The Liverpool Bay coastal observatory

The pilot coastal observatory in the eastern Irish Sea integrates (near) real-time measurements with coupled models in a pre-operational coastal prediction system. The aim is to develop the underpinning science for marine management, focusing on the impacts of storms, eutrophication and the relative importance of events viz-a-viz the mean. Real time current measurements are obtained from a seabed mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler; deployment started in August 2002, via acoustic modems and the Orbcomm satellite e-mail system, and from a shore based HF radar via telephone landlines. There are also real time measurements from a surface buoy and a directional wave buoy and from an instrumented ferry, all via Orbcomm. The measurements are integrated with a suite of nested 3-dimensional hydrodynamic and ecological models 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 (at 200-300m resolution). All measurements and model outputs are displayed on the Web-site (http://coastobs.pol.ac.uk).