The Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System: An IOOS estuarine archetype

The Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System (CBIBS; http://buoybay.noaa.gov) is now a five-year-old operational observing system managed by the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office (NCBO), with ten buoys located throughout the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. The system has been conceived and designed with consideration for Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) principles; it is being considered for incorporation into the Mid-Atlantic Regional Association for Coastal and Ocean Observing Systems; and it can be considered a starting point for the further development of the US Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) into the estuarine environment. In the process of describing the System, its components, data, and products, we will show how CBIBS follows three sets of concepts important to the IOOS: Core Variables, Societal Benefit Areas, and Subsystem Structure. By maximizing System alliance with these principles, CBIBS provides broad utility, robust and flexible infrastructure, portability and expandability, and perhaps most important, a diverse and enthusiastic user base.