The coastal waters of the continental U.S. Are poised to experience an extensive marine industrial build-out as the bureau of ocean energy management (boem) continues to lease areas for offshore…

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) awarded a $1,989,353 Cooperative Agreement to the Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems (NERACOOS), a non-profit organization, under the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) Federal Grant Program (CFDA 11.012). The primary goal of this 3-year project, running from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2027, is to transition the robust and modular data ingestion and management pipelines used by NERACOOS, MARACOOS, and the GliderDAC into a common cyberinfrastructure to support the growing volume of meteorological and oceanographic (METOCEAN) data from offshore wind development in the U.S. coastal waters. This project will leverage a best-of-breed approach for the acquisition, processing, integration, and dissemination of METOCEAN data, providing a documented, standards-based, and scalable cyberinfrastructure for private and public data providers to efficiently deliver data, and enabling data consumers to access this growing dataset through standard services and existing products.

The coastal waters of the continental U.S. Are poised to experience an extensive marine industrial build-out as the bureau of ocean energy management (boem) continues to lease areas for offshore wind (OSW) development. In southern new england and the mid-atlantic, there are 28 leased wind areas undergoing assessment and development. This imminent and unprecedented offshore wind development has resulted in a significant increase in meteorological and oceanographic (metocean) observations, which are currently supporting site assessment, engineering, research and monitoring and will increase as wind farms are installed and operated. Much of the industry funded metocean data collections are privately held or siloed in disparate data systems. Many OSW developers have agreed to or have expressed interest in sharing this data through the integrated ocean observing system (ioos) regional associations (RA). The ioos data management and cyberinfrastructure (dmac) community has developed and employed a set of standards and tools for effective and standards-based data management that meet the fair (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) data principles. The primary goal of this project is to transition the robust and modular data ingestion and management pipelines used by neracoos, maracoos, and the gliderdac into a common cyberinfrastructure that leverages a best-of-breed approach for acquisition, processing, integration, and dissemination of metocean data. Private and public data providers will benefit from this effort because there will be a documented, standards based, scalable cyberinfrastructure for them to efficiently deliver data through. The myriad of data consumers will also benefit because they will be able to access the growing volume of data through standard services and existing products. The extensive and effective engagement programs of neracoos and maracoos will ensure that regional OSW data providers and data consumers are well informed and have opportunities to provide feedback throughout the project.