The OOI, a project funded by the National Science Foundation, is planned as a networked infrastructure of science-driven sensor systems to measure the physical, chemical, geological and biological variables in the ocean and seafloor. The OOI will be one fully integrated system collecting data on coastal, regional and global scales. Greater knowledge of the ocean’s interrelated systems is vital for increased understanding of their effects on biodiversity, ocean and coastal ecosystems, ecosystem health and climate change. OOI will put real time ocean observing data in the hands of a vast user community of oceanographers, scientists and researchers, educators and the public.
The major science drivers for the OOI have been determined from years of community workshops and reports; the themes are:
At this time, the OOI Program documents including the Construction Schedule and Final Network Design are available on this website.
For additional documents, presentations and reports click here.
OOI-related proposals will be accepted through the NSF core programs. The OOI Program Office is working with NSF/OCE to develop the details of the evaluation, selection, and scheduling process. It is anticipated that there will be general categories of potential proposals, for example, a category of proposals that would require no technical intervention by observatory personnel or advisory committees, and categories of proposals that would require more OOI program involvement during the proposal and approval process. Given the technical specifications and performance requirements of the OOI infrastructure, investigators proposing alterations or additions to aspects of the OOI network will require guidance in the early stages of proposal preparation. An outline of the draft OOI proposal process will be posted on the OOI website in the near future.
All OOI data including data from OOI core sensors and all proposed sensors added by Principal Investigators, will be rapidly disseminated, open, and freely available (within constraints of national security). Rapidly disseminated implies that data will be made available as soon as technically feasible, but generally in near real-time, with latencies as small as seconds for the cabled components. In limited cases, individual PIs who have developed a data source that becomes part of the OOI network may request exclusive rights to the data for a period of no more than one year from the onset of the data stream.
The Pioneer Array is a movable coastal array consisting of gliders, AUVs and moorings with surface buoys, benthic nodes, and water column profilers with an expected deployment of about five years at each location. It is expected that NSF will release an RFP approximately year 2017 for its next location. The Pioneer Array can be relocated to any coastal region of the United States.
CI will provide the mechanism and infrastructure so the community can easily work with its own models in the context of OOI data. There will not be any OOI maintained models.
OOI will provide a foundation for the future establishment of numerous, substantial partnerships and synergistic collaborations. Within NSF programs, an important partnership exists with the Monterey Accelerated Research System (MARS), and expected additional collaborations include EarthScope and the National Ecological Observing Network (NEON). NASA, NOAA, and other satellite programs will be an important complement to all ocean observing systems, including the OOI network. At global Station PAPA and on the cyberinfrastructure development, the OOI has established a working partnership with NOAA, who will be providing the surface mooring observations at this site to complement the OOI observing assets.
International collaborators include NEPTUNE Canada and the Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) Institute of Ocean Sciences (IOS). Additional collaborations have been established with international programs such as EuroSITES and IFM-GEOMAR to coordinate long time-series ocean observing in the north Atlantic. The OOI global sites have been included in OceanSITES planning to establish an international framework for open data exchange. OOI project team members are also working through the Partnership for Ocean Global Observations (POGO) to improve utilization of research ships. International academic collaborations include the Center for Oceanographic Research in the eastern South Pacific (COPAS) and the University of Concepcion.
The OOI is the NSF’s major contribution to the broader national and international efforts to establish the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), respectively. The OOI will directly contribute to IOOS through the development of novel observing, data assimilation, and data management techniques as well as by advancing understanding of ocean phenomena. The NOAA/IOOS Data Management and Communications group is working with the OOI cyberinfrastructure team to promote convergence of the OOI and NOAA data systems.
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, with its partners University of Maine and Raytheon Mission Operations and Services, is responsible for the education and public engagement (EPE) software infrastructure of the OOI. The EPE IO will lead the development of educational capabilities for the OOI and leverage the system’s cyberinfrastructure capabilities by constructing a series of software and web-based social networking tools to engage a wide range of users including faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, informal science educators and the general public.
On nearly all OOI platforms, there will be additional ports, power, space, and bandwidth to accommodate additional sensors beyond OOI’s core sensor suite. The OOI will provide infrastructure capable of supporting future additional nodes on the cabled array on Juan de Fuca plate (should funding become available).
The OOI Program is managed and coordinated by the OOI Project Office at the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, in Washington, D.C., and is responsible for construction and initial operations of the OOI network. Four major Implementing Organizations are responsible for construction and development of the overall program. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and its partners, Oregon State University and Scripps Institution of Oceanography are responsible for the coastal and global moorings and their autonomous vehicles. The University of Washington is responsible for regional cabled seafloor systems and moorings. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is implementing the cyberinfrastructure component. Rutgers University, with its partners University of Maine and Raytheon Mission Operations and Services, is responsible for the education and public engagement software infrastructure.
The OOI Planned Installation Schedule is depicted in the form of a simplified graphic of events and as detailed tables describing what will be deployed during each installation event. The OOI Planned Installation Schedule graphic shows installation milestones from 2011 to 2014 as well as the continuation of the phased installation of OOI infrastructure scheduled for 2015. The tables lists the initial OOI installation deployment dates that are accurate as of the date the file was posted. The authoritative source is the OOI Integrated Master Schedule. Updates will be made as needed so that all materials on this site remain current. Note also that these tables do not and are not intended to portray a ship cruise schedule. In some cases, multiple installation events may be combined on a single installation cruise.
The OOI Planned Installation Schedule can be viewed and downloaded from the OOI website here.