Progress of SEACOOS as a prototype U.S. Regional Coastal Ocean Observing System

1. Progress of SEACOOS as a prototype U.S. Regional Coastal Ocean Observing System H. Seim and F. Werner / Marine Sciences / UNC-CH J. Nelson / Skidaway Institute of Oceanography L. Spence / SC Sea Grant Program M. Fletcher / Univ. South Carolina C. Mooers / Univ. Miami R. Weisberg / Univ. South Florida

2. Rationale: SE region is linked oceanographically, experiences similar forcing (winds and river runoff) and has a shared biogeography. A merged information system for the region will help address scientific and societal issues. SEACOOS was initiated in 2002 with ONR funding to develop a coastal ocean information system for FL, GA, SC and NC Goal: To increase the quantity and quality of environmental information from the coastal ocean of the SE U.S. and facilitate its use in a range of societal, scientific, and educational applications. Loop Current/ Florida Current/ Gulf Stream III III Nick Shay, RSMAS

3. SEACOOS Members (May 2005)

4. SEA-COOS includes the coasts of NC, SC, GA and FL, from the EEZ to head of tide, and consists of: • An observing subsystem (measures and transmits data) • An information management subsystem • (organizing and disseminating information) • A modeling and products subsystem (translating data into • products for users – computer modeling) • Outreach and education subsystem – to assess users needs, • develop educational material and help develop needed products

5. The National Backbone of NOS NWLON and NDBC CMAN & Buoys SEACOOS Partner Additions of in-situ Buoys/Towers/Coastal

6. Observing the Coastal Ocean with varying tools

9. Model Nowcast/Forecast System • NFS Model Domains and Models UNC Quoddy South Atlantic Bight USF POM West Florida Shelf UM POM Florida Straits East Florida Shelf

10. ROMS nested within HYCOM for eastern Gulf of Mexico A. Barth, USF

12. Visualization of real time data (seacoos.org)

13. EXTENSION & EDUCATION • Extension – outreach • Utilize existing NOAA Sea Grant network • Identify users in coastal community and their needs • Perceive very different flavors of users • Superusers – heavy consumer of raw data • User – can use raw data or tailored products • Beneficiary – indirectly benefits from the system • Education – ties to formal education • Utilize new NSF COSEE network • Focus on teacher awareness, participation • Develop lesson plans for in-class use of OOS data

14. Implementation Plan Initial focus: coastal ocean circulation Applications Search and Rescue, spill response, HABs Living Marine Resources/Fisheries Storm surge Rips and sediment transport User-groups USCG, NOAA HAZMAT SAFMC, xNMS, FWRI, SC DNR, etc NWS WFOs, state EM State CZM, NWS WFOs Variables Currents, winds, water temp, waves Salinity, species and abundance, etc. Water levels, bathy/topo Directional waves, sediment concentration Phase I Phase II

15. Rescue or Suspend Databases Search Results Build a SAR Case Assemble Search Plan Disseminate Search Plan Capture Search Results Search Plans Results Environmental Now & Forecasts US COAST GUARD SEARCH AND RESCUE WORKFLOW . Field REGIONAL SYSTEM INPUT

17. INTERFACING WITH SEARCH AND RESCUE • USCG has new sophisticated user interface • Seeking additional information sources, especially high resolution, nearshore • Need to make available in compatible manner – already satisfied (using OPeNDAP) • Big requirement – develop real-time error statistics for all information • semantics, format (underway) • Methodology for assessing errors (challenging)

18. Focus on Data Management • Viewed as biggest missing piece as project began • Devoted 30% of funding to activity • Focus on near real-time physical variables • Guiding principles • Maintain distributed system as possible • Maintain flexibility (augment, don’t replace) • Open-source

19. Regional Data Management Practices • Engage individual systems • Form DM technical WG of individual systems • Focus on a variable at a time • Enable sharing through standards development • Formalize availability through broad-based committee (all working groups represented)

22. 20. Further products, websites, analysis, conversion tools Products/Web Services Provider Data Access/Web Services 16. Data / Data Sharing *OGC SWE services (SensorML, O&M) *OOSTech services (getLatest) *OGC WFS 19. QC&Notification *Missing data *Range *Continuity 18. Maps *OGC Web Mapping Service (WMS) 17. Graphs *Time series *Depth profile *TBD by users Data Products 12. Data *CSV files *Query&Download 13. Graphs *Time series *Depth profile *TBD by users 14. Maps *GIS *Animations 15. QC&Notification *Missing data *Range *Continuity Data Aggregation 10. Regional relational database 11. DODS/OPeNDAP relational database server 9. Regional netCDF to SQL Table Population Data translation 8. Data scout (polls data providers for new in-situ, model data) 6. netCDF file access via HTTP 7. DODS/OPeNDAP clients Data Provider 4. netCDF files (Regional convention format and data dictionary) 5. DODS/OPeNDAP netCDF server 3. Screen-scraping (NDBC, NWS,USGS,etc) or file translation 2. Model output (elevation, currents, particle trajectories, etc) 1. In-situ observations (buoy, water level station, etc)

23. By-Variable approach (ex. Winds) • Standards – name, representation, attributes • identify existing standards • augment as needed • adopt 2. Census – providers, datatypes point observations satellite winds modeled winds 3. Description – web presentation define target audiences information/background web pages, layout (publish standards)

24. DM summary • Standards enable aggregation • By-variable approach • standards→census →description • Drawbacks • Slow process, slow progress through variables • Data flow increasing quickly, raises resource issues • Haven’t dealt with biogeochem data challenges

25. Summary • SEACOOS – prototype RCOOS in US. Four components: observation, modeling, information management, outreach/education • Initial focus – ocean circulation • Initial applications • Search and Rescue • HAZMAT • Fisheries oceanography • Patience required