Graduate School of Oceanography professors Kathleen Donohue and Randy Watts deployed an array of 25 current- and pressure-recording inverted echo sounders (CPIES) in the deep waters of the central Gulf of Mexico in June 2019. Data collected by the CPIES will increase understanding of the Gulf of Mexico Loop Current System (LCS). Following recommendations from a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report released in 2018, titled “Understanding and Predicting the Gulf of Mexico Loop Current, Critical Gaps and Recommendations”, the National Academies’ Gulf Research Program (GRP) is developing a 10–12 year research campaign to improve understanding and prediction of the LCS.

Data were telemetered from the deployed instruments in the fall of 2019 and again in the fall of 2020. The array was successfully recovered in May 2021.