Endurance Line

The OOI Endurance Array

The coastal OOI Endurance Array will observe cross-shelf and along-shelf variability in the coastal upwelling region off the Oregon and Washington coasts. It will also provide an extended spatial footprint that encompasses a prototypical eastern boundary current and will overlap the RSN cabled infrastructure. This array will be connected to the RSN, providing a continuum of scales from the coastal zone (Coastal/Global Scale Nodes) through their transition into the ocean basin (RSN). In order to provide synoptic, multi-scale observations of the eastern boundary current regime, the two proposed cross-shelf moored array lines, each with three instrumented sites (at 25 m, 80 m, and 500 m water depth) are supplemented by six gliders patrolling the coastal region. The Endurance Array will consist of a moored line off Newport, Oregon, (44°N, 125°W to coast) connected to the RSN cabled network, and a proposed uncabled moored line off Gray's Harbor, Washington (47°N, 125°W to coast).

The Newport Cabled Line

Analogous to the Washington Line, the backbone of the Endurance Oregon Line will be three proposed sites aligned perpendicular to isobaths and spanning the offshore (500 m), mid-shelf (80 m) and inshore (25 m) regimes off Oregon. The proposed offshore and shelf sites combine fully-instrumented 
surface platforms with cabled profilers and benthic boundary layer sensors. The proposed inshore site
 combines a wave-hardened surface platform electromechanically linked to benthic boundary 
layer sensors and a stand-alone surface-piercing profiler. The three environments are linked 
physically, biologically, and geologically, yet represent distinctly different processes. As an
 example, wave forcing is especially important at the 25 m site, while local and remote wind
forcing is dominant at the mid-shelf site and slope currents and offshore mesoscale variability 
is important at the slope site.
The most transformative design element of the offshore and shelf sites will be the cabled 
infrastructure, which integrates the Endurance Array with the Regional Scale Nodes. This CGSN-RSN partnership extends the reach and capability of 
the RSN infrastructure into the coastal environment, while simultaneously providing the 
transformative high-power, high-bandwidth capabilities to the Coastal infrastructure.

More information about the Endurance Array and the Newport Cabled Line may be found here.