Gulf of America Coastal Ocean Observing System

The OceanGliders program started in 2016 to support active coordination and enhancement of global glider activity. OceanGliders contributes to the international efforts of the Global Ocean Observation System (GOOS) for Climate, Ocean Health, and Operational Services. It brings together marine scientists and engineers operating gliders around the world: (1) to observe the long-term physical, biogeochemical, and biological ocean processes and phenomena that are relevant for societal applications; and, (2) to contribute to the GOOS through real-time and delayed mode data dissemination. The OceanGliders program is distributed across national and regional observing systems and significantly contributes to integrated, multi-scale and multi-platform sampling strategies. OceanGliders shares best practices, requirements, and scientific knowledge needed for glider operations, data collection and analysis. It also monitors global glider activity and supports the dissemination of glider data through regional and global databases, in real-time and delayed modes, facilitating data access to the wider community. OceanGliders currently supports national, regional and global initiatives to maintain and expand the capabilities and application of gliders to meet key global challenges such as improved measurement of ocean boundary currents, water transformation and storm forecast.

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) produce local impacts in nearly all freshwater and marine systems. They are a global problem that require integrated and coordinated scientific understanding leading to regional responses and solutions. Given that these natural phenomena will never be completely eliminated, improved scientific understanding of HAB dynamics coupled with monitoring and ocean observations facilitates new prediction and prevention strategies. Regional efforts are underway worldwide to create state-of-the-art HAB monitoring and forecasting tools, vulnerability assessments, and observing networks. In the United States, these include Alaska, Pacific Northwest, California, Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Maine, Great Lakes, and the U.S. Caribbean islands. This paper examines several regional programs in the United States, European Union, and Asia and concludes that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. At the same time, successful programs require strong coordination with stakeholders and institutional sustainability to maintain and reinforce them with new automating technologies, wherever possible, to ensure integration of modelling efforts with multiple regional to national programs. Recommendations for scaling up to a global observing system for HABs can be summarized as follows: 1) advance and improve cost-effective and sustainable HAB forecast systems that address the HAB-risk warning requirements of key end-users at global and regional levels; 2) design programs that leverage and expand regional HAB observing systems to evaluate emerging technologies for Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) and Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) in order to support interregional technology comparisons and regional networks of observing capabilities; 3) fill the essential need for sustained, preferably automated, near real-time information from nearshore and offshore sites situated in HAB transport pathways to provide improved, advanced HAB warnings; 4) merge ecological knowledge and models with existing Earth System Modelling Frameworks to enhance end-to-end capabilities in forecasting and scenario-building; 5) provide seasonal to decadal forecasts to allow governments to plan, adapt to a changing marine environment, and ensure coastal industries are supported and sustained in the years ahead; and 6) support implementation of the recent calls for action by the United Nations Decade 2010 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to develop indicators that are relevant to an effective and global HAB early warning system.

Ocean acidification (OA) describes the progressive decrease in the pH of seawater and other cascading chemical changes resulting from oceanic uptake of atmospheric carbon. These changes can have important implications for marine ecosystems, creating risk for commercial industries, subsistence communities, cultural practices, and recreation. Characterizing the extent of acidification and predicting the ramifications for marine and freshwater resources and ecosystem services are critical to national and international climate mitigation discussions and to local communities that rely on these resources. Based on critical grassroots connections between scientists and stakeholders, “Knowledge-to-Action” networks for ocean acidification issues have formed at regional international and global scales to take action. We review examples at these three levels where groups are elevating the issue of ocean acidification and developing practicable, implementable steps to mitigate causes, to adapt to unavoidable change, and to build resilience to changing ocean conditions in the marine environment and coastal communities. While these first steps represent critical efforts in protecting ecosystems and economies from the risks posed by ocean acidification, some challenges remain. Sensitivity and risk to OA varies by region and industry; priorities for action can vary between multiple and conflicting partners; evidence-based strategies for OA risk mitigation are still in the early stages; and there remain gaps between scientific research and actionable decision-maker support products. However, these scaled networks have proven to be adept at identifying and addressing these barriers to action. In the future, it will be critical to expand funding for food web impact studies, development of decision support tools, and to maintain the connections between scientists and marine resource users to build resilience to ocean acidification impacts.

