Aqua Incognita

One mooring at the center of the array carried 32 instruments to measure temperature, salinity, currents, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, and light transmission and intensity in the ocean—an unprecedented amount and diversity of data at the time. The mooring also included a surface buoy with meteorological instruments to study the interplay between air and sea and communications equipment that sent data to shore via satellite. The data were also made freely available to the public on a website—another first.In a nod to the lessons of Iceland, the designers had reinforced the central mooring and saw it survive a beating from waves kicked up by monsoon winds that exceeded 40 miles per hour. The community was ready to make long-term ocean observing a reality.