 The Physical Oceanographic Real Time System
(PORTS) is designed to provide crucial information in real time to mariners, oil spill
response teams, managers of coastal resources, and others about San Francisco Bay’s
water levels, currents, salinity, and winds. In partnership with the NOAA’s National
Ocean Service (NOS); the California Office of Oil Spill Preparedness and Response (OSPR),
the U.S. Geological Survey, and the local community, the Marine Exchange of the San
Francisco Bay operates PORTS as a service to those who must make operational decisions
based on oceanographic and meteorological conditions in the Bay.The number, type, and mix of instruments that collect this information are deployed at strategic locations (figure 1) in the Bay both to provide data at critical locations and to allow nowcasting and forecasting using a mathematical model of the Bay’s oceanographic processes. Data from these sensors is fed to a central data collection point; raw data from the sensors are integrated and synthesized into information and analysis products, including graphical displays of PORTS data. These displays will be available in the next few weeks over the Internet. PORTS data are also available through a voice response system. The San Francisco Bay PORTS instrumentation consists of Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs), tide gauges, conductivity-temperature sensors (CTs) and meteorological packages. Leased, dedicated phone lines and radio modems connect the sensors to the central data collection computers, which record the data every six minutes. High speed leased lines (56Kbps) connect the data collection computers to the data processing and distribution hub. The primary access to the hub and PORTS data and related products will soon be through a T-1 connection to the Internet. The centralized data acquisition system is installed at the California Maritime Academy in Vallejo.
The PORTS system can be expanded to accommodate additional sensors from private industry or other agencies. Sensors such as current meters to aid in navigation approaches to oil terminals or commercial ports or salinity sensors to monitor salinity changes in wetlands habitats and the Delta region could be made available to the public along with existing PORTS data. |
PORTS is now in an operational demonstration
phase that will extend over the next two years. During that time, various improvements to
the information systems will be made in response to user feedback and the overall system
will be evaluated for reliability and value to the Bay Area community. A prototype
information hub will be available by the first two weeks in November 1997; a capability to
predict currents and other refinements to an oceanographic model for the Bay will be
complete by January 1998, and a fully operational hub will be in place by March 1998. Besides
access to both historical and real time data, information hub displays will offer, surface
current predictions, graphics showing real time vs. predicted water levels, and real time
surface winds.
