 Just in Time for Hurricane Season: New Gulf Monitoring Stations Enhance Resilience and Improve Navigation Safety As the Gulf of Mexico enters its 2015 hurricane season, two federal-state/local partnerships have installed new, and enhanced existing, monitoring stations that provide real-time environmental intelligence with highly accurate water level and meteorological data. These Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) and PORTS® stations were installed to help protect communities in the Gulf of Mexico region, as well as support nationally significant shipping and energy industries. The partnership installing the CORS is the Gulf Coast Spatial Reference Consortium of the Conrad Blucher Institute (CBI) for Surveying and Science at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi; Louisiana State University's Center for Geoinformatics; the University of Southern Mississippi's Mississippi Spatial Reference Center; and the Alabama Department of Transportation. NOAA and local partners installed two new PORTS® at Port Fourchon and Morgan City, LA. Read more at http://gcoos.tamu.edu/?p=9326.
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| Image courtesy of CDIP, Scripps Institution of Oceanography |
New Waverider Buoy Supports Harbor Pilots A new Datawell Waverider Mk III wave monitoring buoy (WMO ID 42098) was deployed on 5 June 2015, near the entrance to the Tampa Bay shipping channel. The addition of this buoy to existing NOAA Physical Oceanographic Real Time System (PORTS®) infrastructure supports the work of the Tampa Bay harbor pilots based out of Egmont Key, FL. Instruments on the Waverider buoy will provide the pilots with real-time data on wave height, period and direction, critical information to enhance safety as the pilots move between the station and inbound or outbound ships. Data from this buoy and photos of the deployment are available at http://tbports.org. Funded by the Greater Tampa Bay Marine Advisory Council - PORTS®, Inc., the local operator for Tampa Bay PORTS®, and operated in collaboration with the University of South Florida College of Marine Science and the US Army Corps of Engineers-funded Coastal Data Information Program at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the information also supports broader efforts to monitor and predict waves and shoreline change. "While the primary beneficiaries of wave data from this buoy are the Tampa Bay Pilots and related shipping interests, the wave information is critical to studies of beach erosion and channel dredging" said Mark Luther, the head of local operations for Tampa Bay PORTS®. Read the article and see pictures at http://gcoos.tamu.edu/?p=9346.  Ranger Rick Magazine to Highlight Citizen Science in the Gulf Ranger Rick photographer Joanna Pinneo spent several days capturing the work of students engaged in the GCOOS Citizen Science project. She first visited St. Petersburg, FL, where she photographed participants in Nature's Academy field classroom at Ft. DeSoto Park. While there, the middle school-aged kids conducted biodiversity studies, dissected sharks, assessed water quality, and had fun learning how to kayak and snorkel. From St. Petersburg, Pinneo headed to Galveston Bay, TX, where she continued capturing the field activities of students participating in programs of the Galveston Bay Foundation, including salt marsh grass planting in support of restoration activities. Both Nature's Academy, led by Executive Director and co-founder Dana Pounds, and the Galveston Bay Foundation, led by Water Quality Program Manager and GCOOS board member Charlene Bohanon, are partners contributing data to the new GCOOS Citizen Science Data Portal, to be launched this summer. The Ranger Rick Citizen Science issue is being developed as a collaboration of GCOOS Outreach and Education Manager, Dr. Chris Simoniello, and the National Wildlife Federation. http://gcoos.tamu.edu/?p=9355 GCOOS-RA IOOS Grant and New Proposal Update The GCOOS-RA is in the process of refining its budget and activities for Year 5 of the current IOOS grant. The RA is also preparing the proposal to IOOS to pursue the next phase of funding. The proposal is due 31 August 2015.  Update on Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Jubilee in the Northern Gulf of Mexico, 13-17 July 2015 The University of Southern Mississippi (USM)-led CONCORDE Consortium for River-Dominated Coastal Ecosystems continues to plan its AUV Jubilee for the Northern Gulf in July. USM held an introductory webinar 14 May 2015 and held a teleconference on 28 May 2015 to discuss data flow issues. A few key points from Ryan Vandermeulen, USM point-of-contact:
- We're encouraging participants to submit their glider data to the National Glider Data Assembly Center (NGDAC)
- This will help with real-time glider data display during the Jubilee (enhancing adaptive sampling capabilities), with an added benefit of getting your data incorporated into operational models and contributing to increasing the representation of Gulf of Mexico glider data on a national level!
- There are two routes to do so: 1) Submit directly to NGDAC by getting your data formatted into proper IOOS .nc, or 2) Submit to GCOOS, who will work with formatting your raw data into IOOS .nc (Minimally invasive to the user!!)
- In order to make this happen, we need participants to coordinate with Rutger's University if they plan to submit directly to the NGDAC (tnmiles@marine.rutgers.edu), or coordinate with GCOOS if you'd like them to format your data (mkhoward@tamu.edu)
- They need your data! If possible, please send an example data file to one of these individuals as soon as possible so we can all work to making this a successful (and smooth) collaboration.
If possible, we'd like to see your proposed cruise track as well, so we can get started with coordinating adaptive sampling strategies. Please send robert.arnone@usm.edu a .kml of your proposed cruise track if you know where you'll be flying! Read more about the GoMRI-funded CONCORDE at http://gcoos.tamu.edu/?p=8927 or contact Ryan Vandermeulen at Ryan.Vandermeulen@usm.edu. GCOOS Chapter in Coastal Ocean Observing Systems 1st Edition is Coming Soon! This book, being published by Elsevier in July 2015, provides state-of-the-art scientific and technological knowledge in coastal ocean observing systems, along with guidance on establishing, restructuring, and improving similar systems. Edited by Yonggang Liu, Heather Kerkering, and Robert H. Weisberg, the book includes a GCOOS-RA chapter, by Chris Simoniello, Stephanie Watson, Barbara Kirkpatrick, Michael Spranger, and Ann E. Jochens, Shin Kobara and Matthew Howard on the efficiency and effectiveness of one comprehensive observing system in the Gulf of Mexico providing many societal benefits. Look for the book in July at http://store.elsevier.com/product.jsp?isbn=9780128020227. |
