South Florida Coastal Oceanographic Database

Project Background

South Florida Program (SFP) – Oceanographic studies of Florida Bay and the connecting waters of the south Florida coastal region including the Florida Keys and the southwest Florida shelf have been underway since January 1995 for the purpose of describing and understanding the circulation processes on regional and subregional scales and influence of remote sources of water mass intrusions. Support has been provided by NOAA COP South Florida Program for long-term measurement of currents, temperature, salinity and bottom pressure with moored arrays Fig.1.

Fig. 1. Mooring locations during the South Florida Program for time series measurement of oceanographic properties such as currents, temperature, salinity, bottom pressure, fluorescence and transmittance. Also shown are CMAN atmospheric stations and shipboard survey tracks.

Project Description

From Jan. 1995 to Sept. 1997 moored arrays were deployed on the southwest Florida shelf adjacent to western Florida Bay and offshore of Cape Sable, and in the Keys coastal waters at Tennessee Reef and Looe Reef. From Sept. 1997 to Sept. 2000 the array was expanded to include a box array of four bottom mounted ADCP’s with nearsurface temperature and salinity and a current meter mooring in Hawk Channel offshore of Marathon. In April 1999 the array was further expanded to include a Hawk channel current/temp/salinity mooring shoreward of Looe Reef. In addition, a bottom mounted ADCP was deployed with a subsurface temperature string for a 6-month eddy study (Eddy 1999 Study: NOAA/AOML/RSMAS) offshore of Looe Reef in 100 m water depth and additional water quality sensors were added to the Looe Reef mooring. In June 2001 the Florida coastal array was reduced in scope and two of the bottom ADCP moorings on the southwest Florida shelf were eliminated (moorings C and D) along with the Tennessee Reef mooring. At the same time the Looe Reef mooring was converted to a bottom mounted ADCP and later upgraded with realtime data transmission. This array configuration has evolved into the South Florida Coastal Waters Long-Term Observing System and together with seasonal shipboard interdisciplinary surveys of the coastal waters and monthly small boat surveys of the interior bays, CMAN and SEAKEYS weather data and satellite data provide a near-realtime monitoring system of south Florida coastal ecosystems and water quality (Fig. 1). The moored time series observations of the continuing coastal monitoring system consists of bottom mounted ADCP’s with temperature and salinity at sites A and B on the southwest Florida shelf, a current/temp/salinity station adjacent to the western boundary of Florida Bay (FB4), a Shark River discharge array of salinity/temp sensors offshore of the mouth of Shark River and within the eastward extension of the low-salinity plume that interacts at times with Florida Bay interior waters. In the Atlantic coastal waters of the Keys there is the realtime Looe Reef ADCP with temp/salinity, a Hawk Channel current/temp/salinity mooring onshore of Looe Reef along with measurement and realtime data transmission of temp/salinity/fluorescence/transmittance at the 7-mile Bridge channel that serves to monitor Florida Bay and Gulf waters transport toward the Reef tract. The exchange of water between Florida Bay and the Keys coastal region is also monitored by measuring the sea level slope across the Keys with tide gauges.

Data Log (South Florida Program Log)

Deployment Periods

Mooring Deployment #1 dates: Dec 1995 - May 1996
Mooring Deployment #2 dates: May 1996 - Nov 1996
Mooring Deployment #3 dates: Nov 1996 - Apr 1997
Mooring Deployment #4 dates: Apr 1997 - Sep 1997
Mooring Deployment #5 dates: Sep 1997 - May 1998
Mooring Deployment #6 dates: Apr 1997 - Nov 1998
Mooring Deployment #7 dates: Oct 1998 - Apr 1999
Mooring Deployment #8 dates: Apr 1999 - Sep 1999
Mooring Deployment #9a dates: Sep 1999 - Apr 2000
Mooring Deployment #9b dates: Dec 1999 - Jun 2000
Mooring Deployment #10 dates: Apr 2000 - Nov 2000
Mooring Deployment #11 dates: Oct 2000 - Oct 2001
Mooring Deployment #12a dates: Apr 2001 - Sep 2001
Mooring Deployment #12b dates: Jun 2001 - ??? ????
Mooring Deployment #13 dates: Sep 2001 - ??? ????

Back to top