Neracoos proposes continued improvements to longstanding infrastructure, but with added emphasis on ocean climate, ecosystems, and marine life in response to the pronounced and uncertain changes…

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) awarded a Cooperative Agreement totaling $1,301,090 to the Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems (NERACOOS) under the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) program (CFDA 11.012) for the period of June 1, 2025 through May 31, 2028. NERACOOS will deliver enhanced ocean observing infrastructure and data management systems for the Northeast Shelf region, with particular emphasis on monitoring climate change impacts, ecosystem dynamics, and marine life. Key deliverables include enhanced marine life observation systems, recapitalized high-frequency radar (HFR) stations, deployment of water level sensors and webcams, and implementation of cloud-based data management infrastructure to support coastal and marine research activities conducted from Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

The project addresses pronounced environmental changes in the Northeast Shelf driven by climate change and other stressors through comprehensive physical and chemical oceanographic monitoring. Deliverables encompass sensor and platform recapitalization, staff support for project oversight, ocean circulation and coastal inundation modeling, plankton and nutrient transport monitoring, and modernized data visualization and management tools. These services support IOOS's national mission to provide integrated ocean observing capabilities that improve maritime safety, enhance economic productivity, and protect the marine environment through reliable, interoperable, and timely delivery of marine environmental data.

Neracoos proposes continued improvements to longstanding infrastructure, but with added emphasis on ocean climate, ecosystems, and marine life in response to the pronounced and uncertain changes underway on the northeast shelf, driven by climate change, evolving human uses, and other stressors. This project includes: enhancing existing and emerging systems for observing marine life; enhancing existing and emerging systems that measure key physical and chemical drivers of marine ecosystem dynamics (staff support, sensor/platform recapitalization and deployment, data management tools); improve understanding of transport of plankton, nutrients, and other material through monitoring and modeling of ocean circulation and coastal inundation (HFR station recapitalization, water level sensors and webcam deployment, modeling); build out new cloud-based infrastructure for data management; and staff to support projects and oversight.