page_title: Ocean Observatories Initiative
section_title: Regional Scale Nodes (RSN)
hierarchical_section_title: Ocean Observatories Initiative / Components / Coastal Global Scale Nodes (CGSN) / Regional Scale Nodes (RSN)
caption_attribution_description: English: The OOI Regional Scale Nodes will focus on two primary study sites (Hydrate Ridge and Axial Seamount) with the potential for future expansion to other sites. Credit: OOI Regional Scale Nodes program and Center for Environmental Visualization, University of Washington. Disclaimer: all data are subject to revision without notice.
context_page_description: The Ocean Observatories Initiative is a National Science Foundation Division of Ocean Sciences program that focuses the science, technology, education and outreach of an emerging network of science driven ocean observing systems. It is a networked infrastructure of science-driven sensor systems to measure the physical, chemical, geological and biological variables in the ocean and seafloor as well as the overlying atmosphere, providing an integrated system collecting data on coastal, regional and global scales.
  Funded by the National Science Foundation, OOI builds on the heritage of the ship-based expeditions of the last century and the more recent emphasis to increase ocean observation and in situ monitoring.
  OOI's goal is to deliver data and data products for a 25-year-plus time period within a scalable architecture that can meet emerging technical advances in ocean science. These data are freely accessible online through the OOI cyberinfrastructure.
context_section_description: Regional Scale Nodes are cabled arrays of ocean observing sensors in the Northeast Pacific Ocean. They are connected by approximately 900 kilometers (560 miles) of electro-optical cable.  The design provides high power (10 kV, 8 kW) and bandwidth (10 GbE) to sensor arrays on the seafloor and throughout the water column using moorings with instrumented wire-following profilers, 200 m instrumented platforms and winched profilers.  The RSN was installed and operated by the University of Washington.
  The two primary study sites are Hydrate Ridge, an area of massive sub-seafloor gas-hydrate deposits and fluxes of methane from the seafloor into the ocean, and Axial Seamount, the most magmatically robust volcano on the Juan de Fuca Ridge spreading center that erupted in April 2011.
  The RSN complements the NEPTUNE cabled observatory that Ocean Networks Canada operates on the northern Juan de Fuca plate. Together these observatories enable long-term, plate-scale seafloor and ocean investigations in the Northeast Pacific.
caption: The OOI Regional Scale Nodes focus on two primary study sites (Hydrate Ridge and Axial Seamount) with the potential for future expansion to other sites. Credit: OOI Regional Scale Nodes program and Center for Environmental Visualization, University of Washington.  Disclaimer: all data are subject to revision without notice.
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