The human impacts on the coastal ocean in terms of pollution and waste disposals have greatly modified the water quality and the fluxes of material to the coastal waters. Natural processes of monsoonal winds, river water fluxes, and ocean circulation often make anthropogenic perturbations more complex to study. "Coastal Monitoring" program of INCOIS envisages monitoring time-series of various biogeochemical parameters to assess the biogeochemical variability in the Indian coastal waters and understand the ecosystem trophic status. Under this program, INCOIS has established two time-series stations in the Indian coastal waters (east coast: Visakhapatnam, west coast: Kochi) through sustained buoy-based automated observatories. The establishment of more time-series stations is planned at strategic locations of the Indian coast. The INCOIS "Eyes on the Indian Coastal Milieu" service disseminates high-frequency data on several physical-chemical-biological parameters. The data recorded by the observatories is aimed at monitoring water quality parameters, developing an understanding of coastal processes, assessing the health of the coastal waters, model validation, assimilation, and forecasting of water quality parameters. The target users are fishery resource managers, tourists, ecologists, fishermen, researchers, and environmentalists. The data recorded by the coastal observatories are well-validated with in situ laboratory analysis at regular intervals. |
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Real-Time Feed |
Derived Parameters |
Satellite Retrieved Parameters |
Parameters | Association | Parameters | Association | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Water Current | Water mass movement | Water Temperature | Upwelling/Mixing | |
Salinity | Freshwater/River influx, Terrigenous discharge, Upwelling | pH | Acidity or basicity of water | |
Dissolved Oxygen | Availability of Oxygen in the water, Aquatic organism's health | Chlorophyll-a | Phytoplankton biomass, Primary production, Phytoplankton bloom | |
Turbidity | Water column transparency, Sediment discharge, Sediment resuspension | Coloured dissolved organic matter | Organic matter pollution | |
Dissolved methane | Methane cycling, Ggreenhouse gas with global warming potential | Hydrocarbons | Oil Spill, Oil Pollution | |
Inorganic macronutrients (nitrite, nitrate, ammonium, phosphate, silicate) | Primary production, Algal bloom, Eutrophication, | Partial pressure of CO2 (water & Air) | CO2ingassing-outgassing, Carbonate chemistry | |
Pigments (Phycocyanin, Phycoerythrin) | Cyanobacteria bloom |