Title: Measuring Surface Currents and Waves in Mid-Atlantic Coastal Waters
Funding Agency: NOAA IOOS https://ioos.noaa.gov
Project Lead: Hugh Roarty
Partners: MARACOOS https://maracoos.org Old Dominion University http://www.ccpo.odu.edu/currentmapping/ University of Connecticut https://lisicos.uconn.edu/index.php University of Massachusetts https://www.umassd.edu/directory/msundermeyer/ Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution https://www2.whoi.edu/staff/akirincich/
Period of Performance: August 2021 – July 2025
Total Budget: $2,665,710
Project Summary: Ocean currents drive coastal surface waters that have profound societal impacts for the 50% of the nation’s population that lives within 50 miles of the coast (Wilson and Fischetti, 2010). The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has 19 program requirements for surface current observations. High Frequency radar (HFR) has been recognized nationally as a cost-effective solution for providing these surface current measurements on an operational basis (Harlan, 2015). This Letter of Intent (LOI) outlines a work plan that will deliver tailored surface current and wave products based on MARACOOS stakeholder needs. The surface current and wave measurements address each of the MARACOOS theme areas:
1) Coastal Hazards – Nearshore wave and current measurements can provide validation sources for National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters and currents (Roarty 2019) and HFR has demonstrated the ability to detect tsunami waves well offshore over a large spatial expanse (Lipa 2013)
2) Fisheries – Surface currents can be used to estimate larval transport and dispersal (Pineda et al., 2007)
3) Maritime Commerce and Safety – HFR data is provided to the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) to assist with search and operations and the data is used by NOAA to generate tidal currents predictions for maritime commerce in ports. HFR surface currents can provide spatial validation data sets for NOAA Operational Forecast System models and IOOS regional models like DOPPIO.
4) Energy – The HFR surface current dataset has a unique spatial footprint, which allows for historical current analysis and wind model validation over large nearshore areas for offshore wind energy assessment (Glenn and Dunk, 2013)
5) Water quality – Surface currents can be used for floatable backtracking, oil spill response and harmful algal bloom management.
Our HFR work plan will address (1) operations and maintenance, and (2) improvements and expansions. There are several measurable indicators of performance. Our measurable objective for the 6 km regional product is to continue to exceed the USCG availability metric of 140,000 km2 80% of the time. Figure 1 shows the number of total vectors from the MARACOOS 6 km surface current product from 2019 to 2020. Also, the National HFR Network maintains a performance metric based on radial availability from each station and we will maintain an 80% mark for each reporting period (Hazard, 2018).