The goal of this project is to fortify and enhance the ocean observing networks in the gulf of mexico by recapitalizing, replacing, or modernizing assets and system components supporting NOAA…

Texas A&M University received a $1,301,090 Cooperative Agreement award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) under the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) program (CFDA 11.012), effective June 1, 2025 through May 31, 2028. The award supports the recapitalization, modernization, and expansion of ocean observing networks in the Gulf of Mexico to enhance NOAA's capabilities in tropical storm intensification monitoring, safe marine operations, and climate change impact assessment. Primary deliverables include maintaining and upgrading the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS) High-Frequency Radar (HFR) network through station repairs and replacements, adding a new HFR station to address geographic coverage gaps, and modernizing the underwater glider fleet with advanced sensors for subsurface current and passive acoustic monitoring.

The award further encompasses replacing two underwater gliders lost at sea, expanding water column profile data coverage through partnerships with two new institutions, developing operational data workflows for passive acoustic monitoring, and expanding GCOOS web camera observation capabilities. These infrastructure improvements and technological modernizations are designed to build network resilience and enhance the end-to-end observing systems that support decision-making by NOAA and regional stakeholders throughout the Gulf of Mexico region.

The goal of this project is to fortify and enhance the ocean observing networks in the gulf of mexico by recapitalizing, replacing, or modernizing assets and system components supporting NOAA mission areas, such as tropical storm intensification, safe marine operations, and the impacts of climate change. The main goal of this proposal is to continue the recapitalization and building resilience of our observing network and data products that improve the end-to-end systems needed to support decision-making by NOAA and other stakeholders in the gulf of mexico region. The focus of the projects included in this proposal are to continue to maintain the surface current HFR network, modernize underwater glider fleet and piloting platform, and expand and maintain new observation network of web cameras of gcoos. The objectives of the proposed work are: 1) recapitalize and maintain the entire gcoos HFR network by conducting station repairs or replacements needed to maintain continuous data collection, 2) enhance network-wide resilience by adding one new HFR station to pair with the existing station to continue covering geographic gaps, 3) modernize gcoos underwater glider fleet by adding subsurface current and passive acoustic monitoring sensors to existing assets, 4) replace two underwater gliders lost at sea due to storms, and other causes, 5) expand water column profile data in space and time coverage by adding glider missions from two new partnering institutions, 6) develop a data workflow for passive acoustic monitoring data collected by gliders, and 7) expand and maintain web camera observations at gcoos.