Buoys play pivotal role to improve coastal weather forecasting

From the deck of the research vessel Neil Armstrong, oceanographic researchers deployed the massive air-sea interaction spar (ASIS) buoys off the coast of Santa Rosa Beach in late January, watching as the instrument-laden devices began to float upright in Florida's northern Gulf of Mexico waters. There, the buoys will remain for the next several weeks collecting valuable information on land, air, and sea interactions that affect storm surges, wind fields, and other weather events. It is all part of a nearly $7 million study led by the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science that will help the U.S. Navy improve its high-resolution weather forecast model-the Coupled Ocean/Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System. "Waves and winds behave quite differently in coastal areas than in the open ocean. But unfortunately, there's a paucity of research data on those complex interactions,” said Brian Haus, professor and chair of ocean sciences and the lead investigator of the $6.74 million Coastal Land-Air-Sea Interaction Experiment. As part of the five-year experiment, which is funded by the Office of Naval Research, researchers deployed a multitude of buoys offshore in Monterey Bay, California, and Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. Sampling from a network of land-based flux towers, aircraft, radars, drones, and satellites is augmenting the data recorded by the buoys.