On a cold, cloudy day last week, two boats sped through the Albemarle Sound toward the mouth of the Alligator River. It was windy, the sound sloshy, which made the task of installing tens of thousands of dollars worth of high-tech equipment over the open water particularly precarious.
It took five people nearly four hours, working against the elements in orange and black suits. When they were done, a meteorological station capable of transmitting real-time information was in place along the Intracoastal Waterway in the Albemarle Sound.
Once the project is complete, weather data, plus real-time measurements of waves, currents and water clarity, will be available to anyone who is interested - fishers, boaters, scientists. That will be a first for this body of water, said Mike Muglia, field research coordinator for the University of North Carolina Coastal Studies Institute in Nags Head, N.C.
Muglia was part of the team that installed the estimated $100,000 station, an element of the nationwide Integrated Ocean Observing System. The station, along with others off the coast, can mean more accurate marine forecasts, Muglia said. There are more than half a dozen off the Outer Banks.
"When the Weather Service says in Tuscaloosa it's gonna do this, there are tons of ways to verify it," Muglia said. "In the ocean, they don't know, unless there's somebody out there in a boat that says that's not happening. So we're trying to understand that and fill in the gaps."
Part of the observing station is mounted atop an Intracoastal Waterway route marker, which rises some 12 feet above the surface of the sound. A device about the size of three shoe boxes collects temperature, barometric pressure, wind speed, wind direction and humidity.
It is set up to transmit via cell phone modem to a computer at the Coastal Studies Institute for distribution to its partners on the project - the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, East Carolina University, Elizabeth City State University and a private oceanographic firm. Those partners can then post it on their Web sites for the public to see.
A tripod is planned 20 feet away, at the end of a cable at the bottom of the sound. This will measure waves, the current, water pressure, water temperature and water clarity.
It will all be powered by a solar panel.
As well as providing information to fishers and boaters, such data can aid search-and-rescue efforts, Muglia said. If there were an oil spill, the monitoring system could help predict which way the oil would drift.
It can also help biologists understand how and why and where baby fish move, monitor storm surge, and track sea rise.
Kristin Davis, (252) 441-1623, kristin.davis@pilotonline.com
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