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Coastal Observatory Research Arrays: a Framework for Implementation Planning

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Coastal Observatory Research Arrays: a Framework for Implementation Planning Coastal Observatory Research Arrays: A Framework for Implementation Planning CoOP Report Number 9December 2003 Richard Jahnke, John Bane, Andrew Barnard, John Barth, Francisco Chavez, Hans Dam, Ed Dever, Paul DiGiacomo, James Edson, Rocky Geyer, Scott Glenn, Ken Johnson, Mark Moline, James O’Donnell, Joan Oltman-Shay, Ola Persson, Oscar Schofield, Heidi Sosik, Eric Terrill SkIO TR-03-01 Coastal Observatory Research Arrays: A Framework for Implementation Planning Report on the CoOP CORA Workshop 12-13 November 2003 Chicago, Illinois Richard Jahnke, John Bane, Andrew Barnard, John Barth, Francisco Chavez, Hans Dam, Ed Dever, Paul DiGiacomo, James Edson, Rocky Geyer, Scott Glenn, Ken Johnson, Mark Moline, James O’Donnell, Joan Oltman-Shay, Ola Persson, Oscar Schofield, Heidi Sosik, Eric Terrill Coastal Ocean Processes (CoOP) Program Report Number 9 December 2003 Technical Report Funding provided by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. OCE-0301872 and by the Office of Naval Research under Grant No. N00014010129. Reproduction in whole or in part is permitted for any purpose of the United States Government. This report should be cited as: Skidaway Institute of Oceanography Technical Report TR-03-01. Table of Contents Executive Summary 1 I. Introduction and Background 3 II. Design Elements of Coastal Observatory Research Arrays 5 A. Endurance Array 5 B. Pioneer Arrays 6 C. Supporting Remote Sensing and Measurements from Mobile Platforms 6 III. Implementation 8 A. Implementation Plans and Timing 8 B. Summary of Required Array Elements 9 C. Relationship to Other Programs and OOI Elements 10 D. Summary of Candidate Locations for Implementation 12 IV. Critical Research Questions/Science Themes 24 A. Ocean Climate and Biogeochemical Cycling 25 B. Ecosystem Dynamics, Turbulent Mixing and Biophysical Interactions 27 C. Fluids and Life in Continental Margin Sediments 28 D. Cross-cutting Coastal Ocean Processes 30 V. Regional Settings and Justification of Candidate Locations 31 A. Middle Atlantic Bight/Gulf of Maine 31 B. South Atlantic Bight 35 C. Gulf of Mexico 40 D. Southern California Bight 45 E. Central California 50 F. Pacific Northwest 54 G. Gulf of Alaska/Arctic 60 H. Great Lakes 67 I. Hawaii Region 70 VI. Acknowledgements 73 VII. References 74 VIII. Participants 76 Executive Summary The design of coastal observatories presents a in particular, that there was no community significant challenge - how to incorporate the consensus concerning the proportion of fixed vast range of relevant scales required to ad- and relocatable observatory elements. vance our understanding of important coastal processes. Cross-margin exchanges and The Coastal Observatory Research Array transport may often be focused or aligned by (CORA) Workshop (Chicago IL, 12 - 13 Novem- local topography and yet interactions of pro- ber 2003) was convened specifically to develop cesses may change regionally in response to consensus regarding the design of coastal differences in larger-scale environmental factors. observatories. The goal of the workshop was to provide an overall vision of the mix of required In the previous 18 months, numerous work- coastal Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) shops and reports have concluded that the elements, thereby providing a framework upon development of coastal ocean observatories which future implementation plans could be would significantly advance ocean research. built. These reports include: the CoOP Coastal Obser- vatory Science (COS) report, the Scientific CORA attendees agreed that the scientific Cables for Oceanographic Time-Series justification for developing comprehensive (SCOTS) report, the Cabled Regional Observa- coastal observatories for research is well estab- tory Workshop (CROW) and the National Re- lished in the preceding documents and that search Council report entitled “Enabling Ocean there is a need to develop a broad portfolio of Research in the 21st Century: Implementation of observational capabilities based on fixed, a Network of Ocean Observatories”. moored and cabled technologies; mobile plat- forms, such as gliders, autonomous underwater These reports identified or acknowledged vehicles, and ships; and land, air and space- compelling science issues that will require based remote sensing systems. The OOI will advanced observational techniques and agreed need to work with other agencies and initiatives that emerging observatory infrastructure will to ensure that the full spectrum of observational permit the exploration of ocean processes at tools are available to meet future research time and space scales previously not possible. needs. Because there was generally only