Collaborative Inter-Agency Mooring Expeditions

Station Papa: Collaborative Inter-Agency Mooring

The Global Station Papa Array is located in the Gulf of Alaska next to the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory Expeditions (PMEL) Surface Buoy. The region is extremely vulnerable to ocean acidification, has a productive fishery, and low eddy variability. It is impacted by the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and adds to a broader suite of OOI and other observatory sites in the Northeast Pacific. NOA A’s surface mooring at Station Papa contributes yearround data to one of the oldest oceanic time series records dating from 1949-1981. Beginning in 2014, OOI has enhanced Station Papa with an array of subsurface moorings and glider measurements. During the latest operation and maintenance expedition ( Station Papa 9) to OOI’s Global Station Papa, a team of ten scientists and engineers from the Coastal and Global Scale Nodes deployed six moorings – three for OOI, two for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and one for the University of Washington. This type of inter-agency collaboration has strengthened since the beginning of OOI and will continue as a means to best share and use resources and expertise to enhance efficiencies in global ocean observations.