Shell Exploration & Production Company is working with academic, non-profit, and federal stakeholders in the Gulf of Mexico to develop and implement long term environmental offshore monitoring programs. One such program uses autonomous underwater gliders to collect near real-time oceanographic data for enhancing the understanding of the offshore physical environment, specifically the Loop Current and its eddies, to better model and predict real-time conditions to support oil and gas operations and improve hurricane and storm models. Through a Memorandum of Agreement in 2008 between Shell and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, this partnership leverages the strengths of each collaborator to build a comprehensive and sustainable data collection program to better assess environmental conditions and assure the safety of Shell's operations and people in the Gulf of Mexico. In this paper, we focus on the extreme 2015 physical environment and data collected during this year, the 2016 mission planning, and public-private partnership model benefits to expanding regional ocean observing capacity in the Gulf of Mexico.

Shell Exploration & Production Company and collaborators have been working together since 2008 to expand and extend long-term data monitoring programs in the Gulf of Mexico. One of the main programs involves underwater glider operations in the central Gulf of Mexico. Data collected from the gliders is used to monitor the physical environment and to better understand the Loop Current System. In this paper, we summarize Loop Current dynamics and glider observations during the 2017 and 2018 seasons and discuss benefits and address challenges encountered operating an ocean observing public-private partnership.

A partnership led by the University of Southern Mississippi has been funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Integrated Ocean Observing System as an Ocean Technology Transition Project, to accelerate the transition of adaptive, autonomous water quality profiling capabilities for a work-class uncrewed surface vehicle, to collect near bottom profile data in the context of other physical parameters and develop a framework for transitioning the technology to operations. The transitioned technology will contribute to the characterization of Northern Gulf of Mexico hypoxia events. The public-private partnership includes the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System, Integral Consulting, and L3Harris/ASV. The specific objectives of the project are to operationally demonstrate: 1.Autonomous water quality profiling capability for University of Southern Mississippi's and L3Harris ASV“s C-Worker 5 work-class uncrewed surface vehicle to conduct water column profiles to measure stratified waters in depths from 5 m to over 50 m and bottom observations adaptively to within 1 m above the sediment bed. 2.Real-time transmission of data relevant to hypoxia monitoring to support northern Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone surveys and modeling; data will be made free and publicly available through operational data centers. In Year 1 of the project L3Harris/ASV integrated an altimeter with the winch controller of the C-Worker 5, integrated a conductivity, temperature and depth sensor package with dissolved oxygen sensor and altimeter with a computer data logger, and built a launch and recovery system for the sensor package. The integration of the altimeter with the winch controller allows the sensor package to be lowered within 1 m of the seafloor, and this was successfully tested in a lake. During Years 1 and 2 of the project, Integral Consulting built a data management system that accepts an ftp connection from the vessel (over cell service in this demo), downloads cast files and metadata, performs quality control checks, and bundles the data and metadata into netcdf files. The Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System set up a system to download the netcdf files and display the location of the vessel and the data on their GANDALF platform. In Year 2 an offshore demonstration of the system was conducted. On October 6th and 7th of 2022, day-cruises were conducted offshore of Mississippi with the C-Worker 5 of the University of Southern Mississippi sampling a set of stations that included those from a project that ran a quasi-monthly offshore transect from 2011- 2015, and for which seasonal seafloor hypoxia was found each year of that project. Although delays pushed the demonstration past hypoxia season, at each station the vessel was able to profile to within 1 m of the seafloor. Nearby profiles were taken from an observation boat, the USM R/V Jim Franks, for validation. The data management plan was successfully tested from observations, to telemetry to shore based servers, to data QC and netcdf file generation by Integral Consulting to download by GCOOS.

Shell Exploration & Production Company is working with academic, non-profit, and federal stakeholders in the Gulf of Mexico to develop and implement long term environmental offshore monitoring programs. One such program, started in 2008 between Shell and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has expanded to include new collaborators working together to operate multiple underwater gliders for monitoring the physical environment. In this paper, we summarize Loop Current dynamics and glider observations during the 2016 season, highlight lessons learned since the start of the glider program in 2012, and introduce a new deep ocean observing component to this collaboration.