a small overlap in the participants at the various work- To achieve the range of observing scales identi- shops, these activities demonstrated significant fied in the science issues, the three-tiered, community-wide support for establishing coastal nested organization of coastal observatories observatories. was again adopted. It is recommended that permanent and relocatable observing arrays be The COS report suggested a nested, three- installed in the US coastal ocean. The fixed tiered approach in which observatories with array, termed the Endurance Array, would be multiple observation nodes are installed in comprised of a set of observing locations ar- widely-distributed regions. In addition, relocat- ranged as cross-shelf lines and individual able mooring arrays (Pioneer Arrays) were moorings that would be installed throughout the recommended for development to provide major coastal regions of the US. detailed information about targeted processes. The COS report did not specify numbers of the For implementation purposes, the US coastal different components, nor did it recommend an area was subdivided into geographic provinces implementation schedule. The subsequent NRC consisting of: Middle Atlantic Bight/Gulf of report noted that the scientific justification was Maine, South Atlantic Bight, Gulf of Mexico, well established for coastal observatories, but Southern California Bight, Central California, that there was no clear implementation path and Pacific Northwest, Gulf of Alaska/Arctic, Hawai- 1 ian Region and Great Lakes. Because these tories. To support this early implementation, regions encompass a range of margin geom- there is an immediate need for detailed design etries and process interactions, distributed studies to more firmly establish cost estimates observatories are required to provide the diver- and focus the discussion on specific deployment sity of observations necessary to advance our sites and configurations. understanding of coastal physical and bio- geochemical dynamics. Finally, it is envisioned that once the observato- ries are installed and operating, research fund- To achieve the widely distributed array that is ing to use this infrastructure will continue to be envisioned, it is recommended that Endurance based on the NSF peer-review system to ensure Array elements be installed in each region that the highest quality of research is supported. during the first five-year phase of the OOI. A subset of Endurance Array locations must be equipped with high power and communications bandwidth capabilities to support diverse inter- disciplinary sensors, observatory operations and engineering development activities. It is further recommended that four arrays of relocatable sensor moorings capable of real- time data telemetry (Pioneer Arrays) be devel- oped. The design of these arrays should be optimized for environmental conditions such as those characterizing the East coast, Gulf of Mexico coast, Great Lakes, West coast, and Gulf of Alaska coast, which will provide a signifi- cant logistical benefit. As the Pioneer Arrays are a relocatable technology, they are available for use in all coastal regions and all areas will benefit from their development. It must be stressed that these permanent and relocatable components synergistically support each other. The Pioneer Arrays provide detailed information of the interactions among processes and spatial variability not achievable from limited, fixed locations while the Endurance Array provides the temporal context in which to interpret the process study observations. As such, these two arrays form the complete vision of the OOI coastal effort. We recommend that the funding profile for the Endurance and Pioneer Arrays be concentrated in the beginning of the OOI support period. This frontloading reflects the state of readiness of coastal observatory technologies and the imme- diate need for test sites for engineering design and development of the components for the regional cabled and global buoy-based observa- 2 I. Introduction and Background Coastal observatories will contribute to the Because the COS workshop preceded the success of the Ocean Observatories Initiative in SCOTS workshop which was specifically three fundamental ways. First, many of today’s charged to address the issue of cable-based compelling science issues and emerging re- observatories and because the definition of a search programs require a significantly im- national “backbone” to be implemented as part proved understanding of the physical dynamics, of the Integrated Ocean Observing System biogeochemistry and ecology of ocean margins. (IOOS) was in its infancy, much of the COS The range of space and time scales involved discussion focused on the design of the Pioneer and the diversity of necessary measurements Array. This array was envisioned as a relocat- require the establishment of coastal
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