Author Topic: Sentinel of Coast (Texas A&M University Corpus Christi)  (Read 1176 times)

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Offline Sooner Al

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Sentinel of Coast (Texas A&M University Corpus Christi)
« on: January 06, 2017, 07:21:18 AM »
Some of you maybe interested in seeing a Sentinel of the Coast installation at the Brazos Santiago Pass (main shipping channel into the Port of Brownsville, Texas). Its a program from Texas A&M University Corpus Christi for research and real time data collection.

http://tamucc.edu/news/2014/10/102014%20Sentinels.html#.WG-JZvWcHDd

 “The TCOON will have a monitoring station at all six major inlets on the Texas Coast that will providing near real-time  weather and water level data, a network that is the envy of coastal states in the country.”

The TCOON information page...

http://cbiweb.tamucc.edu/TCOON/

Unfortunately because of apparent funding issues the system has not been online. The nearest data page I can find, if it was active, is here...

https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/met.html?id=8779749

See the photos...

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« Last Edit: January 06, 2017, 07:32:31 AM by Sooner Al »
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Offline ValentineWeather

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Re: Sentinel of Coast (Texas A&M University Corpus Christi)
« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2017, 11:16:22 AM »
I like that dual redundancy.
Randy

Offline Jstx

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Re: Sentinel of Coast (Texas A&M University Corpus Christi)
« Reply #2 on: January 15, 2017, 02:55:23 AM »

Hi Sooner Al,

What serendipity to see this.
I spent much of my young(er) life all around where that South Padre Island Sentinel station now stands, and my youngest is a TAMU-CC alumni, where the CBI ( Conrad Blucher Institute) is also located (their building was under construction when she was a freshman).
If your first and second pictures in this post, with the taller dunes in the distance across the channel, are of the SPI station (and on viewing my gut said YES!), I have pics of my two oldest kids and my Hobie Cat on that xchannel shore. Used to fish and sail those waters a lot.

I've been looking all over online for info on that South Padre station, since seeing your (Sooner Al) post, not much available. I'll put some links below on what I found.
They sure don't seem to have gone into the TCOON or NOAA data ingests yet and showing up on the public net; curious since they have been in place for a few months now, still testing probably.

That SPI Sentinel WX pole is roughly at the base of the North Brazos Santiago jetty, just East of a small cove. Behind that cove there used to be a small "Sea World"-type park called Dolphin Cove  (  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_amusement_parks#United_States_of_America ). And behind that is what used to be called "Childrens Beach".
I have some neat pics of a wrecked shrimp boat taken not 1500' away from it that I've been meaning to scan in and digitize, guess I'll have to ASAP, and put it/them on this thread. The shrimpers used to founder all around there fairly often. But eating a few boxes of #6-16 size shrimp makes it all worthwhile (nothing like the storebought ones   ;)  )...


Links I found:
SPI Brazos Santiago, TX - Station ID: 8779749 (oops, your ref, look at the tabs, then get L/L ( 26° 4.1' N 97° 9.3' W ) and map it):   https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/stationhome.html?id=8779749

Installations Begin for “Sentinels of the Coast:   http://tamucc.edu/news/2014/10/102014%20Sentinels.html#.WHr-NC_555u

http://cbiweb.tamucc.edu/GCOOS-Data-Provider-HighlightTCOON/

http://cbiweb.tamucc.edu/

STATIONS MAP & REAL-TIME DATA:  http://cbiweb.tamucc.edu/cbi/data/

Not even listed here yet, TCOON obs queries:  http://lighthouse.tamucc.edu/pq

GCOOS Data Portal:  http://data.gcoos.org/


GCOOS Data Provider Highlight:  http://gcoos.tamu.edu/?p=7933

Port Isabel-South Padre Press stories: 
http://portisabelsouthpadre.com/2014/11/06/sentinel-of-the-coast-to-be-installed-on-island/
http://portisabelsouthpadre.com/2014/11/20/spi-now-home-to-coastal-monitoring-sentinel-network/



Offline Sooner Al

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Re: Sentinel of Coast (Texas A&M University Corpus Christi)
« Reply #3 on: January 16, 2017, 05:30:08 AM »
Yeah Dolphin Cove is long gone. There is an old abandoned bar/grill over to the east and a few buildings used by the Cameron County Park system for various activities related to the RV park folks.

FWIW I always go over to the Brownsville Shrimp docks before we leave and get 10-15 pounds of 10-15 count shrimp to take home. All individually frozen in 5 pound bags. Good eating...
Retired NWS ESA/ET
Sys: Davis VP2 (Wireless)