Retrospective and prospective views of the Ocean Observing System in the Gulf of Maine

The Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System (GoMOOS) is a comprehensive prototype integrated coastal ocean observing system that was established in the summer of 2001. Its current configuration includes eleven solar-powered buoy-monitored locations with physical and optical sensors, four shore-based long-range HF radar systems for surface current measurement, operational circulation and wave models, satellite observations, inshore nutrient monitoring, and hourly web-delivery of data. It serves a broad array of real-time oceanographic and marine meteorological data and data products to scientists, state and federal regulators, the National Weather Service, both the US and Canadian Coast Guards, the National Data Buoy Center, educators, regional naturalresource managers, the Gulf of Maine fishing and maritime industries, local airports and airlines, sailors, and the general public. The ocean observing system that can be thought of as consisting of four major subsystems: the data acquisition subsystem; the data handling, processing, and archiving subsystem; the system of numerical nowcast and forecast models; and a web-based data distribution/presentation subsystem.