The EXport Processes in the Ocean from Remote Sensing (EXPORTS) Field Campaign: Results from the Northeast Pacific Deployment and Plans Forward

The goal of the EXport Processes in the Ocean from RemoTe Sensing (EXPORTS) is to develop a predictive understanding of the export, fate and carbon cycle impacts of global ocean net primary production. Observations of export flux pathways, plankton community composition, food web processes, and optical and physical oceanographic properties are needed over a range of ecosystem states to achieve this goal. The complicated nature of these tasks required an observational array composed of a process ship, focused on determining rates and flux pathways, a survey ship, providing spatial context, and a suite of autonomous underwater vehicles, to extend spatial context and a long-term perspective. The first EXPORTS field deployment took place at Station P in the Northeast Pacific during the summer of 2018, while the second deployment is planned for the Porcupine Abyssal Plain Observatory site in North Atlantic Ocean during the spring of 2020. Here we will present an overview of the EXPORTS field campaign’s progress, preliminary results from the first deployment and plans for the future.