Chesapeake Bay Observing System
University of Maryland
Created in 1992, Chesapeake Bay Observing System (CBOS) initially focused on the goal of providing real-time information on Bay conditions to any interested party via the Internet. An underlying motivation for the creation of CBOS was the need for long-term measurements on forces driving the motion of Bay waters. At the outset, physical oceanographic and meteorological measurements were the most needed, and the easiest to acquire. Now, continuous, high-frequency measurements of water quality and biological indicators have shown that the ecosystem does not always vary slowly from one state to another, but can undergo rapid oscillations, or even fundamental shifts, within short time spans.
Observatory maturity has evolved slowly at CBOS. A grant from the NOAA Coastal Ocean Program has enabled the outfitting of several CBOS Permanent Monitoring Stations with ocean color sensors to complement satellite, aircraft, and shipboard programs. It is now possible to measure a broad range of zooplankton size classes acoustically from moored buoys. The Environmental Protection Agency, in conjunction with the State of Maryland and the Commonwealth of Virginia, continues the invaluable Bay-wide monitoring program where 19 variables are measured 14 times a year. NOAA's Air Resources Laboratory continues monitoring air-sea interaction with the help of CBOS platforms to support their investigation of atmospheric nutrient inputs to the Chesapeake Bay. The NSF Land-Margin Ecosystem Research program incorporates CBOS information from both the Permanent Stations and the fleet of CBOS Rover Buoys into the observational strategy. In addition, the LMER program has brought a towed sensor vehicle-the SCANFISH-to the Bay. The SCANFISH can sweep the entire Bay within 5 days, revealing exciting new views of rich physical and biological structure not possible with conventional techniques.
As CBOS has matured, there has been an expansion in the vision, the breadth of information, and the community of data users. Some of this expansion has come through advancements in sensor technology, information management software and data visualization improvements. Much of this expansion, though, has come about through the data users (i.e., researchers, managers, teachers, mariners) who have discovered the resource, incorporated CBOS information into their own work, and embraced the partnership, even while the vision has yet to be fully realized.
Contact: Tom Malone, Univ. of Maryland CES, malone@hpl.umces.edu
