What is different about an Ocean Observing System from traditional ocean research?
Coastal Observing Systems are a leap beyond ship-borne technologies and include such tools as: o Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) or “gliders” silently travel the depths collecting data about temperature, salinity, biological systems, etc. o Buoys – moored in specific locations to collect data at one spot over time. o Remote sensing satellites, orbiting 500 miles above, “seeing” ocean temperature variations and transmitting data for colorful Sea Surface Temperature (SST) maps. o CODAR – Coastal Ocean Dynamics Application Radar, sometimes called Coastal RADAR, translates surface currents and wave heights and frequency into simple graphics on real-time maps. Which way is that water going? o Meteorological instruments/station to collect weather data, which is intimately linked to ocean data.
