The Martha's Vineyard Coastal Observatory (MVCO) is a fixed, cabled observatory located in Edgartown, Massachusetts and the waters south of Martha's Vineyard.

MVCO was created by WHOI scientists in 2001 to carry out sustained observations of the coastal ocean and atmosphere as well as to provide an infrastructure that could support future process studies of the marine environment.

Led by Jim Edson and John Trowbridge, scientists within WHOI's Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Department, WHOI worked to design, build, and commission the observatory throughout 2001 to 2003.  Construction of the shore lab, meteorological mast, seacable, and underwater node was funded by the National Science Foundation.  Construction of the Air-Sea Interaction Tower offshore was subsequently funded by the Office of Naval Research in 2003.  Since installation, MVCO has been maintained continuously by WHOI as a facility for basic and applied science research.

The Air Sea Interaction Tower (ASIT) is located at Lat:41.325040N, Long:70.566678W, 2800m or 1.5NM, from the southern coast of Martha's Vineyard. Underwater instruments are located on a steel beam, mounted 4m below msl. Air side instruments are mounted at varying heights on and above the tower's mezzanine deck, between 13m asl and 23m asl. Data collection on the ASIT began on August 5, 2004.


The 12m node is located on the seafloor at Lat:41.325, Long:-70.5667 along the 12m isobath, 1500m (0.8 NM) from the south coast of Martha's Vineyard. Data collection began on June 14 2001.  Node instrumentation was changed in regular, yearly intervals with clean, calibrated instruments.  The node was removed in August 2018, and has not been re-installed at present.

The Meteorological Mast is mounted on South Beach in Edgartown, MA at Lat:41.3499N, Long:-70.5267W. Instruments are located on a horizontal beam 10m asl. Data collection began on May 31 2001. South Beach has been subject to rapid erosion in the past decades, and while the mast was originally installed 40m behind the base of the dunes, as of December 2020 the mast was fully encompassed by the dune.