The Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System

Abstract

The Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System (CBIBS) is an innovative system to collect, transmit and interpret real-time environmental data from the Chesapeake Bay to a wide variety of constituents - including scientists, on-the-water users, educators, and natural resource decision-makers - and to fill critical observational gaps in the Chesapeake Bay. CBIBS is a component of the Chesapeake Bay Observing System (CBOS) and the US Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS), addressing IOOS goals in the Chesapeake Bay region. The CBIBS platforms provide critical real-time data on environmental conditions and water quality, and the supporting data management and delivery systems system deliver products and interpretive information of interest to the targeted user segments utilizing multiple media methods. Primary interfaces are though the web site WWW.BUOYBAY.ORG and via an extensive data and information voice application at 877-BUOYBAY. The System delivers high quality educational content based on real-time and archived data and expands the delivery of meaningful watershed educational experiences to promote environmental stewardship of Chesapeake Bay. The System is also an integral interpretive component of the National Park Service's Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail. CBIBS buoys are presently deployed at six locations on the Chesapeake Bay: Near the mouths of the Potomac, Patapsco, Rappahannock, and Susquehanna Rivers; and in the James and Elizabeth Rivers. CBIBS platforms are AXYS Watchkeeper buoys with standard sensors including meteorological (wind speed and direction, air temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure); water quality (WETLabs WQM measuring temperature, conductivity, pressure, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and chlorophyll A); current profiles (Nortek Aquadopp Profilers); and waves (TRIAXYS wave sensors). Some platforms are also measuring nitrates (Satlantic ISUS) and GPS-derived water level. Real time data are reported at 10 minute to 1 hour intervals, depending on the parameter, via EVDO wireless Broadband static IP modems. The interpretive nature of the buoys, their use of multiple media (phone, web, mobile devices) to deliver data, and the educational curricula that are being built around them, are unique to this system. Support for operational oceanographic measurements from a broad and diverse user base is a critical asset to maintaining long term sustainability and funding for a system.