Abstract We report the preliminary results of the international MASTR (Mini-Adaptive Sampling Test-Run) Experiment of the UGOS (Understanding the Gulf Ocean Systems) Program, which simultaneously deployed multiple autonomous measurement platforms (i.e., ocean buoyancy gliders, subsurface floats, surface drifters) and high-frequency coastal radar in the Deepwater south-eastern Gulf of México. The state-of-the-art ocean observing technologies provide near-real-time surface and subsurface co-located temperature, salinity and velocity observations and were assessed for improvements to the predictive capability of multiple federal and industry operational ocean circulation models. Six ocean buoyancy gliders were deployed in the western Yucatan Strait near Mahahual, México - four of the gliders were deployed in January 2024, two gliders were deployed from July thru November 2023. The summer and fall 2023 glider data was assimilated into the NOAA RTOFS numerical model and significantly improved the model performance to accurately represent the vertical hydrographic structure of the inflowing water from the Caribbean Sea to the Gulf of México via the Yucatan Strait. The high-frequency radar system deployed near Cancun, México was operational throughout the experiment. Radar observations of surface velocity during fall 2023 observed the passage of extreme weather events, including Hurricane Idalia (26 August – 2 September). Additionally, the hi-frequency radar observed the spatial and temporal position of the Yucatan Current speed core as the Loop Current System in the Gulf of México evolved from a retracted state to an extended state, to a detached state, with numerous reattachment sequences. The research underscores the complexity of the four-dimensional structure of the Loop Current system and the spatial and temporal evolution of the circulation in response to topographic, tidal, geostrophic, ageostrophic, and wind forcing. Additional observations from airborne and subsurface observational platforms reveal sub-mesoscale variability and the correlation between surface and subsurface current patterns.

Shell Exploration & Production Company is working with academic, non-profit, and federal stakeholders in the Gulf of Mexico to develop and implement long term environmental monitoring programs. One such program uses autonomous underwater gliders to collect near real-time oceanographic data for enhancing the understanding of the offshore physical environment and to improve estimates of upper ocean heat content for enhanced hurricane prediction and forecast models. Through a Memorandum of Agreement in 2008 between Shell and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, this partnership leverages the strengths of each collaborator to build a comprehensive and sustainable data collection program to better assess environmental conditions and assure the environmental sustainability of Shell's activities in the Gulf of Mexico. An important element of the collaboration includes sharing data and results with the broader Gulf of Mexico stakeholder community by working with regional partners such as the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System. In this paper, we focus on 2014 physical environment and glider results and public-private partnership model benefits to expanding regional ocean observing capacity in the Gulf of Mexico.

Considering the benefits of understanding the circulation patterns of the shelf, it is not surprising that there are numerous studies of the Texas Shelf circulation patterns. Given that previous studies were focused on the low-frequency variability of the circulation which is upcoast (northeast flow) in the summer and downcoast (southwest flow) especially on the inner shelf in the non-summer seasons, this study investigates the weather band (2–15 days) variability of the Texas Shelf near-surface circulation pattern. Current meter data at 1.5 m below the sea surface from the inner, mid, and outer shelves were analyzed. This study demonstrated that there are high-frequency current reversals within the weather band in each season. From the estimated persistence of the currents during reversals, the inner and mid shelf currents are predominantly downcoast in the non-summer seasons and upcoast in the summer season whereas the outer shelf currents are mostly upcoast all year round. The Wavelets analysis of the currents revealed that most of the variabilities on the inner and mid shelf regions were within the 4-12-day band whereas on the outer shelf the dominant variability was within the 3–8-day band. From the cross-spectra analysis of both the currents and wind data, it was determined that the influence of the wind was more dominant on the inner and mid shelf regions at the 8–15-day band than on the outer shelf where the contribution of the wind is prevalent at the 2–4-day band.

The Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS) is being built as a sustained, end-to-end integrated and operational System of Systems designed to provide data and products to diverse stakeholders. The Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System Regional Association (GCOOS-RA) is bringing together academic groups, governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector to plan and implement the GCOOS Build-Out Plan. The development of a GCOOS Gulf Glider Plan started in 2010, and was incorporated into the Gulf Build-Out Plan, which was released in 2011. A GCOOS Gulf Glider Task Team (GGTT) was established in 2012 by GCOOS-RA. The GGTT was constituted in April 2013 and charged to engage Gulf gliders stakeholders and to revise and further develop conceptual plans for Gulf glider operations in the GCOOS Build-out Plan. This paper will discus the progress of the GGTT, pilot projects involving gliders, and glider operations supported by the GCOOS-RA and its partners. Plans for future pilot projects and activities building toward a phased implementation of the glider network, its associated infrastructure, and product development to address the needs of Gulf stakeholders will be presented. GGTT activities, particularly as related to revisions to the GCOOS Build-Out Plan in light of recent events and expected future monitoring of Gulf ecological and economic resources, will be summarized.

