Aging HF Radar Network

The MARACOOS HF Radar Network was formed in 2007 with the funding of the proposal “Phased Deployment and Operation of the Mid Atlantic Regional Coastal Ocean Observing System (MARCOOS)”.  The network has grown from 24 stations in 2007 up to 38 stations in 2018.  The network has been delivering hourly surface currents to the US Coast Guard since May 2009 with no interruption.  However the age of the network is weighing on the operations as some of the stations in the network are approaching 20 years of service.  The figure below chronicles the age of the radars in the network as of 2018.

Time line indicating the age of the HF Radar stations in the Mid Atlantic.  The green line indicates stations that are less than 10 years old while red shows number of stations with a service life greater than 10 years.

Ocean Response to Winter Storm

A storm moved through the Mid Atlantic on November 15, 2018.  The MARACOOS High Frequency radar network captured  the center of the low pressure system as it moved north past Delaware and New Jersey.

The surface winds from the Global Forecast System (GFS) had the center of the low further inshore.

We’ll continue to analyze these two data sets to understand the discrepancy.