Oregon Slope Base Deep Profiler Mooring

The Oregon Slope Base Deep Profiler Mooring is located adjacent to the continental slope off the coast of Oregon at a water depth of ~2,900 meters. Here, ocean water properties are profoundly impacted by the California Current and internal waves. The coastal region of the Pacific Northwest is a classic wind-driven upwelling system where nutrient-rich deep waters rise to replace warmer surface waters, resulting in high marine productivity that attracts zooplankton, fish, and marine mammals. Near-bottom fauna are periodically negatively impacted by the flow of deep waters with very low oxygen concentrations (hypoxic events), and upwelling of corrosive, acidified waters onto the continental shelf. This mooring contains a Wire-Following Profiler that hosts six scientific instruments and moves through the water column along the mooring riser, continuously sampling ocean characteristics over a specified depth interval (150 meters below sea surface to near bottom) and is connected to an electro-optical cable that provides a large supply of power and bandwidth. When coupled with other Cabled Array and Endurance Array installations off the central Oregon coast, the Slope Base Deep Profiler Mooring allows for measurements of a variety of coastal phenomena, including cross-shelf and along-shelf variability.