A
Vision of the Future:
AOML's
role in regional and coastal environmental research will expand
in the coming years, both in regard to basic research and integrated
operational monitoring/modeling. There is no question that the
problems coastal managers and planners face require information
on processes at both shorter and smaller time and space scales
than previously studied but over longer periods than previously
available. In our view, progress requires time series Eulerian
data sets which are best and most cost-effectively obtained
from fixed platforms and buoys nested within remotely sensed
wider fields. Process work is still essential but will in the
future no longer be exploratory in nature but rather limited
and carefully targeted at elucidating ambiguity in these time
series data. Recent advances have been made and will continue
to be made both in regard to in-situ sensor technology, e.g.,
in regard to continuously measuring and recording the dissolved
and marine boundary layer concentration of significant chemical
species like ammonia and adapting and integrating commercially
available sensors into instrument packages tailored to our questions
of interest. Real-time data assimilation and creative analysis
are now possible and will become practical due to advances in
both computer hardware and software. All of these information
sources will have to be integrated into end-to-end information
systems to deliver the products relevant to our future.