15 September 2008
World's Largest Coastal Current Mapping Network Realized
A vision shared by many U.S. West Coast oceanographers for over 10 years was made a reality this summer with realtime mapping of surface currents along more than 1,200 contiguous miles of coastline stretching from Rosarito, Mexico past the southern border of Washington state. Technicians from the California Coastal Ocean Current Monitoring
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Program (COCMP) installed the final systems to link the SeaSonde® network in Oregon, operated by Oregon State University, and the COCMP-managed SeaSonde systems in Northern California. Almost 60 SeaSondes are contributing real-time data with coverage reaching nearly 200 km offshore and higher resolution networks monitoring around urban areas. Some of these units have been operating in small pockets around the Santa Barbara Channel, Monterey Bay and off Newport, Oregon, since the early 1990's. The collection of smaller networks were linked and expanded using 40 new SeaSondes purchased and deployed under the California Clean Water, Clean Air, Safe Neighborhood Parks, and Coastal Protection Act of 2002. This network will be used for monitoring, studying and protecting the Pacific coastline of the U.S. and Mexico and is already a model for future large scale networks worldwide.
For near real-time National HFRadar Network (HFRNet) maps and information, visit:
http://cordc.ucsd.edu/projects/mapping/
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