Safety

IOOS fosters the safety and security of citizens now and into the future

Optimizing Search and Rescue Operations
Measuring Water Quality for Human Health
Assessing Storm Data for Emergency Preparedness

Predicting Severe Weather

Compatible, easily accessible data from multiple sources are increasing understanding of how oceans drive storms to enable earlier, more accurate weather predictions. This allows people to get to safety before disaster strikes. For example, Northeast fishermen use IOOS weather and water data to make informed decisions about when it is safe to head to sea, while Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural Resources relies on IOOS-derived coastal flooding maps to plan for and respond to hurricane storm surge.

Forecasting Hazards

Integrated ocean data are enhancing scientific ability to forecast environmental changes and hazardous events, so decision makers can take targeted action, such as closing a beach to avoid illnesses caused by blooms of harmful algae. Hourly ocean temperatures, currents, and other data also alert West Coast oyster growers and East Coast shellfish harvesters to conditions that trigger toxic algae outbreaks, which can make shellfish unsafe to eat.

Climate change is impacting our Earth’s surface temperature in ways we are still working to
understand.

Understanding Climate Change

IOOS provides the observing systems to collect data that help produce better and faster forecasts and predictions such as expected sea level rise and hazard warnings for coastal communities. These observing systems provide high-quality data to discern trends and interpret data for predictions needed to determine the extent of climate change now and in the future.

New tools, such as unmanned, underwater gliders, are capable of diving deep through the water column to capture continuous, real-time data at various depths and locations. This new technology enables climate scientists access to large new data sets, helping improve their climate models and allowing scientists to better predict future changes.

Surface current data collected using High Frequency Radars is helping aid search and rescue crews by reducing potential search areas.

Improving Search and Rescue Success

IOOS is introducing state-of-the-art technology that enables ocean current tracking in near-real-time, thus aiding search and rescue crews in mapping the probable path of people lost at sea. Knowing how currents will move people or life rafts in the water reduces the area that rescue crews must search for survivors. Combing less area takes less time and increases the chance of saving lives.

Learn about High Frequency Radar and measuring ocean surface currents

Minimizing Rip Current Deaths

Nationally, rip currents cause an estimated 100 deaths per year. IOOS partners in the Caribbean, Carolinas, and Hawaii are working with the National Weather Service and local emergency management officials to increase the number of wave observations and advance wave forecasts to improve warnings and safety alerts.

Optimizing Marine Operations

IOOS provides tools mariners can use that are critical to the safe passage of vessels and efficient harbor navigation for port managers and the maritime community. For example, IOOS paired currents data from radar systems with existing wave data into a user-friendly website providing tankers with up-to-date sea conditions as they enter the Port of Long Beach, California, one of our nation’s busiest ports. This information reduces the risk of accidents in such high-traffic areas.

Monitoring Water Quality

Combined marine data will improve the ability of coastal communities to monitor water quality and protect public health with early warnings. The Great Lakes region puts this effort into action by maintaining and expanding a network of water quality monitoring buoys that report water temperature, conductivity, pH, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen. These data are used to create E. coli predictions for swimming beaches, among other things.