SMAST hosted a consortium of institutions last week to plan the initial stages of a system called MARCOOS that will monitor U.S. coastal waters from Massachusetts to North Carolina. Led by Rutgers University, the current, three-year phase of the project is funded with an $8.7-million grant from the NOAA Coastal Services Center. SMAST Professors Wendell Brown and Avijit Gangopadhyay have been awarded $1.36 million for their part of the project, which includes operating coastal radar stations and “flying” underwater survey missions with robotic gliders. One such mission was launched even as the planners met: an SMAST team aboard the R/V Lucky Lady released a pair of underwater gliders off Martha’s Vineyard to begin their 500-mile swim to the New Jersey shore, measuring oceanic conditions as they go. More.

Photo courtesy of Filipe Fernandes