New Data for Improved Navigation in the Upper Hudson River

By oceanservice.noaa.gov.

Real-time data on coastal conditions will support improved maritime navigation in New York.

Navigating New York waterways just got a bit easier. NOAA and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation announced the establishment of the Hudson River Estuary Physical Oceanographic Real-time System (PORTS®). The system delivers real-time oceanographic and meteorological observations that can improve maritime safety and inform coastal resource management in the region. Commercial mariners, recreational boaters, resource managers, and coastal planners can use the online tool to access real-time water level data from Sleepy Hollow to Troy, New York.

The Hudson River Estuary PORTS® is the second system of its kind in New York — the first being situated 100 miles south that provides data for the New York-New Jersey Harbor PORTS®. The new system currently consists of one water level station at Turkey Point, south of Saugerties, New York, and is part of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve. The system will fill critical geographic gaps in the state’s maritime data and expand coverage to include the tidally influenced portions of the Hudson River, north of the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge.

The Turkey Point station is equipped with pressure-based and microwave water level sensors, satellite transmitters, as well as rechargeable batteries and solar panels. The redundancy of the built-in sensors and power sources is designed to ensure the station operates in all weather conditions, and that NOAA’s critical real-time data continues to flow when it is most urgently needed by the maritime community. The station is also equipped with an anemometer that measures wind speed, pressure, and direction; sensors for air and water temperature, relative humidity, and conductivity; as well as a barometric pressure sensor to measure meteorological conditions.

read more at oceaservice.noaa.gov.