Title: Real-time Coastal Observation Network (ReCON) - The story of building a flexible, high capacity ecosystem observation network
Speaker: Steve Ruberg, OAR/GLERL, Observing Systems Researcher, Observing Systems and Advanced Technology Theme Lead
Abstract: Observing systems located on fixed coastal platforms, surface buoys, airborne systems, and unmanned marine systems have been deployed with the goal of improving NOAA’s understanding of Great Lakes and coastal ocean ecosystems. Long-term observations allow monitoring of trends in nutrient and dissolved oxygen concentrations and under ice ecosystem conditions while real-time observations permit monitoring events such as harmful algal blooms and hypoxia.
About the Speaker: Steve is the lead of the Observing Systems and Advanced Technology (OSAT) branch at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. Current OSAT research topics include projects such as 1) the development of Real-time Coastal Observation Network (ReCON) buoys and autonomous vehicles implementing underwater acoustics technology, video imagery, and sensor arrays applied to long-term research related to ecosystem understanding, harmful algal blooms, and a hypoxia, 2) aircraft hyperspectral imaging providing harmful algal bloom information to regional managers, and 3) the exploration and mapping of submerged sinkhole systems.
