Toward Marine Environrnental Predictions in the Mediterranean Sea Coastal Areas
351
umn (ARGO, http:\\www.argo.ucsd.edu).Gliders. that are autonomous underwater
vehicles changing their buoyancy while they travel, can offer an open ocean monitoring strategy in the future, complementing the VOS, ARGO e satellite systems.
The global ecosystem monitoring is out of the scope of this paper and it is still at
its infancy. The satellite based surface chlorophyll estimates from radiative measurements (ocean color imagers) are the first truly global observations of the ocean
primary producers biomass at high space and time resolution (Ixl km 2 and every
day). The routine multidisciplinary measurements from Ship of Opportunities are
done in few regions with towed or undulating instruments, which however are far
from being proven reliable in a world wide operational sense, with near real time
data transmis sion. The most advanced technologies to measure multiple ecosystem
dynamical variables, such as Photosinthetically Available Radiation (PAR), florescence, turbidity, nutrients (in particular nitrates), small pelagic fish, etc. are placed
on moored platforms, an example of which is the Bermuda Testbed Mooring station (Dickey et al., 1998).
In the coastal areas, the monitoring systems are mainly based upon dedicated
ships CTD surveys across the coastal gradients, on the continental shelf. Multidisciplinary observations are more easily done again by traditional water sampling
methods on board of the same dedicated ship which measures the physical parameters. To this traditional measuring system, there is associated a moored buoy system, which records the surface air-sea interaction parameters, the waves and
subsurface current, temperature and salinity structure. Recently, lands fixed HFRadar systems have shown to produce high quality data of surface currents in
coastal areas. The coastal area has been the site of recent technological advancements such as Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) and gliders that record
different quantities and are designed to accomplish several complete surveys ofthe
coastal areas (Glenn et al. 2000a). The most important and unique monitoring
aspect of the coastal areas is the measurement of river runoff and water quality
parameters (meaning nutrient loads) since it is a major driving element of the
coastal ecosystem. This may need measuring stations at upstream river checkpoints
and buoy stations at sea to monitor suspended inorganic sediment loads, nutrients
and organic material outflow. Different systems are at work now and they are
reviewed by Glenn et al. (2000b).
Bearing in mind the complexity of the observing system, the modeling and data
assimilation components should be designed to consider all the dynamical and
diagnostic variables measured by the observing system components outlined above
(Fig. 17.5). This means that both the large and coastal/shelf scale hydrodynamics
should be primitive equation, with sophisticated air-sea interaction physics that
parameterize adequately the coupling with the atmosphere. In addition, several
physical submodels should be interfaced with the resolved hydrodynamics, such as
the turbulence, the bottom boundary layer, light and heat radiative penetration and
the sediment resuspension, transport and deposition. Above all, the important question of ne sting of finer grid models into coarser ones is crucial to progress in the
direction of quality forecast in the coastal areas. At the same time the atmospheric
351
umn (ARGO, http:\\www.argo.ucsd.edu).Gliders. that are autonomous underwater
vehicles changing their buoyancy while they travel, can offer an open ocean monitoring strategy in the future, complementing the VOS, ARGO e satellite systems.
The global ecosystem monitoring is out of the scope of this paper and it is still at
its infancy. The satellite based surface chlorophyll estimates from radiative measurements (ocean color imagers) are the first truly global observations of the ocean
primary producers biomass at high space and time resolution (Ixl km 2 and every
day). The routine multidisciplinary measurements from Ship of Opportunities are
done in few regions with towed or undulating instruments, which however are far
from being proven reliable in a world wide operational sense, with near real time
data transmis sion. The most advanced technologies to measure multiple ecosystem
dynamical variables, such as Photosinthetically Available Radiation (PAR), florescence, turbidity, nutrients (in particular nitrates), small pelagic fish, etc. are placed
on moored platforms, an example of which is the Bermuda Testbed Mooring station (Dickey et al., 1998).
In the coastal areas, the monitoring systems are mainly based upon dedicated
ships CTD surveys across the coastal gradients, on the continental shelf. Multidisciplinary observations are more easily done again by traditional water sampling
methods on board of the same dedicated ship which measures the physical parameters. To this traditional measuring system, there is associated a moored buoy system, which records the surface air-sea interaction parameters, the waves and
subsurface current, temperature and salinity structure. Recently, lands fixed HFRadar systems have shown to produce high quality data of surface currents in
coastal areas. The coastal area has been the site of recent technological advancements such as Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) and gliders that record
different quantities and are designed to accomplish several complete surveys ofthe
coastal areas (Glenn et al. 2000a). The most important and unique monitoring
aspect of the coastal areas is the measurement of river runoff and water quality
parameters (meaning nutrient loads) since it is a major driving element of the
coastal ecosystem. This may need measuring stations at upstream river checkpoints
and buoy stations at sea to monitor suspended inorganic sediment loads, nutrients
and organic material outflow. Different systems are at work now and they are
reviewed by Glenn et al. (2000b).
Bearing in mind the complexity of the observing system, the modeling and data
assimilation components should be designed to consider all the dynamical and
diagnostic variables measured by the observing system components outlined above
(Fig. 17.5). This means that both the large and coastal/shelf scale hydrodynamics
should be primitive equation, with sophisticated air-sea interaction physics that
parameterize adequately the coupling with the atmosphere. In addition, several
physical submodels should be interfaced with the resolved hydrodynamics, such as
the turbulence, the bottom boundary layer, light and heat radiative penetration and
the sediment resuspension, transport and deposition. Above all, the important question of ne sting of finer grid models into coarser ones is crucial to progress in the
direction of quality forecast in the coastal areas. At the same time the atmospheric