Portland PNW

A workshop on science planning for the NEPTUNE Regional Cabled Observatory in the Northeast Pacific Ocean was held in April 2003 in Portland, Oregon.

This workshop was one of a series of observatory science planning workshops in North America. Attendees at the Portland workshop represented a broad spectrum of researchers and groups and worked to define the most innovative “lead-off” community experiments and instrumentation. Their approach included reviewing earlier work done as part of the NEPTUNE U.S. and Canadian feasibility studies (NEPTUNE Phase 1 Partners, 2000; Canadian NEPTUNE Management Board, 2000).

The workshop had the following three primary goals:

Inform the regional community of the opportunities provided by NEPTUNE as a part of the evolving OOI infrastructure;

Maximize the opportunities and linkages provided by NEPTUNE and its test beds as a regional and coastal observatory; and

Entrain a broad spectrum of researchers and forge teams to plan creative research that will fully capitalize on NEPTUNE’s capabilities.

The workshop focused on establishing the key science experiments and technology developments that will ensure success of the system from the outset. Thematic working groups and plenary sessions developed outlines of individual and community experiments, preferred node locations, instrument packages, and paths to implementation.
The following five working groups were formed around broad science themes represented by attendees:

Fisheries and Marine Mammals

Ocean Dynamics

Seismology and Geodynamics

Fluid Fluxes and Geophysical Processes in the Sediments and Crust

Ecosystems and the Carbon Cycle

The number of participants in each group ranged from 11 to 19, with a total of 83 people attending the workshop. Reports from each group were collated, edited, and reviewed by participants to generate a comprehensive report.