MARACOOS_Area_2021

Abstract: The U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) updated the boundaries of the assigned MARACOOS area in 2021. U.S. IOOS provided a shapefile to MARACOOS depicting the newly changed area but it lacked detail along the coastlines. As part of their active membership in MARACOOS, researchers at Rutgers University utilized hydrography data to improve the accuracy of the geospatial representations of the observation area. Rutgers added detailed coastlines for bays, inlets, and marine estuaries to the U.S. IOOS assigned offshore area from Chatham, MA to Cape Hatteras, NC. This new product provides accurate sea surface areas for predetermined sub regions of the mid-Atlantic from the head of tide offshore to 200NM. Rutgers uses this area to visualize distribution and calculate coverage metrics of its sensor array. This product is intended to depict tidal waterbodies. If there are particular bodies of water that should or should not be included, please comment below to inform the team. For more information on the team's objectives, products, and partnerships read about MARACOOS here.Rutgers obtained hydrography data from the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) maintained by the United States Geological Survey. The USGS originally developed the NHD data at 1:100,000-scale and it exists at that scale for the whole country. The high-resolution NHD used by Rutgers, generally developed at 1:24,000/1:12,000 scale, adds detail to the original 1:100,000-scale NHD. The depicted shorelines in this GIS are approximate shorelines of the mid-Atlantic. The extent of this dataset is from 35.231603N to 41.943599N and -65.699479W to -77.473473W.Purpose: This is the designated sea surface area for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System (MARACOOS). The Rutgers Department of Marine and Coastal Science’s Center for Ocean Observing Leadership updated this observing area in 2021. This new product covers maritime areas of the Md-Atlantic from Chatham, MA to Cape Hatteras, NC and the head of tide offshore to 200NM. All of the sensors in the MARACOOS network collect data within this boundary.