A marine observation network for the Prince William Sound

The 1989 grounding of the Exxon Valdez on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, AK, and the subsequent massive oil spill underscore the critical importance of providing every reasonable aid to the safe transit of tankers from Port Valdez to the open sea. Local marine conditions can be severe, change rapidly, and vary significantly over the sound. In 1994, the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) of the National Weather Service (NWS) was tasked to design, install, and operate an automated weather observation network specifically to support safe vessel operations in Prince William Sound. In the summer of 1995, with vessel support from the U.S. Coast Guard, NDBC installed two Ocean Data Acquisition System (ODAS) moored buoys and two Coastal-Marine Automated Network (C-MAN) stations. Meteorological and marine data are collected from these systems twice per hour and returned real time via geostationary satellite. Data are quality controlled by NDBC and the NWS; and present conditions and forecasts are disseminated by the NWS to the Coast Guard Marine Safety Office (MSO), marine operators, and the general public. Data are also archived for future application in climatology and other studies.