Near-Real-Time Coastal Monitoring

Abstract

PURPOSE. The objective of this Coastal Engineering Technical Note is to describe the Near-Real-Time (NRT) coastal data acquisition and processing capabilities that have been developed by the Prototype Measurement and Analysis Branch (PMAB) of the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory. These capabilities aid in data quality control and provide internally recorded and NRT wave, water-level, and current data products to Corps of Engineers (CE) sponsors. CE open-coast, inlet and harbor projects utilize the Prototype Measurement Analysis System (PMAS) for monitoring in support of design and operational engineering tasks. PMAS consists of coastal oceanographic sensors and instrumentation, communication equipment. and a relational database management system (McKinney and Howell 1996). Figure 1 is a schematic representation of PMAS. In the figure, solid lines represent NRT data access. The term "sensors" may refer to NRT directional wave gauges (DWG-1s) (Howell1992, 1993) or single pressure sensors. The term "RTU" refers to a Remote Transmission Unit which consists of the following: (a.) An all-weather, protective housing. (b.) Cable connections linking an RTU to sensors for transferring data into the RTU. (c.) Data storage hardware and software; and telecommunication hardware and software. (d.) Transferring data out of the RTU (via radio or telephone line). The Automated Real Time Tidal Elevation System (ARTTES) provides offshore water level information to survey vessels and dredges using direct measurements coupled to a predictor correction processing program (Lillycrop et al. 1991). The dashed lines going to NOAA/NDBC (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration / National Data Buoy Center) and DWG-ls indicate that data are received and inserted into PMAS but not in NRT mode. Data from NOAA/NDBC are received monthly.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 1998
Accession Number
ADA612834

Entities

People

  • Margaret A. Sabol

Organizations

  • Engineer Research and Development Center

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Civil Engineering
  • Coastal Engineering
  • Communication Equipment
  • Computers
  • Data Acquisition
  • Database Management Systems
  • Databases
  • Engineering
  • Engineers
  • Gages
  • Instrumentation
  • Measurement
  • Monitoring
  • Quality Control
  • Relational Database Management Systems
  • Underwater Acoustics

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Coastal and Marine Engineering/Sediment Transport/Hydraulic Engineering
  • Computer Science/Computer Engineering/Data Science/Digital Signal Processing.
  • Solar Photovoltaics and Thermoelectric Devices.