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Caro-COOPS has continued to provide data and information products to a variety of user groups, including emergency managers, environmental managers, marine scientists, the NOAA National Weather Service, and mariners in the coastal Carolinas, as described in the articles below. Over the past three months, we have been sad to see two of our staff members move on to explore new horizons. We wish the best for Charlton Purvis and Rana Vedre in their future pursuits, and extend our gratitude for their hard work and contributions to our program. At the same time, we are excited to welcome Payne Seal, Becky Shuford, and Hanna Habashy to our team! We hope you'll find the newsletter of interest and welcome your thoughts and suggestions; email us at info@caro-coops.org.
Hypoxia Event Addressed
A week-long coastal hypoxia event occurred Summer 2004 in the Long Bay area off of Myrtle Beach, SC. September following the event, the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) held a workshop to determine the possible factors causing the event. A broad range of university and government agency scientists and managers attended. These included representatives from SCDHEC/Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, SCDHEC/Bureau of Water, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources/Marine Resources Division, South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium, Coastal Carolina University/Center for Marine and Wetland Studies, University of South Carolina/Baruch Institute, Carolinas Coastal Ocean Observing and Prediction System, and the NOAA North Inlet-Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. Participants discussed the range of anthropogenic sources and natural oceanographic conditions possibly triggering hypoxia events in the region. However, insufficient data and information were available to determine the relative importance of these factors. This lack of information was addressed by forming an interagency group to develop cooperative research efforts and management responses.
- providing information about monitoring and observation efforts (e.g., Caro-COOPS) already underway in the Long Bay region that have baseline data for the region;
- identifying who is willing and able to participate in trying to understand the mechanisms supporting hypoxic events in Long Bay and to mobilize for data collection in response to any future hypoxic event; and
- facilitating use of data from Caro-COOPS stations and other existing monitoring efforts (e.g. NERRS and DHEC) to help better understand conditions under which hypoxic events take place and to provide early warning indications of such conditions.
For more information please contact Dr. Braxton Davis, University of South Carolina, (803) 777-5538, braxton.davis@sc.edu, or Dr. Denise Sanger, OCRM, (843) 744-5838, SangerDM@dhec.sc.gov.
Offshore Moorings Status
The mooring at SUN3 was not redeployed during the previous turnaround due to the problem of ship collisions. We are assessing solutions to the problem and expect to deploy the mooring during the July turnaround.
Two additional moorings were deployed for CORMP (Coastal Ocean Research and Monitoring Program) at ILM2 (34°08'45"N; 77°42'89"W) and ILM3 (33°59'43"N;
77°21'58"W). These data are telemetered and managed by Caro-COOPS along with the Caro-COOPS array, and should have a presence on the Caro-COOPS website soon.
We are continuing to work with the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) and NOAA's National Weather Service, providing our oceanographic and meteorological data for inclusion in their applications. These data will be available via the NDBC Dial-a-Buoy by July.
Operations & Maintenance
Shore-based water level and meteorology stations (WLS/MET) at Sunset Beach, Capers Island, and Fripps Inlet went through the yearly Operations and Maintenance (O&M) procedures in April. This process requires precision leveling to a known benchmark to verify accuracy of water level data. Station maintenance involves the removal and replacement of some sensors to insure calibration standards are in adherence, testing of other sensors to insure accuracy of data collection, and software updates to maintain up-to-date compliance with NOAA National Water Level Observatory Network (NWLON) requirements. Also, during this process, divers clean and inspect the protective well of the water level sensor. Each station requires 2 to 3 long days of work during this process. The WLS/MET stations collect real-time water level measurements and also wind direction and speed, barometric pressure, relative humidity, and air and water temperature data.
O&M procedures for the offshore moorings (buoy and instrumentation) require exchange with a duplicate every 6 months (turnaround). This redundancy of equipment provides an opportunity to clean, recalibrate, and refurbish as needed while maintaining a continuous data supply. The turnaround usually takes about one month for all stations to be exchanged. Each offshore mooring station is instrumented for surface wave field, current speed and direction at multiple levels, temperature, salinity, pressure, and fluorescence/chlorophyll.
Personnel Highlight – Jeremy Cothran
This feature is the first of an occasional series on the people of the Caro-COOPS team.
