Dr. Hugh Roarty and Dr. Dale Trockel travelled to Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California to attend the Wind Turbine Radar Interference Mitigation (WTRIM) Working Group.  Drs. Roarty and Trockel spoke of the importance of High Frequency radar and the potential impact to the radars from the development of offshore wind turbines.  Land-based High Frequency (HF) Radars provide critically important observations of the coastal ocean that will be adversely affected by the spinning blades of utility-scale wind turbines.  The WTRIM Working Group is a consortium of federal agencies composed of the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. DOWNLOAD Talk Now

RUCOOL’s Hugh Roarty and Josh Kohut attended the 2019 IEEE / OES Twelfth Currents, Waves, Turbulence Measurement and Applications Workshop (CWTMA) at the Catamaran Resort in San Diego from March 10- 13. Not only was Dr. Roarty the workshops technical chair of the event but he also presented “Evaluation of Wave Data from HR Radar by the National Weather Service” while Dr. Kohut and the Project Converge team presented “Horizontal Advection Critical for Maintaining an Antarctic Biological Hotspot”. Now how COOL is that?

RUCOOL hosted a meeting with the Marine Technology Society leadership on March 14th. During the visit their administrative staff was immersed into hands on oceanographic research with Slocum underwater gliders and CODAR HF-Radar systems. Our undergraduate students stole the show on this day while having interactive and inspiring research discussions with Dr. Rick Spinrad, MTS President, Dr. Zdenka Willis, President-elect, Donna Kocak, Immediate Past President, and several members of the MTS Staff.

Ms. Teresa Updyke and Dr. Hugh Roarty visited with Mr. Philip Myers at the National Search and Rescue School on Thursday February 14, 2019.  The National Search and Rescue School is located in Yorktown, Virginia and is the world’s premier source for Search and Rescue (SAR) training. Ms. Updyke and Dr. Roarty were updating the school instructors on the different ocean surface current and wave products available from MARACOOS.  It was also an opportunity for them to receive feedback and input from the Coast Guard on new products that they would like to see.

