze program portfolios, identify emerging research areas, and support/manage the merit review of proposals and use data analysis to understand the landscape of the principal investigator community and the impact of current NSF investments. The incumbents will work internally and externally to engage with the research community through outreach and other community activities. NSF also supports the professional development of entry level scientists and engineers through interdisciplinary activities, training, and opportunities to engage in independent research and collaboration.
These career opportunities found on the NSF career webpage will be open for a limited time for applicants to apply through USAJobs.
Please share this announcement with your colleagues who may find it of interest, including recent graduates and students nearing the completion of their studies.
Read MoreEndurance Array Update: Maintaining Critical Observations off Oregon
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Ocean Observatories Initiative Endurance Array (EA) continues to adapt to evolving funding conditions while maintaining key ocean observations along the Oregon coast.
In September 2025, NSF allowed the Oregon Shelf mooring to remain in the water through spring 2026, even as most other moorings in the array were paused. Since then, the absence of other moorings has been noticed – local fishermen have reached out with concerns, highlighting how widely these data are used beyond solely the research community.
“We heard directly from fishermen when the data stream went offline,” said Ed Dever, Principal Investigator of the Endurance Array. “That really shows how important these observations are – not just for research, but for real-world decision-making and safety.”
Through additional funding provided under a continuing resolution, the Endurance Array team now plans to recover and redeploy the Oregon Shelf mooring in June 2026 and again in October 2026. These efforts are intended to keep the mooring operational through at least spring 2027.
“Our focus is on continuing operations with the resources we have,” Dever said. “Even maintaining a subset of these observations is critical for the scientific community.”
The current deployment, which began in June 2025, has not been without challenges. In late January 2026, the mooring lost wind turbine charging capability, forcing the team to suspend real-time data transmission to conserve power. Despite this setback, many battery-powered instruments have continued to record data internally, which will be recovered during the upcoming June cruise.
As seasonal conditions improve, increasing solar energy has provided enough power to bring meteorological sensors back online and resume partial real-time data transmission.
In addition to the mooring, NSF has approved continued glider operations along the Newport Line. A glider currently in the water is collecting subsurface measurements, such as temperature, salinity, oxygen, and chlorophyll, and transmitting data in near real time, helping to sustain this long-standing observational record.
“The Newport Line is part of a long-standing time series that predates OOI,” Dever said. “It remains an essential component for understanding variability in the California Current system.”
Together, these efforts reflect a focused strategy: maintaining the most critical observations and preserving long-term data records, even under constrained resources.
“Long-term time series are incredibly valuable,” Dever emphasized. “Once they’re interrupted, you can’t simply recreate them – it’s a permanent loss of insight into how the ocean is changing.”
[caption id="attachment_37561" align="alignnone" width="2560"]
Glider technician Stuart Pearce with glider prepped for deployment on the Newport line. This glider is ready to deploy in the spring prior to the June 2026 cruise. Photo credit: Ed Dever, OSU[/caption]
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Mooring integration lead Alex Wick (left) and data lead Chris Wingard (right) examine met instruments on the Oregon Shelf buoy to be deployed in June 2026. Instruments have been programmed and are being tested in the high bay. Photo credit: Ed Dever, OSU[/caption]
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Data lead Chris Wingard (left) and mooring integration lead Alex Wick (right) examine the wiring harness on the Oregon Shelf buoy well to be deployed in October 2026. Early prep work is being done to enable this mooring to be deployed in October. Photo credit: Ed Dever, OSU[/caption]
Read More Shelfbreak Jet Influence on Coastal Sea Level
Flooding and shoreline erosion are increasing threats to coastal communities. Coastal sea levels are influenced by multiple factors, including mean sea level rise, tides, storm surges, river outflow, and waves. A recent paper by Camargo et al. (2025) focused on the extent to which offshore circulation, in particular the shelfbreak jet on the New England shelf, contributed to sea level variability over the period 2014 – 2022. They found that roughly 30% of sea level variance during storm surges can be attributed to the shelfbreak jet.
