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SEAKEYS
Program
Program Information
Abstract
The SEAKEYS program
has since 1992 provided hourly data from up to seven meteorological
and oceanographic monitoring stations situated throughout the
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and Florida Bay. These data
are collected and presented via email and the Web daily, and are
supplied through a historical database on the Web. Unique software
(Environmental Information Synthesizer for Expert Systems.EISES)
developed for SEAKEYS data operates in near real-time and provides
alerts as to conditions conducive to natural events such as coral
bleaching (Coral Reef Early Warning System.CREWS), larval conch
survival, and in the future, harmful algal blooms. The future will
also bring a database with quality controlled data supplied via the
Web, as well as new uses for EISES and new capabilities for CREWS.
Background and Purpose
The SEAKEYS network is comprised of seven
meteorological and oceanographic monitoring stations throughout the
Florida Keys and Florida Bay. This network has been operating
uninterrupted since 1992 and has provided near real-time meteorological
and oceanographic data from Fowey Rocks, Molasses Reef, Long Key, NW
Florida Bay, Sombrero Key, Sand Key and Pulaski Shoals (Dry Tortugas). The data are sent
via GOES satellite on the hour, every hour, and posted to the Web once a
day (with the last 72 hours' worth of data) and every hour from 6am to 6pm. The
object of the SEAKEYS Data Management project is to continue to provide
near real-time access to raw SEAKEYS data, and to provide value-added data
products, especially to gain maximum use of the data in a timely fashion.
Approach and Findings
The SEAKEYS Data Management effort has four
basic components: raw data retrieval and presentation via the web,
historical data access via a server, quality control of raw data to
produce a final data set for researchers, and timely use of the data for
researchers and Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS) management.
Raw Data Acquisition and Presentation
A computer script (program) written (for various
additional purposes) by Mike Minton and Jay Harris of AOML.s Physical
Oceanography Division acquire the station-uploaded data from the data
retrieval and storage facility maintained at Wallups Island, Virginia by
the National Data Buoy Center (NOAA). The data retrieved by the
Minton/Harris scripts are processed by scripts and programs written by Jim
Hendee (Ocean Chemistry Division [OCD]) and parsed to produce a raw data
report which is posted to the Web at http://www.coral.noaa.gov/cman/cman_menu.html
at 4:30am, to show the last 72 hours worth of data, and every hour to show
the last 12 hours worth of data, from 6:30am to 6:30pm. These data are
roughly quality-controlled in that -9s are replaced with obviously garbled
(i.e, characters mixed with numbers) data. The once-daily raw data reports
are also automatically sent via email to researchers wishing to receive
them. The Web report format is occasionally maintained and changed by the
OCD WebMaster, Monika Gurnée.
Timely Use of Data
Two very powerful pieces
of software have been constructed to handle the incoming SEAKEYS data in
near real-time. The Environmental Information Synthesizer for Expert
Systems (EISES) synthesizes information from the data, and the Coral Reef
Early Warning System (CREWS) uses these data to alert FKNMS management and
coral researchers, via email, as to when conditions are conducive to coral
bleaching. These alerts are also saved to a Web site so researchers and
management may review the alerts at a later time. Besides coral bleaching,
other applications can be written based on EISES preformatted data. For
instance, a prototype early warning system has been constructed for
monitoring conditions conducive to the onset of harmful algal blooms, and
for alerting when conditions might be conducive the survival of conch
larvae.
For a report on how EISES was used in the
harmful algal bloom application, please see:
http://www.coral.noaa.gov/coastal/eises3.pdf.
For a report on how CREWS predicted coral
bleaching in the FKNMS, please see
http://www.coral.noaa.gov/ncri/ncri-sk5.pdf.
Evaluation
The goal of supplies of
providing near real-time SEAKEYS data to users via the Web and email,
providing historical data, and providing information for use by sanctuary
management in near real time have been met.
Not only have the data
products been supplied to users almost as soon as they are made, but
several papers and presentations have been published and presented on the
use of CREWS, EISES and SEAKEYS projects, both nationally and
internationally.
Progress Reports
*Note:
Files are in *.pdf format - to view you may download the free
Adobe
Acrobat PDF Reader HERE
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