The 13 MHz CODAR SeaSonde is operating once again in North Wildwood. The station which was first installed in 2012 had to be turned off due to construction on a new boardwalk. Working with officials from the City of North Wildwood we were able to relocate the station and started measuring surface currents on January 25, 2019. We wish to thank the City of North Wildwood for their support of this important research endeavor.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Research Campaign to Advance Understanding of Gulf of Mexico Loop Current Moves Forward By Awarding $10.3 Million in Initial Grants WASHINGTON – Following recommendations from a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report released earlier this year, the National Academies’ Gulf Research Program (GRP) is developing a long-term research campaign to improve understanding and prediction of the Gulf of Mexico Loop Current System (LCS). In support of this effort, the GRP today announced $10.3 million in grant awards for eight new projects to conduct studies and collect data and observations that will inform the planning and launching of the long-term research campaign. The LCS is the dominant ocean circulation feature in the Gulf of Mexico. It influences all types of ocean processes and has implications for a wide range of human and natural systems, including oil and gas operations, storm and hurricane intensity, coastal ecosystems, and industries such as fishing and tourism. However, despite its far-reaching impacts, knowledge about the underlying dynamics that control the behavior of the LCS is limited. “The campaign being planned is a major undertaking. Scientists have been trying to get a handle on the Loop Current for decades, and they’ve made great progress, but there’s never been a long-term, comprehensive, internationally and multi-institutionally coordinated effort,” said Kelly Oskvig, program officer for the GRP. The National Academies report Understanding and Predicting the Gulf of Mexico Loop Current: Gaps and Recommendations identified existing knowledge gaps about the LCS and called for a long-term research campaign to help improve understanding and prediction of the LCS. The report outlined a series of recommendations for near-term and long-term activities needed for a campaign that is expected to take around 10-12 years and require collaborations among many different groups and funders. The GRP recently formed a standing committee of external experts to advise on planning and implementing a LCS research campaign. For more information, visit nationalacademies.org/ugos. “Over time this campaign could generate valuable knowledge able to help improve understanding of the Gulf’s complex oceanographic systems, promote safer offshore operations, facilitate disaster response, and protect coastal communities and ecological resources, among other things,” said Oskvig. Eight new projects were selected for grant awards through the first funding competition related to the LCS research campaign. The solicitation sought projects that would conduct specific studies or collect particular data and observations identified in the report as short-term needs to assist with the long-term research campaign. Planning for the next funding competition, which will also be directed at advancing the long-term LCS research campaign, is now underway and expected to open in 2019. The eight projects chosen to receive awards totaling $10.3 million through the first funding competition for the LCS research campaign were selected through the GRP’s standard external peer review process. Listed in alphabetical order by project title, the projects are: Dry Tortugas and Lower Keys High Frequency Radars Award Amount: $1,371,027 Project Director: Clifford Merz (University of South Florida) Project Team Affiliation: University of South Florida in cooperation with Rutgers University and University of Miami Overview: This project will procure, install, and operate high frequency radar systems to measure surface currents at three locations in the Straits of Florida region of the Gulf of Mexico: Fort Jefferson/Dry Tortugas National Park, Key West, and Marathon. Data from the systems will provide new, real-time data for model assimilation and validation to better understand the evolution of the LCS. Gulf of Mexico Loop Current and Eddy Observations from HF Radar Systems Award Amount: $1,229,424 Project Director: Stephan Howden (University of Southern Mississippi) Project Team Affiliation: University of Southern Mississippi in cooperation with CODAR Ocean Sensors, Shell, and Rutgers University Overview: This project will procure, install, and operate high frequency radar systems to measure surface currents from two offshore platforms at locations in the northeastern most areas of oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico. Data from the systems will provide new, real-time data for model assimilation and validation to better understand the evolution of the LCS. Informing the Loop Current Campaign: Data Compilation to Improve Understanding, Simulation and Prediction of the Loop Current System Award Amount: $647,813 Project Director: Barbara Kirkpatrick (Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System Regional Association) Project Team Affiliation: Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System Regional Association in cooperation with Fugro, Harte Research Institute, Ocean Sierra, RPS, Texas A&M University—College Station, Texas A&M University—Corpus Christi, and Woods Hole Group Overview: This project will design, develop, deploy, and maintain an information system to digitally compile, update, analyze, and make publicly accessible physical oceanographic and hydrographic data from Gulf of Mexico Loop Current field studies. The system will be an important component of future data compilation efforts for a long-term LCS research campaign. Loop Current Floats: Near Real-Time Hydrography and Deep Velocity in the Loop Current System Using Autonomous Profilers Award Amount: $1,155,371 Project Director: Amy Bower (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) Project Team Affiliation: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in cooperation with Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada (Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education at Ensenada) Overview: This project will procure, deploy, and maintain a fleet of autonomous ocean dynamics-instrumented profiling floats to measure temperature, salinity, and current velocities in LCS active areas of the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Numerical Modeling Award Amount: $2,100,946 Project Director: Ruoying He (North Carolina State University) Project Team Affiliation: North Carolina State University in cooperation with Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada (Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education at Ensenada), Chevron, Florida State University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and University of California – Santa Cruz Overview: This project will perform assessments of existing Gulf of Mexico forecasting systems to test the performance and sensitivity of current models in resolving both surface and subsurface circulation and to evaluate long-range prediction capabilities. Passive Gulf of Mexico Loop Current Observations from HF Radar Across the Yucatan Strait Award Amount: $844,263 Project Director: Anthony Knap (Texas A&M University—College Station)

Dr. Hugh Roarty delivered a talk to the cadets of the United States Coast Guard Academy on Thursday November 29, 2018, on behalf of MARACOOS. His talk was entitled “The Use of Ocean Surface Currents for Coast Guard Search and Rescue” and was part of the Coast Guard Academy Science Lecture Series.