ships entering and leaving the bay, is helping to 

 improve safety in the massive shipping industry. 



After five years, the number of ship 

 groundings dropped 60 percent. A single 

 grounding can cost shipping operators hundreds 

 of thousands of dollars in lost revenue, ship 

 operations costs, tugboat fees, hull damage and 

 environmental damage — even more if the hull is 

 breached and hazardous cargo is spilled. 



5,000 barrels of fuel oil at the entrance of 

 Galveston Bay. Working together, the NOAA/ 

 National Ocean Service's Hazardous Materials 

 Response Division modeling team and the 

 TGLO trajectory modeling team used TABS 

 data and computer simulations to forecast the 

 oil's movement with an unprecedented level of 

 accuracy. 



The modelers knew the current's 



Researchers also documented bursts of powerful 

 winds up to 100 mph. 



The NWS regional office used the data in 

 forecasting. 



Now, the South Atlantic Bight Synoptic 

 Offshore Observational Network operates eight 

 large offshore platforms that provide a range of 

 oceanographic and meteorological observations 

 on a continual, real-time basis. 



ents. a near-shore ocean observation system was set up at jennette's pier 

 en Beaufort Inlet and the Big Rock, a popular spot for offshore anglers. 



In the Northeast, one product of the 

 developing Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing 

 System is a Web site that provides real-time data 

 for seafarers, including anglers, marine pilots, the 

 U.S. Coast Guard and recreational boaters. 



"Red sky at morning, sailors take warning 

 doesn't cut it anymore," says Jeff Cockburn of 

 the Penobscot Bay River Pilots Association. "We 

 need quality, timely data to ensure the safety of 

 our operations." 



In Texas, emergency responders use 

 measurements of surface currents to mitigate oil 

 spills. The Texas General Land Office (TGLO) 

 funds a network of surface current-measuring 

 buoys known as the Texas Automated Buoy 

 System (TABS). Since 1994 the network has 

 reported the buoys' observations offshore in Texas 

 and Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico in real time 

 to validate a computer model that estimates and 

 forecasts surface currents over the Louisiana shelf. 



Real-time data also played a crucial role 

 in a spill response in 1996 when a barge spilled 



direction within minutes of the spill, which was 

 continuously tracked for the next 24 hours. 



5EACOOS INCEPTION 



Formed in 2003, SEACOOS is one of the 

 newer regional ocean observation systems that 

 bring together a number of independent efforts 

 under one umbrella. 



When Seim began overseeing the 

 SEACOOS project, he drew upon his experience 

 with a similar endeavor. While working at the 

 Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, he helped 

 launch a monitoring project in 1998 off the 

 Georgia coast. That observational gear was 

 attached to huge offshore towers installed by 

 the U.S. Navy to track pilots learning to fly in 

 squadrons. 



As F-15s and F-18s sped overhead, Seim 

 and other scientists collected information from 

 the air and water below. Instruments tracked 

 the shift in currents and temperature or picked 

 up traces of pollution carried by rain and rivers. 



Researchers are using underwater cameras 

 to capture the movement and behavior of sea life 

 off the Georgia coast — from Atlantic spadefish 

 and black sea bass to sharks and stingrays. 



Seim estimates the SEACOOS system will 

 initially cost $20 million to $30 million to build 

 over five years. The Office of Naval Research 

 funded the initial project, which will be completed 

 in 2007. Funding is expected for future projects. 



Since the inception of SEACOOS, the 

 amount of observational data from the coastal 

 ocean has doubled, according to Seim. "All of that 

 impacts the quality of weather forecasts," he adds. 



Kriehn says that SEACOOS data is 

 extremely important to NWS. 



"The SEACOOS data is from the marine 

 environment, and marine observations are 

 relatively sparse compared to the amount of data 

 the service has from over land," he adds. "Every 

 little bit of data will help our forecasters, especially 

 if it is data from the marine environment." 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 



