Washington Uncabled Line
Washington Uncabled Line
The planned backbone of the Washington Line will be three fixed sites aligned nearly perpendicular to isobaths and spanning from offshore (500 m), to mid-shelf (80 m) and inshore (25 m) locations offshore of Grays Harbor, Washington. The proposed offshore and mid-shelf sites combine fully instrumented surface platforms electrically, optically and mechanically linked to benthic boundary layer sensors and a stand-alone profiler. These moorings will provide continuous meteorological and near-surface oceanographic measurements. The proposed inshore site combines a wave-hardened surface platform electromechanically linked to benthic boundary layer sensors and a stand-alone, surface-piercing profiler, identical to the inshore site of the Newport Cabled Line.
A Fleet of Gliders
A fleet of six gliders will survey the shelf and slope waters of the eastern boundary current regime offshore of Washington and Oregon and will service the Washington Uncabled Line and the Oregon Cabled Line. These gliders will provide high-resolution transects along the Endurance mooring line and will carry a multi-disciplinary sensor payload. The gliders will operate along four planned cross-shelf lines between the Washington and Oregon Lines and also plan to operate north-south along 126ºW longitude. Repeat missions of several hundred kilometers will be carried out over a period of several months until the gliders are recovered for servicing and replacement. The purpose of these missions will be to characterize the mesoscale field, upwelling fronts, and buoyant plume fronts over the shelves and provide spatially rich data in which to embed the moored Endurance Array time series data.
More information about the Endurance Array and the Washington Uncabled Line may be found here.
