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Building the Observatory

In the high bay of WHOI’s Laboratory for Ocean Sensors and Observing Systems (LOSOS), Jared Schwartz (left) and Steve Caldwell guide a surface mooring tower onto its base, for the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), a major ocean infrastructure project funded by the National Science Foundation. At WHOI, engineers are building, refurbishing, and deploying arrays of platforms—including moorings, gliders, and autonomous underwater vehicles, with associated instruments, in one nearby coastal and four high-latitude global locations. Using the arrays, scientists, students and citizens will be able to continuously download data, observe and study these ocean regions over the coming decades. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)