COMPS, SEACOOS and near-shore waves

The Ocean Circulation Group at the University of South Florida (USF), College of Marine Science maintains a real-time monitoring program on the eastern Gulf of Mexico´s west Florida shelf as part of the Coastal Ocean Monitoring and Prediction System (COMPS) and the Southeast Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing System (SEACOOS). Offshore is an array of surface buoys and bottom mounted instruments for surface meteorology, currents, temperature, and salinity from the Big Bend to the Dry Tortugas. Recognizing the need for wave measurements near-shore, testing began on both instrumentation and telemetry techniques for achieving real time waves capabilities. This paper documents a collaborative effort between USF, RD Instruments (RDI), and Benthos, Inc. in producing a system for real time directional wave data acquisition culminating in a successful 17-day deployment spanning a period of calm winds followed by a hurricane. Reported on is a system consisting of an RDI acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP™) with Waves Technology, and NEMO, RDI´s new Real Time Waves Processing Module, linked to the surface by Benthos, Inc. acoustic modems, and telemetered to USF by FreeWave radio for real time Web posting.