Pioneer Array Illustration (IMAGE)
Caption
The Pioneer Array is a coastal observatory that is part of the NSF-funded Ocean Observatories Initiative. It is moveable array of surface moorings, moored profilers and autonomous vehicles, including gliders, deployed along the "continental shelf-break" off the coast of southern New England, the boundary where coastal waters meet the open ocean. It is a dynamic intersection where ocean currents meet in weather-like 'fronts', and where the nutrients, pollutants, minerals, creatures, and waters of the coast are exchanged with the deep ocean. Zhang and his colleagues used preliminary glider data, collected from April through June 2014 and publicly available on the OOI website, to generate the first profile of the complex, layered masses of water at this vital point in the ocean.
Credit
Illustration by Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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