Ocean Observing Public-Private Collaboration to Improve Tropical Storm and Hurricane Predictions in the Gulf of Mexico
Ruth Perry1, Pak Leung2, Walt McCall3, Kevin M Martin4, Stephan Dixon Howden4, Ryan Anthony Vandermeulen5, Hyun-Sook Kim6, Barbara A Kirkpatrick7, Stephanie Watson7 and Walker O Smith Jr8, (1)Shell Exploration & Production Company, Upstream Americas, Houston, United States, (2)Shell Global Solutions (US), Inc., Houston, TX, United States, (3)NOAA National Data Buoy Center, (4)The University of Southern Mississippi, Division of Marine Science, Stennis Space Center, MS, United States, (5)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/SSAI, Ocean Ecology Laboratory, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (6)IMSG at EMC/NCEP/NOAA, College Park, MD, United States, (7)Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System, Sarasota, FL, United States, (8)Virginia Inst Marine Sciences, Gloucester Point, VA, United States
Abstract:
In 2008, Shell partnered with NOAA to explore opportunities for improving storm predictions in the Gulf of Mexico. Since, the collaboration has grown to include partners from Shell, NOAA National Data Buoy Center and National Center for Environmental Information, National Center for Environmental Prediction, University of Southern Mississippi, and the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System. The partnership leverages complementary strengths of each collaborator to build a comprehensive and sustainable monitoring and data program to expand observing capacity and protect offshore assets and Gulf communities from storms and hurricanes. The program combines
in situ and autonomous platforms with remote sensing and numerical modeling. Here we focus on profiling gliders and the benefits of a public-private partnership model for expanding regional ocean observing capacity.
Shallow and deep gliders measure ocean temperature to derive ocean heat content (OHC), along with salinity, dissolved oxygen, fluorescence, and CDOM, in the central and eastern Gulf shelf and offshore. Since 2012, gliders have collected 4500+ vertical profiles and surveyed 5000+ nautical miles. Adaptive sampling and mission coordination with NCEP modelers provides specific datasets to assimilate into EMC’s coupled HYCOM-HWRF model and 'connect-the-dots' between well-established Eulerian metocean measurements by obtaining (and validating) data between fixed stations (e.g. platform and buoy ADCPs) . Adaptive sampling combined with remote sensing provides satellite-derived OHC validation and the ability to sample productive coastal waters advected offshore by the Loop Current. Tracking coastal waters with remote sensing provides another verification of estimate Loop Current and eddy boundaries, as well as quantifying productivity and analyzing water quality on the Gulf coast, shelf break and offshore.
Incorporating gliders demonstrates their value as tools to better protect offshore oil and gas assets and the greater Gulf coast communities from storms and hurricanes. Data collected under the collaboration, along with deployment of gliders, will have long-term benefits in helping to understand the ecological and environmental health of the Gulf by monitoring real-time annual and seasonal physical variability.
