9810641 Hogg The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will undertake a four-year project that addresses a critical ocean sciences requirement for enhancing long-term environmental observations in the deep ocean using moorings. Recent advances in materials, electronics, and communications technology suggest that significant improvements can be made over present capabilities. The PIs propose a four-year project to develop a replacement for the subsurface mooring that: (1) is less expensive and requires fewer, skilled people to prepare and deploy, (2) is sufficiently reliable and power conservative that deployments of five years or more will be possible, (3) telemeters its data back to the scientist, and, (4) is mechanically simplified to the point that deployment can be done from a vessel of opportunity. Ultimately, an expendable mooring may be achievable. The development effort is based on the premise that measurements of ocean currents and other variables will continue to be of fundamental importance to advancing our understanding of the ocean and the development and implementation of models capable of predicting its future state, as well as understanding its present and past conditions. The development of an efficient, reliable, and long-lived mooring system will make it possible to attack many problems that previously it would have been futile to consider, but which have become increasingly important as the field moves to global, climate change issues.
