The Liverpool Bay coastal observatory

A pilot Coastal Observatory has been established in Liverpool Bay, which integrates (near) real-time measurements with coupled models in a pre-operational coastal prediction system and displays the results on the web. The aim is to understand a coastal sea´s response to natural forcing and the consequences of human activity. The eastern Irish Sea is an excellent study area, affected by all coastal sea processes, including near-shore physical and biogeochemical processes influenced by estuarine inflow where both vertical and horizontal gradients are important. The time series enable definition of the seasonal cycle, its inter-annual variability and quantification of the importance of events relative to the mean. Applications include eutrophication (the region receives significantly elevated levels of nutrient inputs), shoreline management (coastal flooding and beach erosion / accretion), and understanding present conditions to predict the impact of climate change (for instance if the number and severity of storms, or of high or low river flows, change). The integrated measurement suite, which started in August 2002, covers a range of space and time scales, concentrating on horizontal and vertical gradients and includes in situ time series, 4-6 weekly regional water column surveys, an instrumented ferry, a shore-based h.f. radar system measuring surface currents and waves, coastal tide gauges, visible and infra-red satellite data. A suite of nested 3-D hydrodynamic and ecosystem models is run daily, focusing on the Observatory area by covering the ocean / shelf of northwest Europe (at 12 km resolution), the Irish Sea (at 1.8 km) and Liverpool Bay (200-300 m resolution). The measurements will test the models against events as they happen in a truly 3-D context. All measurements and model outputs are displayed on the Coastal Observatory web-site (http://coastobs.pol.ac.uk) for an audience of researchers, coastal managers and the public.