SCCOOS employs a variety of in situ and remote sensing technologies to measure physical, chemical, biological, and geological parameters as well as supports ocean models and provides forecasts of future conditions.

Since 2005, SCCOOS automated shore stations provide real-time temperature, salinity, and chlorophyll at four pier locations along the California coast.

Spray glider surveys collect data on temperature, salinity, pressure, chlorophyll, depth-averaged velocity, and acoustic and optical backscatter. Dissolved oxygen is currently being added to this parameter suite.

Data collected from over 60 high-frequency (HF) radars in Southern California are processed and displayed as surface current maps in near real-time.

SCCOOS helps support a 3-km quasi-operational Regional Ocean Model System (ROMS) to provide real-time simulations of circulation and physical parameters for coastal California. We also support a higher resolution coastal modeling project that uses ROMS in hindcast mode.

SCCOOS supports weekly water samples at our Annual Shore Stations to monitor nutrients including ammonium, nitrate, phosphate, and silicic acid.

SCCOOS supports weekly net tows to monitor the relative abundance of Harmful Algal Bloom species.

“Burkeolators” detect changes in seawater chemistry by measuring temperature, salinity, dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), pH, pCO2, and total alkalinity.

In 2004, SCCOOS funded the addition of nine nearshore stations to the CalCOFI cruises which collect hydrographic, chemical, and biological properties.

The Del Mar mooring collects data on temperature, salinity, oxygen, current vectors, fluorescence, and backscatter.

Manual shore stations at six sites along California coast collect data on sea surface temperature and salinity.

The Datawell wave buoy is a high-resolution accelerometer-based instrument that measures wave height, wave period, wave direction, sea surface temperature, and in some locations, surface currents.

Meteorological stations along the coast provide wind speed, wind direction, air temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, solar radiation, rainfall, and water temperature data.