Along with the entire GOOS endeavor, continuation and expansion of the satellite remote sensing programs is a high priority for GCOOS. This is particularly so of developments that will lead to both better processing algorithms and spatial/temporal sampling in the coastal regime.

1. Efforts to improve DMAC compliance in the Gulf region


• NDBC is working with several Regional Observing Systems and providing a QA/QC and real-time data distribution service using a product called the "MODEM Kit". In the Gulf of Mexico, NDBC is working with TABS, COMPS, TCOON, and LUMCON. This activity will be expanded to include other data providers so as to achieve complete integration of real-time measurements in the region.
• NDBC also places these data sets on a DODS server once a month. They will expand this to real-time on an OPENDAP server, using a Live Access Server as a user interface to keep current with the DMAC guidance.
• Transition the NDBC Real-Time OPENDAP server to operational status


2. Enhancement of NDBC buoy and C-MAN networks


• Add wave directionality to wave height—useful for rip current forecasting and sediment transport estimation
• Add visibility measurements—needed near the Mississippi River and other areas for biological productivity estimation and for river-ocean connection
• Add acoustic Doppler current profilers—constraints for models and for HF radar network
• Add ecosystem measurements, as feasible
• Add water level measurements
• Increase the number of stations in these networks by a factor of five, including additional meteorological stations in the near coastal zone for use in forecasting surface currents for HABSOS as well as improved regional models


3. Improve and enhance monitoring of water quality in watersheds, estuaries, and coastal to shelf waters, as well as fluxes between these entities. As recommended in the USCOP report, the Council on Environmental Quality is proposing a federal water quality initiative involving EPA, NOAA, and the USGS. A demonstration project in the Mississippi River watershed and the Gulf of Mexico would focus on nutrient enrichment issues, such as hypoxia. Along these lines, GCOOS would like to see:


• Monitoring in additional streams
• Monitoring to include nutrients and other ecosystem indicators, as well as flow rates—uses include monitoring coastal eutrophication


4. Establish long-range HF radar monitoring of surface currents as a part of the national surface current monitoring initiative being planned by Ocean.US.


5. Integration and assessment of numerical circulation models for the region One or more numerical circulation models, utilizing data assimilation, for the Gulf of Mexico should be added to the national backbone. The benefits of having both high density model data (compared to measured data density), which dynamically interpolates the observations, and the capability to forecast the ocean state, will greatly increase the usefulness of GCOOS.


• Create a portal to outputs from all accessible full Gulf models
• Assemble and assess the skill of these models
• Provide boundary conditions for smaller-scale coastal and estuarine models


6. Integrate water level network for Gulf of Mexico.


• Adjust all water level measurements to a common set of datums
• Analyze all extant water level records for regional trends and assess new requirements
• Expand NWLON (NOS National Water Level Network) as needed based on foregoing activities


7. Development of a deep-ocean, advanced capability sentinel station. Envisioned is a station with a measurement suite capable of characterizing the environment form the sea floor to the troposphere (-3000 m to +3000 m). It would serve both as a sentinel station in the U.S. EEZ but also as a test bed for advanced technology.