How Does the COOLroom Work? The COOLroom is full of sophisticated computers that interpret information being fed to them from a myriad of instruments deployed above, below and at the surface of the ocean off New Jersey.
The COOLroom scientists, called oceanographers, use the COOLroom's computers to translate the raw data into charts and graphs and then organize them so they can be published on their website (www.thecoolroom.org).
From the COOLroom, scientists monitor several different data collection systems including: - Remote Sensing Satellites monitoring the ocean's surface temperature - CODAR Beach antennas gather wave and current information - The LEO Undersea Nodes provide an underwater weather report - IMCS Meteorological Tower keeps track of the weather above the surface.
Over time, scientists will gain an understanding of how the ocean moves, interacts with the shoreline and atmosphere, with life in and around its waters (including man) and, perhaps, be able to predict behavior in the future. Already, they are beginning to anticipate unusual or interesting events, and can quickly dispatch research boats and planes to monitor as events unfold.
Take a look at this series of photographs and attempt to determine what has happened based on the information available to you.
Now run the video clip from which the still photographs were taken.
Does the story you deduced from the still photographs match that portrayed in the video?
Scientists face this dilemma all the time as they attempt to interpret events and processes that occur in the ocean based on the data available to them. Obviously, the more data that can be collected to fill in the unknown gaps, the more accurately scientists can interpret the hidden world of the ocean. It was this thinking that inspired a small group of scientists from Rutgers University and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to create the Long-term Ecosystem Observatory (LEO) and usher in a new era of ocean exploration.
