The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded $1,849,057 to Virginia’s Center of Innovative Technology to fund a coastal ocean observing system along the Mid-Atlantic coast. NOAA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The grant will finance the second year of a project that will develop a coastal ocean observing system along the Atlantic shore of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. Research will emphasize the outflows of the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays. The project will integrate observations from surface current radar, a coastal buoy, autonomous surface vehicles, satellite imagery and ship-based sampling. Eventually, the project will contribute to the development of an integrated ocean observing system for the nation.

“Through collaborations like these, made possible through a NOAA grant and our continued efforts, we will improve the technology that monitors our coastal environment and build a more extensive system increasing our understanding of the world around us,” said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “This grant allows the Mid-Atlantic States to manage their coastal resources while actively supporting NOAA’s and the Bush Administration’s commitment to the environment.”

The grant supports the developing global earth observation system being spearheaded by the United States. By connecting many thousands of individual technological resources already demonstrating outstanding value in the United States and around the globe, the emerging system will, over the next decade, revolutionize our understanding of Earth and how it works. Connecting the individual pieces will make 21st century technology as interrelated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects -- and provide the sound science on which sound decision-making must be built.

Each year, NOAA awards approximately $900 million in grants to members of the academic, scientific and business communities to assist the agency in fulfilling its mission to study the Earth’s natural systems in order to predict environmental change, manage ocean resources, protect life and property, and provide decision makers with reliable scientific information. NOAA’s goals and programs reflect a commitment to these basic responsibilities of science and service to the nation for the past 34 years.

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. To learn more about NOAA, please visit http://www.noaa.gov.