UNDERSEA SENSORSGoing Dark: Why Dismantling America’s Ocean Sensors Is a Security Risk
Starting this month, the National Science Foundation (NSF) began pulling more than 900 deep-sea instruments out of the water, dismantling most of the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), a network of moorings and seafloor sensors that streams continuous, real-time data on the physical, chemical, and biological state of the Atlantic and Pacific. The network was built to run for 25 years. It will not make it to ten. This is a national security story as much as a science story.
The United States is about to lose its clearest view of a fast-changing ocean. Starting this month, the National Science Foundation (NSF) began pulling more than 900 deep-sea instruments out of the water, dismantling four of the five major arrays of the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), a network of moorings and seafloor sensors that streams continuous, real-time data on the physical, chemical, and biological state of the Atlantic and Pacific. The network was built to run for 25 years. It will not make it to ten.
This is a national security story as much as a science story. Understanding the ocean is critical to food security, disaster preparedness, military readiness, and anticipatory risk management of potential climate tipping points. Shutting off ocean observation means the United States is creating a blind spot that puts it on the back foot, unable to prepare for a climate-changed future or more broadly assess undersea developments, at a time when its strongest competitor, China, is doubling down on ocean monitoring.
The Endurance Array off the Pacific Northwest comes out first, this month. The Station Papa Array in the Gulf of Alaska, the Irminger Sea Array, and the Pioneer Array on the East Coast are set to follow in the summer of 2027.
Three risks illustrate that this is a security problem in addition to a science loss.
First, the United States is about to stop watching the Atlantic’s circulation, just as it wobbles. The sensors that sit in the Irminger Sea between Greenland and Iceland are central to measuring the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). This is the system of currents that carries warm water north and helps keep the climate across North America and Europe stable. The moorings in the Irminger capture the deep-water mixing that drives the whole conveyor. Models can estimate changes to the AMOC, but only sensors in the water can show what is actually changing.
