Technology development to collect ocean optics data at NDBC weather stations

The National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) has developed the capability to add oceanographic sensors to their platforms for in situ data collection in real time. Sensors to measure ocean optics, temperature, and salinity are being added to a coastal-marine weather station off the Virginia coast. NDBC developed a special oceanographic interface controller that will power the sensors, collect and store raw data, and process and prepare the data for hourly transmission through Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES). The system was developed in response to National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) program to establish coastal validation sites for the SeaWiFS ocean color satellite by collecting ocean data synoptically with weather data. That work is presented here.