North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida Moorings

As part of the larger SECOORA coastal observing enterprise, and in partnership with the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and UCSD Coastal Data Information Program (CDIP), UNCW’s Coastal Ocean Research and Monitoring Program (CORMP) operates 7 real-time meteorological buoys and 7 real-time wave buoys in the coastal waters offshore of North and South Carolina. CORMP also supports three coastal stations that provide weather, water level and/or water quality observations as well as one non-real time instrumented frame that measures water column currents, water depth, and near bottom temperature and salinity.

CORMP implements QARTOD for real-time data QA/QC and uses an interactive QA/QC reporting tool, developed in partnership with Second Creek Consulting, to flag suspect or failed data. All data, including QARTOD flags, are archived on CORMP servers and provided to SECOORA.

Real time data are made available as soon as they are received and processed and used by stakeholders such as USACE’s Research and Development Center’s Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory, NOAA’s National Weather Service, South Carolina Ports Authority, Wrightsville Beach Ocean Rescue, harbor pilots, fishing websites (e.g. saltwatercentral.com) and the public. The data also support existing applications such as SECOORA’s Marine Weather Portal as well as a Situational Awareness Tool (SAST) also supported by this award.

By providing observations in the Carolinas portion of the SECOORA footprint, CORMP fills what would otherwise be large observational gaps in the region.

The UNCW observing program supports SECOORA goals in the areas of Marine Operations; Coastal Hazards; and Living Marine Ecosystems.