One of the fundamental buoyancy glider scientific missions in the Gulf of Mexico is to collect real-time temperature and salinity data and eventually assimilate these data into the coupled atmospheric (hurricane)-ocean modeling system to improve forecasts, e.g., National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations (NOAA)'s National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) coupled HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) and Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting model (HWRF) known as HYCOM-HWRF. A current challenge of this mission has been data visualization with in situ and model comparisons. This project discusses the development of a unique, real-time, responsive web-platform for monitoring and modeling these data. This web-platform is Python-based and offers multiple functionalities to meet the typical needs of a glider mission, such as glider geolocation visualization navigation on a GIS map, data visualization of associated mounted sensors, as well as comparisons between gliders and model systems. This platform also highlights the total contribution of participating institutes by using a calendar heatmap similar to Github's commit history. Research analysts can then visualize real-time and delayed mode science graphics. The web-platform is interactive and automatic and can provide data sharing resources to the scientific community.

In the published article, there was an error in affiliation 56. Instead of KUGON, Kyungpook, South Korea, it should be Kyungpook National University, South Korea. The authors apologize for this error and state that this does not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way. The original article has been updated.

During the 2019 peak hurricane season, two gliders operated by Texas A&M University (TAMU) and the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) and funded by Shell Exploration & Production Company were deployed as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Hurricane Glider Program to collect near-real time subsurface ocean temperature and salinity measurements for data assimilation into global ocean and hurricane models. The missions were designed to resolve regional ocean features that can contribute to hurricane intensity and provide spatial coverage in the event of a tropical cyclone with the intent to capture potential intensification prior to landfall. For the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi River plume, Loop Current, and Loop Current Eddies are areas of interest that can contribute to hurricane intensity. Tropical Storms Nester and Olga were named storms during the 2019 season in the Atlantic Basin, and their trajectories passed by the USM and TAMU gliders, respectively. While changes in the sea surface temperature were more likely due to the presence of seasonal fronts rather than the passing of these tropical storms, the data did indicate pockets of subsurface warm water under a freshwater plume from the Mississippi River. Currently, multiple hurricane glider missions are underway in the Gulf of Mexico during a record breaking 2020 season with Hurricane Laura anticipated to make landfall early morning (local time) on Thursday, August 27, 2020 near the Texas/Louisiana border.

The past several years has seen an explosion in the number of commercially available uncrewed systems. These systems range in size and complexity from the 5-foot Slocum glider to the 72-foot Saildrone Surveyor. While the vehicles vary widely in size, complexity and capabilities, they all share one common element: they each use a different access methodology and format for vehicle and scientific data. The data formats are typically optimized to work with the control and visualization systems provided by the manufacturer, which makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, the multiple data formats make ingesting the data into uncrewed systems portals, such as the GCOOS operated GANDALF (https://gandalf.gcoos.org) extremely difficult. Adding support for a new platform requires the portal development team to create a new data integration module that can provide translation services from the vendor's data format to a standard data format such as NetCDF. In many cases, the portals are maintained by a very small team of one to three members. Integrating a new platform is a non-trivial task and may take months to accomplish. The ramification of having this Gordian knot of differing data formats is that we are seeing a large increase in the number of observations being made, but there is no corresponding increase in the number of observations available on the GTS (global telecommunications service) or the IOOS DACs (data assembly centers) and ERDDAP servers.

The Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System Regional Association (GCOOS-RA) takes a continuing and proactive role in in-situ monitoring and characterization of the marine environment. In many ways the Gulf is the ideal integrated ocean observing environment, its complex and extreme meteorological and oceanic conditions make it an ideal test bed for characterization of such technologies. This paper identifies some of the more useful techniques that have been adopted in understanding the Gulf. We also identify approaches, as yet untried, that could provide vital data for operational support and the provision of data for initialization, assimilation, and verification of ocean forecast models.