SEMINAR
Dr. William Emery
Department of Aerospace Engineering Science
Mapping real-time coastal ocean surface currents with satellite imagery and altimetry for US Coast Guard search and rescue operations
Surface
ocean current observations/nowcasts and forecasts are critical products for the
U.S. Coast Guard's (USCG) Search and Rescue (SAR) operations. The USCG is
presently working to create a new SAR Decision Support Tool called SAROPS that
has a capability of ingesting real-time surface current observations from a
variety of sources. The focus of this effort is to bring to the U.S. Coast
Guard's SAR decision support system new surface current observations and
forecasts based upon NASA passive and active satellite data sets and the
available high frequency coastal radar systems (Coastal Ocean Dynamics Radar:
CODAR) that are now operational along the U.S. coasts. At present, USCG SAR
applications do not have access to such data sets and rely on resources that
provide archaic observations of surface currents. This effort will provide the
new USCG SAR decision support tool (SAROPS) with real-time surface current
observations on a space/time resolution consistent with the need for an
improved SAR decision support system. The satellite-derived surface currents
will be annealed with the high frequency radar estimates of the surface coastal
ocean currents. The U.S. Coast Guard will ingest these data into their
newly developed Search and Rescue (SAR) Decision Support Tool, termed
SAROPS. Several USCG SAR training campaigns will be used to provide data
for benchmarking of the capability of the new data. In addition, the historical
derived surface current fields will be used to support a Short-Term Prediction
System, developed under prior USCG funds to support SAR efforts.