NOAA INSTALLS NEW CORAL REEF
MONITORING STATION IN THE U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS
Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) recently completed installation of a coral reef monitoring
station in the United States Virgin Islands to establish long-term
data sets for environmental conditions. The station is the
second installed as part of the Coral Reef Early Warning System
(CREWS) network, and features a radically new design that
will be the basis of future CREWS stations installed throughout
the Caribbean and Pacific. CREWS technology incorporates artificial
intelligence software to analyze in situ measurements of the
atmospheric and oceanic conditions at strategic coral reef
locations. CREWS stations provide near real-time information
products for use in coral bleaching alerts, and verify sea-surface
temperatures from NOAA satellite products used for coral bleaching
predictions. CREWS stations will be installed near all major
coral reefs in the United States, including Puerto Rico, Hawaii,
American Samoa and Guam. The first CREWS station, installed
in 2001, is located near the Caribbean Marine Research Center
(CMRC) at Lee Stocking Island in the Bahamas. The new station,
located in the National Park Service’s Salt River Bay National
Historical Park and Ecological Preserve was designed, created
and deployed by NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological
Laboratory (AOML). The CMRC, with funding from NOAA, handles
local maintenance. The new design features a long fiberglass
piling anchored by a ball-and-socket joint at a depth of twenty
feet. Dynamic chain rigging and synthetic line allows flexibility
in response to daily wave action and tidal excursion, similar
to a shock absorber. This radical new design is also built
to withstand tropical-storm-force winds. The piling could
simply tilt with extreme wind and waves while remaining anchored
to the sea floor, greatly minimizing the chance of damage
to surrounding benthic communities, while enhancing the station’s
survivability. “We’re very pleased with our new design, but
we’ve already got some great new design ideas to try on our
next station going up in St. Thomas this year,” said Jim Hendee,
NOAA’s principle investigator in charge of the CREWS network
installation. “We’re continually refining the CREWS stations.
By the time we get to Puerto Rico, we’ll probably have an
even better design.” Scientists from AOML worked with a naval
architect to carefully re-engineer instrument locations. Oceanographic
instruments float on a secure ring that maintains a constant
depth of one meter, rising and falling with waves and tide.
Atmospheric instruments are located on a platform at a height
of five meters (about 15 feet) to measure the critical air
mass right above the ocean while mast-mounted anemometers
at ten meters (about 30 feet) accurately measure wind speed
and direction. Each platform can be raised or lowered by hand,
permitting routine maintenance from a small support vessel.
The Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) is dedicated to enhancing economic security
and national safety through the prediction and research of
weather and climate-related events and providing environmental
stewardship of our nation’s coastal and marine resources.
For a copy of b-roll footage of the underwater assembly of
this station, please contact Erica Van Coverden at (305) 361-4541.
Learn more about NOAA at: www.noaa.gov For more information
about the CREWS network visit: http://www.coral.noaa.gov/crw
For more information about NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and
Meteorological Laboratory visit: http://www.aoml.noaa.gov
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