Your edition of Internet Explorer is outdated. It has known security vulnerabilities and would possibly cause problems with the display of content on this page and other websites.
Learn how to use your browser
MOBILE, Alabama – The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Mobile District Mississippi Coastal Improvement Program (MsCIP) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had a problem.
NOAA deploys two currents and real-time weather buoys (CURBYs) at least once a year to make sure everything is working while also maintaining your expertise in the event of an emergency.
In Mobile, the MsCIP team is building coastal modeling knowledge for its coastal-wide beach and dune reclamation efforts in Jackson County, Mississippi.
It’s Richard Allen, team leader of USACE’s Mobile District Hydrologic Data Collection Unit, who brings the two parties together when the Mobile District and NOAA introduced a buoy into Biloxi Bay near Ocean Springs, Mississippi, on Oct. 25, 2023.
The deployment of the buoys helped them get what they needed.
“The NOAA buoy is being deployed to collect box knowledge to be used in coastal modeling,” said Valerie Morrow, coastal resilience technical manager for the USACE Mobile District. “The Mobile District will gain advantages from this technique because it is less expensive than other knowledge collection alternatives, the knowledge collected is of higher quality than other alternatives, and the ability to mobilize the buoy is faster than other alternatives. “
For NOAA, the buoy’s deployment provided them with the education and testing needed for optimal operation.
The Mobile District supported the buoy by launching it from their ships, allowing NOAA to practice a “boat of opportunity. “
Grace Gray of NOAA’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services said it’s the best opportunity for her team to get hands-on education and assistance from a partner agency.
“In addition to taking this opportunity to optimize our deployment capabilities and test the equipment, we intended to solve the case in which a collaborating company requests the use of a CURBY, resolve certain administrative aspects with respect to the environment and the reimbursement of buoy components before we find ourselves in an emergency situation. It’s also an opportunity to deploy the buoy from someone else’s boat. So the more opportunities there are to do activities on other boats, the better.
The component of the task that will benefit from buoy deployment is the improvement of beaches and dunes along approximately 4 miles of the existing continental marine shoreline in Jackson County, Mississippi. These innovations come with the structure of a 60-foot wide platform. vegetated dune box approximately 50 feet from any existing levee.
These beach and dune spaces are essential for nesting and perching shorebirds, such as the least tern, which is on the state list, and the threatened piping plover. In addition to the ecological benefits, the dunes would provide incidental benefits for the control of coastal typhoon threats, that is, more frequent and low-intensity coastal typhoon events. Under the provisions of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 1986, as amended, burden sharing would be 65% federal investment and 35% non-federal investment.
Allen said the buoy’s deployment was a success.
“Joint operations between NOAA and USACE resulted in a successful deployment of CURBY,” Allen said. “The buoy immediately began collecting data. This data is transmitted in real time to NOAA servers and is available to USACE mapping team members. 90 days, after which NOAA and USACE will recover it.