. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. getting the same data from Florida, Bohm says. Since the early 1980s, MEAS has gathered low-resolution images from the satellite and supplemented them with higher-resolution data through the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at the Univer- sity of Miami. Now, NCSU's accessing ability makes it one of only six universities nationally that can collect ocean temperatures directly from the satellites. The data will be available to other North Carolina universities and state agencies, Pietrafe
. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. getting the same data from Florida, Bohm says. Since the early 1980s, MEAS has gathered low-resolution images from the satellite and supplemented them with higher-resolution data through the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at the Univer- sity of Miami. Now, NCSU's accessing ability makes it one of only six universities nationally that can collect ocean temperatures directly from the satellites. The data will be available to other North Carolina universities and state agencies, Pietrafesa says. Robert Dennis, an oceanographer in NOAA's Office of Research and Applications, says the satellites are public domain and can be tapped worldwide by anybody who has the proper equipment. "One of the things about meteo- rological satellites is their data is not coded. It's not restricted informa- tion," Dennis says. "Anybody can sit there with a receiver and receive the satellite ; The infrared technology, however, is not without drawbacks. It cannot see through clouds, which are common near the Gulf Stream where moisture is heavy in the air. And these satellites can only read the temperature on the skin of the ocean. Also, the gradients are nearly impossible to distinguish during summer months when coastal waters heat to about the same temperature as the Gulf Stream. For these reasons, satellites have not replaced the more conventional instruments for measuring the ocean's vital signs, Bohm says. The tried-and-true methods are still the best gauges for temperature, salinity and speed of currents below the surface, which can tell researchers about the originating point of a water mass. But satellites offer an overview — the big picture — for researchers to put their findings into context. And they are able to corroborate the findings of these conventional instruments, which are usually trailed at staggered depths from ships and sea buoys. The
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