3
CTD and shipboard flow-through systems have evolved into multiparameter data
acquisition systems incorporating a variety of optical, chemical, and biophysical
sensors. Many current profiling instrument packages accommodate modular sensors
interchangeable in the field as may be required in addition to the traditional pressure, temperature, and conductivity sensors. Many versions of these instruments,
first developed for cable deployment, are now employed in shipboard or shore- based
infrastructure using pumped flow-through sensor systems. Flow-through sensors,
vertical profiling and sampling systems, and towed vehicle-mounted instruments
have vastly multiplied the data-gathering capability of research vessels.
Despite such advances, sustained coastal ocean observing programs involving
periodic occupation of established stations and/or transect lines remain rare due to
the expense of operating manned vessels at sea which can range well into the tens
of thousands of dollars per day. Fisheries surveys and fishery-related data gathering
remain the exception although some such observing mission are now being performed by autonomous surface and underwater vessels equipped with acoustic fish
sensing instrumentation. Remarkable among such sustained, manned vessel-based
efforts is the CALCOFI Survey, arising from the preceding California Cooperative
Sardine Research Program dating to 1949. CALCOFI arose in response to the collapse of the California sardine fishery. Today, the survey incorporates 60 core stations along 11 transect lines normal to the California coast. While a large part of the
effort is devoted to fish stock assessment through various means, hydrographic profiles including physical, chemical, and biological variables are secured at all stations. CTD/rosette casts provide instrumental profiles plus bottle samples. Variables
that require calibration samples, or those for which electronic transducers do not
exist, are measured from bottle samples. Process rates such as primary biological
production (photosynthetic rate) are also measured.
Oceanic in character and research-driven in practice the Bermuda Atlantic Time
Series (BATS) and the Hawaii Ocean Time Series (HOT) also deserve mention.
Large, research ships equipped with sophisticated sampling systems and shipboard
laboratories are dedicated to long-term documentation of biogeochemical ocean
properties and processes and their response to climate forcing. Together, these
efforts, occupying single stations at monthly intervals have provided irrefutable evidence for a long-term ocean warming trend and have demonstrated strong covariance of ocean pH decrease with the increasing atmospheric CO 2 load (Dore et al.
2009).
Today, expeditionary oceanography is increasingly being supplemented, and
replaced in some cases, by instrumental observations using a variety of autonomous
stationary and mobile platforms equipped with dedicated suits of advanced sensors
coupled to electronic navigational, computational, and telemetric packages. Coastal
ocean observing systems, in particular, have burgeoned in recent years spurred by
these advances and responding to the growing needs of a wide range of stakeholders
operating in this domain.
Ocean observatories, of great value to oceanographic research and in some
ways akin to the astronomical observatories, are primarily concerned with the
1 Introduction to Coastal Ocean Observing
CTD and shipboard flow-through systems have evolved into multiparameter data
acquisition systems incorporating a variety of optical, chemical, and biophysical
sensors. Many current profiling instrument packages accommodate modular sensors
interchangeable in the field as may be required in addition to the traditional pressure, temperature, and conductivity sensors. Many versions of these instruments,
first developed for cable deployment, are now employed in shipboard or shore- based
infrastructure using pumped flow-through sensor systems. Flow-through sensors,
vertical profiling and sampling systems, and towed vehicle-mounted instruments
have vastly multiplied the data-gathering capability of research vessels.
Despite such advances, sustained coastal ocean observing programs involving
periodic occupation of established stations and/or transect lines remain rare due to
the expense of operating manned vessels at sea which can range well into the tens
of thousands of dollars per day. Fisheries surveys and fishery-related data gathering
remain the exception although some such observing mission are now being performed by autonomous surface and underwater vessels equipped with acoustic fish
sensing instrumentation. Remarkable among such sustained, manned vessel-based
efforts is the CALCOFI Survey, arising from the preceding California Cooperative
Sardine Research Program dating to 1949. CALCOFI arose in response to the collapse of the California sardine fishery. Today, the survey incorporates 60 core stations along 11 transect lines normal to the California coast. While a large part of the
effort is devoted to fish stock assessment through various means, hydrographic profiles including physical, chemical, and biological variables are secured at all stations. CTD/rosette casts provide instrumental profiles plus bottle samples. Variables
that require calibration samples, or those for which electronic transducers do not
exist, are measured from bottle samples. Process rates such as primary biological
production (photosynthetic rate) are also measured.
Oceanic in character and research-driven in practice the Bermuda Atlantic Time
Series (BATS) and the Hawaii Ocean Time Series (HOT) also deserve mention.
Large, research ships equipped with sophisticated sampling systems and shipboard
laboratories are dedicated to long-term documentation of biogeochemical ocean
properties and processes and their response to climate forcing. Together, these
efforts, occupying single stations at monthly intervals have provided irrefutable evidence for a long-term ocean warming trend and have demonstrated strong covariance of ocean pH decrease with the increasing atmospheric CO 2 load (Dore et al.
2009).
Today, expeditionary oceanography is increasingly being supplemented, and
replaced in some cases, by instrumental observations using a variety of autonomous
stationary and mobile platforms equipped with dedicated suits of advanced sensors
coupled to electronic navigational, computational, and telemetric packages. Coastal
ocean observing systems, in particular, have burgeoned in recent years spurred by
these advances and responding to the growing needs of a wide range of stakeholders
operating in this domain.
Ocean observatories, of great value to oceanographic research and in some
ways akin to the astronomical observatories, are primarily concerned with the
1 Introduction to Coastal Ocean Observing