RI operates one of the finest deep-ocean research ships in the world. We have a machine shop, electronics engineers, and a marine technician support group. We are leaders in ocean-instrument development: state-of-the-art equipment includes moored current meter arrays, subsurface RAFOS neutral-buoyancy floats tracked using moored sound sources, free-fall Lagrangian velocity profilers, Inverted Echo Sounders (IES, acoustic probes of ocean thermal structure), including bottom pressure recorders (PIES) and current meters (CPIES) and the latest shipboard hydrographic survey electronics.

In the laboratory we study experimental rotating and stratified fluid motions, as well as problems on convection of viscous fluids, using a variety of flow visualization techniques.

The Physical Oceanography Group operates and manages resources for high-performance computing and communication, scientific visualization, and computer graphics. These facilities include a supercomputer and an ever-evolving suite of networked workstations.

The comprehensive marine library includes the U.S. National Sea Grant Depository. Opportunities exist for close interaction with staff in other oceanographic disciplines and at the adjacent National Marine Fisheries Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the nearby Navy laboratories.