Closing the Gaps: A Public/Private Partnership for Coastal HF Radar Coverage along the Louisiana Coast

Louisiana is home to over 7,700 miles of coastline, the largest port in the Western Hemisphere and one of the largest gaps in HF Radar coverage in the contiguous United States. In 2018, the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS) awarded Fugro funding for the purchase and installation of two 5 MHz HF Radars along the Louisiana coast near the Mississippi River Delta as part of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System’s “Closing the Gaps” campaign. In a partnership with The University of Southern Mississippi (USM), both radars were installed in the summer of 2019 and are available via the Coastal Observing Research and Development Center website operated by the University of California San Diego. The U.S Geological Survey estimates Louisiana loses nearly 75 square-kilometers of wetlands each year, and this ever-changing coastal environment has historically made the installation of HF Radars a challenge. Through industry partnerships, Fugro installed one station at the Southwest Pass Bar Pilot House, and the second at the Chevron Pipeline Facility in Port Fourchon, LA. The two sites provide an ideal coverage area for the eastern Louisiana coast line, an area of importance to commercial and recreational fishing, the oil and gas industry, and US importation and exportation via the Mississippi River. Data from the HF Radar network is vital for ocean circulation models for all industries operating in coastal waters. The Gulf of Mexico’s hypoxic “dead zone” is controlled by the outflow of the Mississippi River, and without in situ measurements of the region, current models rely on wind forcing and other inputs to estimate the flow of this important region to the US economy. The Texas coastline has HF Radar coverage from Port Isabel to Port Arthur being maintained by Texas A&M University (TAMU), while USM maintains a network of HF Radars from Bay St. Louis, LA to Apalachicola, FL. The Louisiana coastline, the most fragile and valuable wetlands in the United States, had zero coverage until the installation of the two locations performed by Fugro and USM. With the goal of complete coverage of the Gulf of Mexico coast line, these two installations will help to prove the importance of the HF Radar network and highlight the need for “closing the gaps”.