The Caro-COOPS vision is "implementation of an integrated system of observations, data communications and management, and modeling that will deliver regular, comprehensive information on the state of the Carolinas' coastal ocean." Instrumented offshore moorings transmit data every two hours and shore-based stations every 15 minutes, every day. This is where Jeremy Cothran, lead developer and programmer for Caro-COOPS, comes in. He programs computer systems to take the raw data, such as readings or images from observing instrumentation platforms, and process the data into products that can be more easily used by the public, researchers, government, and industry.
Computer algorithms implement quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) procedures before any data are made available to users. Other algorithms expedite transfer of information to the Caro-COOPS modelers at NC State and to the National Weather Service and its Dial-A-Buoy program for real-time reporting to the research and public communities via Internet access. Data from each collecting station are made available on the Caro-COOPS web site and include charts and other graphic presentations, as well as archived data, metadata, and data tools to support the modeling and analysis communities.
His position also includes developing new programming to address needs identified by the Caro-COOPS scientific team and by public users. He also interacts with the observing systems technical community (other OOS data managers/programmers) to ensure best practices and technologies are being used, there is standardization across sites, and the data meet national standards.
Jeremy has been working with the Baruch Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences, and the Ocean Observing System (OOS) community by extension, since 2002 in data and/or information management. He received his B.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of South Carolina in 1991, but he notes that his interest in computers goes back to 1982 when he was using a Radio Shack TRS-80 system with a "whopping 4K of memory and storage on cassette tapes." Video games and the creative aspect of developing his own games initially pulled him into programming. He described his work with Caro-COOPS "as an exciting area to work in as there are always interesting new data being gathered, leading to new environmental and biological questions."
Users that have questions about availability of data, quality of data, how data are presented, and/or future data needs and presentation should contact Jeremy; he can be reached via email (jcothran@carocoops.org) or phone (803-777-4469).
Continuing Work with Emergency Managers
Caro-COOPS is continuing to work with state and local emergency managers to develop information products to help mitigate and respond to hurricane impacts in the Carolinas (see Spring 2005 Newsletter). For the 2005 hurricane season, Caro-COOPS researchers are developing pre-generated storm surge projections based on user-selected hurricane conditions, such as storm intensity, point of landfall, and angle of approach. Based on these and other selected parameters, a series of model-generated products can then be accessed and used within a Geographic Information System. Products include storm surge animations, maps of the "probability of inundation," maximum total flooding area. As these products are developed, Caro-COOPS is seeking to expand partnerships with other data providers, researchers, and management agencies focused on coastal hazards in the southeast region.
Carolinas Coast Website Enters Review Phase
The Carolinas Coast website, as envisioned, will provide a single location for users to obtain current/recent weather and ocean conditions, forecasted conditions (including hazard alerts), and oceanographic models for the Carolinas' coast. From this conceptual phase, the website has progressed through initial design to a non-publicly available site that will be reviewed by focus groups during the summer months. The initial presentation of the Carolinas Coast website will be at a Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association (SECOORA) meeting in July.
National Weather Service watches, warnings, and advisories will be coupled with near real-time coastal meteorological and oceanographic observations from a variety of sources on the North Carolina and South Carolina coastlines to provide users with up-to-date weather information and hazards statements for coastal counties and near- and off-shore waters. Once completed, the Carolinas Coast website will serve as the new template for NOAA's National Weather Service - Wilmington Forecast Office Marine web page (www.erh.noaa.gov/er/ilm/marine/). Weather Service Forecast Offices in Charleston, SC, and Newport, NC, are also supporting the site's development.
Carolinas Coast website development is the result of coordinated efforts among Caro-COOPS, UNC-Wilmington's Coastal Ocean Research and Monitoring Program (CORMP), the Southeast Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing System (SEACOOS), and SECOORA.
Quarterly Trends
The examples below illustrate quarterly trends in air temperature, bottom currents, and surface currents at our CAP2 station, approximately 5 miles offshore of Capers Island, SC. Visit the Caro-COOPS website for additional information and data illustrating changes in coastal conditions over the past months.
Approximate averages for the second quarter (March 15 to June 15)
Air Temperature: 62.3 degrees Fahrenheit
Winds: 13 mph, from the SSW
Surface Currents: 0.57 knots toward the SSE
Bottom Currents: 0.28 knots toward the SSE
Bottom Water Temperature (~10 m or 33 feet): 64.6 degrees Fahrenheit
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