Sentence Correction

Question 1
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Floating in the waters of the equatorial Pacific, an array of buoys collects and transmits
data on long-term interactions between the ocean and the atmosphere, interactions that
affect global climate.
A. atmosphere, interactions that affect
B. atmosphere, with interactions affecting
C. atmosphere that affects
D. atmosphere that is affecting
E. atmosphere as affects

Confused with the usage of appositives here. An appositive can modify the nearest noun.Is this assumption wrong?
Also can someone clarify the concept of a modifer in the above case, the understand was that if it is a present participle phrase (in ing form) then it modifies the subject or verb of the clause, other wise any other modifier modifies the nearest noun.
FORM

Question 2.
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Independent Clause, Modifier (except of present participle phrase any modifier modifies the nearest noun. Present participle phrases modifies the subject or the verb and not the nearest noun)

it is a presumptive modifier.

A presumptive modifier picks up a word or phrase from a sentence that seems to be finished and then adds information and takes the reader into new territory of thought. Because resumptive modifiers are, by nature, repetitive, they tend also to add a sense of rhythm to a sentence. The following sentence (borrowed from above) employs this strategy twice:

The Swiss watchmakers' failure to capitalize on the invention of the digital timepiece was both astonishing and alarming - astonishing in that the Swiss had, since the beginnings of the industrial revolution in Europe, been among the first to capitalize on technical innovations, alarming in that a tremendous industrial potential had been lost to their chief competitors, the watchmakers of Japan.