The View from the COOL Room:

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The View from the COOL Room15 Years in the
Rutgers University Coastal Ocean Observation
Lab John Kerfoot, Scott Glenn, Oscar Schofield,
Josh Kohut, Robert Chant, Hugh Roarty, John
Wilkin
Coastal Observation and Prediction Sponsors
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Sustained by the growing coalescence of
scientific and societal goals
IOOS Societal Goals
Ocean Research Priorities
Deploying an ocean-observation system will
revolutionize the access to and view of the
ocean and increase the pace, efficiency, and
scope of ocean research.
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Fred Grassles Vision For the Coastal Ocean The
Long-term Ecosystem Observatory
Figure from 1992 NSF Proposal
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Fred Grassles Vision For the Coastal Ocean The
Long-term Ecosystem Observatory
Figure from 1992 NSF Proposal
Thanks Fred!
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A Look Back
If I were to choose a single phrase to
characterize the first century of modern
oceanography, it would be a century of
under-sampling.
Walter Munk, 2000

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Satellite Data Acquisition Systems
China FY1-D
1992
2003
US MODIS
India Oceansat
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Rutgers HF Radar Surface Currents 1998
NOPP partnership 2008 Regional,
national, and
international partnerships
2008
1998
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Rutgers Slocum Glider Fleet

• 128 deployments worldwide (2003 present)

gt 37,000 km flown (Earths circ. 40,000 km) gt
1800 days in water 300,000 profiles
Liverpool Bay Coastal Observatory
Mediterranean Sea
Perth, Australia
West Florida Shelf
Mid-Atlantic Shelf
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Composite Data Forecast Products


Remote Sensing
Gliders
3-D Nowcasts


Data Assimilation
Nested Models
4-D Forecasts
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Facilitated by a fixed Operations Center, the
Observatory can be sustained and accessed from
anywhere!
Summer 2006 REAL-TIME DATA COLLECTED, AND
SYNTHESIZED BY LEAD SCIENTIST AND THEN
DISTRIBUTED TO THE COMMUNITY BY 10 AM Morning
Reports 78 Storm Alerts 10 Locations Wayport
WiFi 94 Hrs
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Observatory-Enabled Collaborative Research
Campaigns in the Mid-Atlantic Bight
NSF LaTTE 2004-2006
NSF MSF 2006-2007
ONR MURI REA 2006-2010
ONR SW06 2005-2006
ONR CPSE HyCODE 1998-2001
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Phased Deployment and Operation of the
Mid-Atlantic Regional Coastal Ocean Observing
System (MARCOOS) 30 Co-PIs, 20 Institutions
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Testbed for the Well Sampled Ocean Leads to New
Applications and Funding Streams
Defense Applications in Forward Deployed Areas
International Partnerships
Homeland Security for Maritime Domain Awareness
Liverpool
Norway
Antarctica
Tianjin
Sustainable Energy
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Coastal Observatories Enable Student Involvement

• Ocean Sciences Abstracts used Coastal
  Observatory
• 35 with Student or Post-doc First Authorship

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Conducting science in an observatory Observatory
leads to publications, students are increasingly
benefiting, science campaigns are overwhelming
SW05 06
Coastal Predictive Skill Experiments
LATTE
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60
Total publications 180
25
50
20
40
of publications by students and post-docs
Graduate Students post docs
Faculty External partners
COOL Publications
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30
10
20
5
10
0
0
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
Years
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Observatories promote more multi-author papers
over time
Observatory scientists publish in diverse
journals.
JGR Oceans, GRL , Limnology and Oceanography,
PNAS, J. Ocean Engineering, J. Plankton Research,
MEPS, Science, Nature, Hydrobiologia, J.
Phycology, J. Climate Research, Sea Technology,
Oceanography, Naval Logistics, J. Field Robotics,
American Naturalist, Environ. Res. Letters,
Applied Optics, Biogeosciences, Journal of Genome
Research, Global Change Biology, Ecology Letters,
Marine Chemistry
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The Slocum Mission I walk into our control
room, with its panoply of views of the sea.
There are the updated global pictures from the
remote sensors on satellites, there are the
evolving maps of subsurface variables, there are
the charts that show the position and status of
all our Slocum scientific platforms, and I am
satisfied that we are looking at the ocean more
intensely and more deeply than anyone anywhere
else. - Henry Stommel, 1989

• Conclusions
• Sustained by the growing overlap of Scientific
  Societal Goals
• Developing New Campaign Science and Enabling
  Traditional Science
• Testbed for New Approaches with Global
  Applications
• Entraining young scientists and students in
  interdisciplinary research