Texas Automated Buoy System

Abstract

The Texas Automated Buoy System (TABS) began in 1994 when the Texas General Land Office (GLO) funded the Geochemical and Environmental Research Group (GERG) at Texas A&M University to design and purchase five telemetering current meter buoys. Instrumented buoys continuously measure current velocity about six feet below the surface and transmit the data to shore on a regular schedule via satellite telephone. The system has eight buoys funded by the TGLO operating along the Texas Coast — one near Sabine Pass, two off Galveston, one midway between Freeport and Corpus Christi, one off Corpus Christi, and two off Brownsville. The eighth buoy, a three meter discus buoy, was installed off Port Aransas in the summer of 2005 and removed in 2008. Two additional buoys located near the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary are funded separately by an oil industry consortium but are operated as part of the TABS program. Four different types of TABS buoys are currently used by the program. All the buoys can accommodate single point current sensors. The 2.25 and 3m and TABS Π buoys can accommodate acoustic current profiling instruments and meteorological packages which include air temperature and humidity, barometric pressure, as well as wind speed and direction. The larger two buoys have both mechanical and acoustic anemometers as well as accelerometers for measuring waves. The TABS I buoys can be deployed in 10–20m water depth. The TABS II buoys are suitable for deployment in 15m to 45m water depth. The two larger buoys have been deployed in up to 110m water depth. Computers at Texas A&M University automatically collect data from the buoys every two hours via the satellite data modems and make the observations available to GLO and the general public via the Internet. TABS data are made available to NOAA NDBC via ftp to permit the data to be used by the National Weather Service. TABS sites B, J, K N and V have been given NDBC designators 42043, 42044, 42045, 42046 and 42047 respectively. In 1998 a modeling component was added to the TABS program with the development and implementation of POM adapted to perform simulations on the Texas shelf. In 2002 the modeling was extended with the implementation of ROMS. Both models are run on a regular basis and output to a web page. Wind data from National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Eta-12 wind fields are used to drive the model in nowcast and forecast modes. Hurricanes have affected the buoy system resulting in the loss of several buoys at the deeper offshore locations. The TABS 2.25m buoy was developed in an effort to deploy a buoy that could survive hurricanes. In September, 2008, the eye of Hurricane Ike passed directly over Buoy V located near the Flower Garden Banks. The mechanical anemometer was damaged but the acoustic wind sensor gave a complete record of the storms passage. Wave and atmospheric pressure data were also recorded. Perhaps most interesting is the decrease of measured waves in the eye of the storm.