The Ocean Observatories Initiative

The Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) is an infrastructure project that will collect and make available data from a network of ocean-based sensors that will measure various physical, chemical, geological, and biological variables in the ocean and sea floor. The data collected from hundreds of such sensors will be made available in near-real time, and openly accessible. As stated by Tim Cowles, the program director of Ocean Observing in the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, the data collected will belong not to the OOI, but to the people, whether they be professors, researchers, or the average citizen. The goal of the project is to "address a multitude of important science and societal question, including those centering around climate change, ecosystem health, ocean acidification and carbon cycling."

The Ocean Observatories Initiative is a joint project of the National Science Foundation and the Consortium for Ocean Leadership. The OOI is the National Science Foundation's contribution to the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS). The OOI will focus on making scientific discoveries via new technologies, while the role of the IOOS will be to apply these discoveries to social needs. The University of California, San Diego will be responsible for implementing the cyberinfrastructure necessary to make the sensor data available to the public. The cyberinfrastructure is intended to allow everyone to interact with the ocean, not just those who have access to special equipment.

The project has recently moved from the planning to initialization phase, the first official project year having begun this September. Initial data flow is scheduled for early 2013, with full capability being established by 2015. Grants for the first year alone total more than $110 million, with $106 million coming from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and $5.91 million from the NSF to cover construction costs. The first workshop for introducing the OOI to the science community is scheduled for November 11-12 of this year in Baltimore.

This program is an example of the way in which science is capitalizing on the advances in information technology, as well as an example of the move toward data-driven science. The project is touted by the creators as a revolution in the field of ocean science, and it seems that the open accessibility of data will be a key feature of this revolution. As the project is only in the initial construction phase, one cannot yet determine whether the project will be as successful as, for example, the National Virtual Observatory. If it is, the OOI will undoubtedly be an invaluable resource for ocean science.