Current NERACOOS Initiatives
NERACOOS was officially incorporated in the fall of 2008. The organization continues to develop under a 3-year planning grant from NOAA IOOS. The operational component of NERACOOS is the Northeastern RCOOS (Regional Coastal Ocean Observing System). A three-year project funded through NOAA IOOS aims to develop the Northeastern RCOOS, in concert with the further establishment of NERACOOS under a NOAA IOOS planning grant.
The Northeastern RCOOS has two primary objectives in the current 3-year plan:
- The first is continued
operation of selected elements of the existing regional observing system, chosen for best service
to end users and continued regional development.
- The second objective is establishment of an
end-to-end observing capability in three areas that have been identified as priorities by
NERACOOS (inundation, water quality, and harmful algal blooms, or HABs):
- Establishment of end-to-end capabilities in all three areas will capitalize on recent technological developments, including a new regional modeling system, recently commercialized in-situ nutrient sensors, and the Environmental Sample Processor (ESP), which will perform in-situ RNA analysis to determine abundance of the organism responsible for HABs.
- Establishment of end-to-end capabilities in all three areas will capitalize on recent technological developments, including a new regional modeling system, recently commercialized in-situ nutrient sensors, and the Environmental Sample Processor (ESP), which will perform in-situ RNA analysis to determine abundance of the organism responsible for HABs.
Both sets of objectives were extensively leveraged by funding obtained from sources other than the NERACOOS RCOOS grant.
