Completed June 2002.

Updated June 2003.

Editing and design by Geo Prose.

Download a copy of the brochure

• ooi_brochure.6.30.03.pdf (1 MB)

Or request for a hard copy from ocepubs@nsf.gov.

The Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) is an outgrowth of several community-wide scientific planning efforts, and builds upon recent technological advances and successful pilot projects. An important driver of OOI science is the report, Ocean Sciences at the New Millennium. In 2000, a National Research Council report recommended that NSF initiate a seafloor observatory program. The Dynamics of Earth and Ocean Systems (DEOS) Steering Committee was formed to advise NSF and other agencies regarding OOI planning and implementation. It is anticipated that the research-focused observatories enabled by OOI would be networked together and be an integral part of the proposed Integrated and Sustained Ocean Observing System (IOOS). This operationally focused system is being developed and coordinated by Ocean.US under the auspices of the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP).

This publication is funded by a contract with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) under the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation (NSF). The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF or UCAR.