Texas Automated Buoy System (TABS), Geochemical Environmental Research
Group (GERG), Texas A&M University
http://tabs-os.gerg.tamu.edu/Tglo/
TABS Operates: 9 buoys in the western Gulf of Mexico. These buoys measure
meteorological parameters, surface water temperature and near-surface currents. 8 other
buoys have been retired, archive data are available.
Mission: TABS was constructed in support of the Texas General Land Office, the Texas
State Agency tasked with oil spill response and mitigation.
Sponsors: Texas General Land Office Oil Spill Prevention & Response. ARAMCO,
Mobil Corporation, National Oceanographic Partnership Program, Minerals Management
Service.
Sensor sampling rate: 30 min
Buoy Access Rate: every 2 hours
Data Telemetry: Global Star Satellite
DMS Archive: MySQL
Data download burden: 200K
Data dissemination: website, ftp, OPeNDAP
TABS Nowcast/Forecast System, Dept. of Oceanography, Texas A&M University
http://seawater.tamu.edu/tglo/
TABS-N/FS Operates: Two operational wind-driven circulation models. The models are
variants of the Regional Ocean Model System (ROMS) and the Princeton Ocean Model
(POM). Wind forcing is by the NOAA/NWS National Center for Environmental
Prediction (NCEP) Eta model. POM covers the Texas-Louisiana Shelf, ROMS covers the
whole Gulf of Mexico.
Mission: To support the oil spill mitigation and response function of the Texas General
Land Office, the modeling of 4 Texas Bays by the Texas Water Development Board
(TWDB), and emergency response by the NOAA Hazmat response team.
Sponsors: The Texas General Land Office
Data Flow: Eta model output is downloaded 4 times per day. The wind parameters for the
Gulf of Mexico and selected Texas Bays are extracted and passed to the POM, ROMS,
and TWDB Bay models and posted on the web as graphics. POM is run once per day.
ROMS is run 4 times per day, both models generate hourly forecasts which are posted
graphically to the web. POM and ROMS numerical values are made available to the
TGLO and to NOAA/HAZMAT in netCDF form via ftp or OPeNDAP.
Model Input: Winds from NCEP 1.5GB * 4 = 6 GB/day download burden.
Model Output: ~30MB/day (ROMS), ~ 2 MB/day (POM).
Comments: Wind fields are downloaded from two NCEP servers by two different
computers for failover protection. A third experimental server, nomads.ncep.noaa.gov is
also accessed 4 times per day using OPeNDAP. This allows us to do remote sub-setting
with a daily download burden of 24 MB rather than 6 GB. We use all three servers to
ensure we have the wind fields needed.
Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi, Division of Near-shore Research (DNR)
http://lighthouse.tamucc.edu/Main/HomePage
DNR Operates:
Texas Coastal Ocean Observation Network (TCOON)
80 water level stations along Texas coast, 30 currently active, 16 with
meteorological packs
Nueces Bay Salinity
6 salinity monitoring sites in Nueces Bay
Real Time Navigation System
2 wind/wave stations
San Antonio Bay Water Monitoring
2 water quality stations in San Antonio Bay (waves, currents, salinity)
Bahia Grande Water Quality Monitoring
3 water quality stations - 1 met station
A Water Level forecasting service: http://lighthouse.tamucc.edu/Forecasts/WaterLevels
Mission: Protecting Texas Submerged Resources, Understanding water level change and
variability, fulfilling weather and water information needs, supporting commerce and
transportation.
Sponsors:
Texas General Land Office, Texas Water Development Board, U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, NOAA, NWS, City and Port of Corpus Christi, Guadalupe Blanco River
Authority.
Sensor sampling rate: 6 min
Station Access Rate: 6 min
Data Telemetry: unknown
DMS Archive: unknown
Data download burden: unknown
Data dissemination: website, ftp
Comment: Data are available hourly via website. Historical Data Availability are
displayed
Texas A&M University Dept of Civil Engineering Shoreline Environmental
Research Facility (SERF)
http://www.serf.tamus.edu/
SERF Operates:
6 HF Radars, 1 water quality/met station near Corpus Christi Ship Channel, 2
met/wave/current stations offshore ( I don't believe any of these are currently
active)
Mission: SERF is a research activity aligned with national goals for coastal margins
research and policy.
Sponsors: Texas General Land Office
http://www.serf.tamus.edu/FacilitiesandEquipment/Serf/ComputerNetwork.htm
QuickTime™ and a
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are needed to see this picture.
Comments: I cannot get a response from SERF- can't tell if they are still operational or
not. They have a student attending one or our classes. So I think they intend to continue
operations at some point.
NOAA-Center for Operational Products and Services (CO-OPS), Galveston
Physical Oceanography Real-Time System (PORTS)
http://140.90.121.76/hgports/hgports.html
Galveston PORTS operates:
6 stations in and around Galveston Bay, TX. measuring a mix of currents, water
level, salinity and meteorological parameters.