The authors used a variety of data sets, including tide gauge stations along the New England coastline from Boston, MA to Atlantic City, NJ, wind stress from the ECMWF ERA-5 reanalysis, and shelfbreak jet transport from the OOI Pioneer Array. The jet transport was estimated using upward-looking ADCP data from the Central Inshore, Central, and Central Offshore moorings. The methodology and results are described in Carmargo et al., 2024 and the jet transport data set is available in Zenodo (Carmago, 2024). The data were de-tided and then band-pass filtered (1-15 days) to isolate the storm-surge component of sea level variability. Coherence between coastal sea level and jet transport for 1-15 day periods was established by Carmago et al. (2024).
[caption id="attachment_37571" align="alignnone" width="975"]
Percent of storm surge variance explained by the regression model (red) and for individual parameters: shelfbreak jet (purple), zonal wind stress (orange), and meridional wind stress (green). Tide gauge stations are ordered from north to south along the coastline. From Camargo et al., 2025.[/caption]
The influence of jet transport and two components of wind stress (zonal and meridional) on storm surge was evaluated by means of a linear regression model that determined the regression coefficients for each parameter. The regression was run for each tide station using the previously computed jet transport and the ERA-5 wind stress closest to each station. Overall, the regression model explained about 60% of the storm surge variance, with jet transport and zonal wind stress explaining 28% and 38%, respectively. There was modest along-coast variability in the variance explained by each parameter (Figure 3): Variance explained by zonal wind stress tended to increase from NE to SW along the coast (Fall River to Bridgeport), while variance explained by the jet tended to decrease. The wind stress impact was identified as due to either onshore or downwelling-favorable winds. The jet impact was due to changes in the cross-shelf pressure gradient associated with the geostrophically-balanced currentCase studies for specific synoptic events highlight the complexity of coastal storm surge events and the broad suite of observational tools necessary to determine the influence of different mechanisms. The authors note that simple storm surge models will not capture the influence of offshore currents like the shelfbreak jet, and that such influence is likely to be found elsewhere on the US east and west coast.
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References:
Camargo, C.M.L., C.G. Piecuch and B. Raubenheimer, 2025. Do ocean dynamics contribute to coastal floods? A case study of the shelfbreak jet and coastal sea level along southern New England, Earth’s Future, 13, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EF006708.
Camargo, C. M. L. (2024). Shelfbreak jet transport from OOI pioneer [Dataset]. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10814048.
Camargo, C. M. L., Piecuch, C. G., & Raubenheimer, B. (2024). From shelfbreak to shoreline: Coastal sea level and local ocean dynamics in the Northwest Atlantic. Geophysical Research Letters, 51(14), e2024GL109583. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL109583 .
Read MoreLife on Plastics: Deep-Sea Foraminiferal Colonization Patterns and Reproductive Morphology
Burkett (2025) reports plastic debris has become a persistent feature of deep-sea ecosystems, yet its role as a habitat for calcifying organisms remains poorly understood. Foraminifera colonization has been observed in significant numbers on plastic surfaces, suggesting that these materials serve as novel and significant deep-sea colonization sites for these abundant calcifying organisms. Her study uses deep-sea experimental plastic substrates to examine the colonization and reproductive morphology of the benthic foraminifera Lobatula wuellerstorfi across three locations. Two sampling locations used OOI platforms on the Oregon continental margin: the Endurance Oregon Offshore site (575 m), and the Regional Cabled Array Southern Hydrate Ridge site (774 m). The third location, Station M (4000 m) was on the abyssal plain off central California. 482 individuals were analyzed for morphometric traits to investigate reproductive morphotypes. One feature examined was the proloculus diameter. The proloculus is the first chamber formed by the foraminifera. In L. wuellerstorfi, the proloculus is the spherical feature visible at the foraminifera center (see Fig. 2, specimen 4f).
