August 24, 2007
Oregon State University will receive $20.6 million over the next six years to lead a component of the National Science Foundation's Ocean Observatories Initiative.
The university also could receive an additional $29 million over the succeeding five years to continue operating the coastal observatory near Newport.
The OSU-led coastal observatory, part of a $331.5 million project coordinated by the Joint Oceanographic Institutions, will focus on the continental shelf off Newport, in what is one of the most heavily studied marine environments in the world.
Earlier this year, the Joint Oceanographic Institutions announced awards to the University of Washington to design a regional fiber-optic cabled observatory off Washington and Oregon, and to the University of California at San Diego to direct systemwide computing infrastructure.
OSU partnered with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography on a proposal to develop, install and operate the combined coastal and global observatories.
The Pacific Northwest coastal observatory, led by OSU, will place a series of permanent moorings off the Northwest coast called the Endurance Array, and will include a network of undersea gliders that can be programmed to collect and transmit data to onshore laboratories.