Mission: Information to promote safe navigation in the Galveston Bay
Sponsors: NOAA/CO-OPS
Associated Model: Galveston Bay Operational Forecast System (GBOFS)
Operated by:
NOAA/CO-OPS/CSDL Hourly fields (water level, currents, T & S)
out to a 30hr horizon. Model is run 4 times per day.
Sensor sampling rate: 6 min
Station Access Rate: 6 min
Data Telemetry: unknown
DMS Archive: unknown
Data download burden: unknown
Data dissemination: website graphics, voice access, ASCII tables
Comments: I believe some of their stations are the same as those listed in TCOON.
Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON)
http://www.lumcon.edu/
http://weather.lumcon.edu/
LUMCON Operates: 5 water quality/meteorological stations near the Mississippi Delta
and in Lake Pontchartrain. (including solar radiation, water
height). One station out of service
Mission: Research and science education.
Sponsors: U.S. EPA and Board of Regents, NOAA
Sensor sampling rate: 1 min
Station Access Rate: unknown
Data Telemetry: unknown
DMS Archive: unknown
Data download burden: unknown
Data dissemination: website graphic, ftp, OPeNDAP
Coastal Studies Institute, Louisiana State University Wave-Current-Surge
Information System for Coastal Louisiana (WAVIS)
(NOTE: WAVCIS may not be participating in IOOS)
http://wavcis.csi.lsu.edu/index.asp
WAVCIS operates:
3 active stations in the coastal area west of the Mississippi River Delta, 2 archived
stations. Two under construction. Seven additional stations are planned. Stations
measure wave height & direction, currents, and meteorological parameters
Mission: Monitoring sea state for the benefit of Louisiana resource managers and
research.
Sponsors: Louisiana Dept. of Natural Resources, FEMA, LSU board of Regents, Center
for Coastal Energy and Environmental Resources, National Park Service, Naval
Oceanographic Office, Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator's Office, Coastal Wetlands
Planning, Protection and Restoration Act, Louisiana Oil Spill Research and
Development Program, Office of Naval Research, MMS, NOAA, U.S. NRL,
LSU, ExxonMobile, Boisd'ARC Energy, ChevronTexaco Corp.
Sensor sampling rate: unknown
Station Access Rate: 3 hours or less
Data Telemetry: solar powered cellular link
DMS Archive: unknown
Data download burden: unknown
Data dissemination: website graphics
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Southern Mississippi Dept. of Marine Science CenGOOS
http://www.cengoos.org/
CenGOOS operates: 1 buoy near the Mississippi bight which measures meteorological
parameters and vertical profiles of currents. A second buoy is
being refurbished following damage by Hurricane Katrina in
August of 2005.
Mission: NOAA funded observing system for monitoring and research
Sponsors: ONR, USM, TAMU, NOAA
Sensor sampling rate: unknown
Station Access Rate: 3 hours or less
Data Telemetry: Global Star Satellite
DMS Archive: unknown
Data download burden: unknown
Data dissemination: website graphics, ASCII text.
Comment: One of the few websites that displays/offers detailed sensor metadata
http://www.agu.org/meetings/sm05/sm05-sessions/sm05_OS43A.html
Earth Scan Lab (ESL), Coastal Studies Institute, Louisiana State University.
http://www.esl.lsu.edu/home/
ESL Operates: Satellite ground station capturing data from GOES-12 (SST), Terra1/Aqua-1 (Earth Observing Satellite (EOS)), Orbview-2 and Oceansat-1,
and five of the POES NOAA satellites.
Mission: The mission of the Earth Scan Laboratory is to support research, education, and
public service/emergency response with near real time or archival remotely
sensed satellite data, its processing, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination.
Sponsor: The Louisiana Education Quality Support Fund and continuing research grants.
Sensor sampling rate: unknown
Station Access Rate: unknown
Data Telemetry: 3 tracking antennas
DMS Archive: unknown
Data download burden: unknown
Data dissemination: website graphics
Dauphin Island Sea Laboratory (DISL), Mobile Bay National Estuary Program
http://cast-net.disl.org/monitoringdata/nep/index.htm
http://www.mobilebaynep.com/contactinfo.htm
DISL Operates: 4 monitoring stations in Mobile Bay and an adjacent Weeks Bay. They
collect meteorological data, water level, temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen.
Mission: Alabama's marine education and research center.
Sponsor: Alabama Lighthouse Association, Coastal Meteorology Center Oyster
Restoration Project, State of Alabama
Sensor sampling rate: unknown
Station Access Rate: 20-60 minutes
Data Telemetry: appears to be land lines
DMS Archive: unknown
Data download burden: unknown
Data dissemination: website graphics