Title: Sustained Ocean Observations with underwater gliders in support of hurricane intensity forecasts

Funding agency:  NOA OAR

Project Lead: Travis Miles

Partners:  University of Delaware

Period of Performance:  01/01/2019-6/3/2021

Total Budget:  $869,062

Project Summary:

The Rutgers University Center for Ocean Observing Leadership (RUCOOL) will conduct tasks described below in support of the project “Sustained ocean observations with underwater gliders in support of hurricane intensity forecasts” submitted to the NOAA research announcement NOAA-OAR-HSPO-2019-200590.

RUCOOL will prepare and deploy 3 autonomous underwater gliders a total of 6 times each year for the 2019 and 2020 hurricane seasons. This will include procurement of new rechargeable batteries, glider ballasting, glider deployment, piloting, recovery, recharge and re-deployment. Glider lead PI and senior personnel will work closely with project partners to coordinate glider deployment locations and sample strategy. A data analyst will ensure high quality data submission to the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) glider data assembly center (DAC) and trace data as it’s assimilated into the operational coupled hurricane forecast models.

The work proposed here responds to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Disaster Related Appropriations for Improving Forecasting and Assimilation (DRA IFAA) Portfolio. The specific focus area is: 2f “Accelerate Improvements in Hurricane Intensity Forecasting: support the continued availability and use of ocean observation platforms and systems for improvements to hurricane forecasting skill, specifically regarding intensity and track”.