The Coastal Ocean Observation Lab is also known as the Marine Remote Sensing Lab.
The Coastal Ocean Observation Lab (COOL) at Rutgers University is part of the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences. The lab was established in October 1992 by Dr. Scott M. Glenn. Funding for the creation of the Lab came from a grant by the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey.
Today, the COOL has grown from a three-person operation to a full staff of employees, undergraduate and graduate students. The lab, shown below, is mainly funded by the Office of Naval Research, National Science Foundation, the State of New Jersey, and National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
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The COOL was originally called the Remote Sensing Lab because its main ocean monitoring instrument was a Seaspace satellite receiving system. This system currently receives and processes real-time data from NOAA's AVHRR (sea surface temperature), NASA's Aqua MODIS (sea surface temperature, chlorophyll concentration, backscatter and absorption), India's OCM-1 (chlorophyll concentration) and China's FY1-D (ocean color) satellites.
Now, satellite data are only a part of our work. We record daily information on surface currents from our HF-RADAR systems (CODAR), surface and underwater weather from our field station in Tuckerton (Little Egg Harbor) NJ, and underwater weather from our group of autonomous underwater gliders. All of this data is regulary placed on our web site in real- time (immediately). We pride ourselves on real-time ocean data delivery, which sets us apart from so many other research groups.