The more traditional test morphology of L. wuellerstorfi —characterized by a flattened, biconvex test and consistently elevated and pore-free sutures — is well represented in the Oregon specimens. These samples also displayed a clear bimodal proloculus size distribution, consistent with alternating reproductive strategies, while Station M populations exhibited a broader, less defined bimodal distribution skewed toward megalospheric forms. This variation likely reflects environmentally driven morphologic responses rather than taxonomic divergence. Burkett’s findings demonstrate that plastics can serve as persistent colonization sites for deep-sea foraminifera, offering a unique experimental platform to investigate benthic population dynamics, ecological plasticity, and potential geochemical implications, as well as the broader impacts of foraminifera on deep-sea biodiversity and biogeochemical cycling.
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Lobatula wuellerstorfi specimens recovered from plastic substrates at the OOI Endurance Oregon Offshore (575 m water depth) after 264 days of deployment. Each specimen (1–5) is shown in six standardized views for comparative analysis. Specimens 1 and 2 represent microspheric forms; specimens 3–5 are megalospheric individuals that recently completed their first whorl and are smaller in overall test diameter. All scale bars = 100 μm. The proloculus diameter, PD, is indicated on specimen 4f.[/caption]
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Reference:
Burkett, A.M. Life on Plastics: Deep-Sea Foraminiferal Colonization Patterns and Reproductive Morphology. J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2025, 13, 1597. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse13081597
Read MoreActive Protothrusts and Fluid Highways: Seismic Noise Reveals Hidden Subduction Dynamics in Cascadia
This first of a kind study by Kidiwela et al., (2026) “Active protothrusts and fluid highways: Seismic noise reveals hidden subduction dynamics in Cascadia” (1) applies ambient seismic noise interferometry to a decade of RCA broadband seismometer data at Slope Base and Southern Hydrate Ridge, and on Ocean Networks Canada >400 km to the north at Clayoquot Canyon, to resolve spatio-temporal variations in seismic velocity across the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Along-strike heterogeneity in megathrust behavior, with a strongly coupled (locked) segment in northern Cascadia is in sharp contrast to a weakly coupled central segment characterized by distributed deformation along active protothrusts with slow-slip events. Temporal velocity reductions are suggested to correlate with fluid migration along permeable structures at the plate interface and the subsidiary strike slip Alvin Canyon Fault, indicating that elevated pore-fluid pressures modulate fault mechanical properties. These “fluid highways” facilitate transient weakening and influence stress partitioning, potentially inhibiting the lateral propagation of seismic rupture.
[caption id="attachment_37564" align="alignnone" width="936"]
Figure 1 (after Kidiwela Figs 1-3) a) Cascadia Subduction Zone showing a model for the distribution of locking, depth to the down-going slab, strike-slip faults (blue lines) and location of Regional Cabled Array and Ocean Network Canada broadband seismometers used in this study. The Siletzia terrain, a large buried accreted basaltic body is outlined in red. b) Cross sections showing temporal changes in seismic velocities (dv/v) for the Northern and Central Caldera sites. Histograms for shallow (red) and deep (grey) tremor events shown for Central Caldera. c) The cross section shows fluid migration (blue arrows), splay faults and protothrusts (red lines) and the Alvin Canyon Fault (ACF). Down dip tremor, purple dots, match small locked proportions of the slab, Fluid transport along the décollement and the Alvin Canyon Fault are thought to modulate earthquake behavior.[/caption]
The study demonstrates that seismic noise–derived velocity changes provide a sensitive proxy for real-time monitoring of fault zone hydromechanical processes. It provides new constraints on subduction zone segmentation, coupling, and earthquake rupture dynamics and demonstrates a powerful new way to monitor offshore fault zones, ultimately improving our understanding of when and how large earthquakes might occur in Cascadia.
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Reference:
1Kidiwela, M., Denolle, M.A., Wilcock, W.S.D., and Feng, K-F (2026) Active protothrusts and fluid highways: Seismic noise reveals hidden subduction dynamics in Cascadia. Science Advances, 12; https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aea3684.
Read More