CaRA "Caribbean Regional Association for Integrated Coastal Ocean Observing"

Welcome to the Caribbean Regional Association for Coastal Ocean Observing – CaRA. CaRA is one of eleven regional associations (RAs) devoted to coastal ocean observing throughout the United States coastal oceans and the Great Lakes.  These RAs bring together data users and data providers representing the private, governmental and corporate sectors and provide forums for establishing regional stakeholder needs and priorities for coastal ocean observing. The eleven coastal ocean observing systems focus on providing data and data products that to serve commerce and recreation, promote safety and security and contribute to protecting and preserving the coastal ocean environment.

CariCOOS, the United States Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observing System, with CaRA guidance, operates a network of observing assets including data buoys, coastal meteorological stations, vessels, instruments and radars. Data from these assets and value-added data products such as graphs and maps are provided free of charge to the general public through the web page www.caricoos.org. In addition, numerical models of winds, waves, current s and coastal inundation, initialized with observational data, provide near-term forecasts for coastal ocean conditions.