Thread: ARCOS on the Gulf State Park Pier

The good folks at Alabama's Real-Time Coastal Observing System (ARCOS) at the Dauphin Island Sealab have done an excellent job with a very limited budget creating a network of weather/hydro automated stations around coastal Alabama.
I have participated in their feedback program for several years, and when they asked where the next station should be located my suggestion was the Gulf State Park Pier.
The sensors are in still being calibrated but most of the meteorological (weather) data is now available @ https://www.disl.edu/arcos/gulf-state-park-pier/
Hopefully the hydrographic instruments will soon be online too...

Educate me a little bit if you will. What are good turbidity numbers? If you can check those stats and determine what the water looks like before you go, that would be VERY helpful!

Great question Dave While we’ve got #rs attention here I’d like to know how close we are to Navarres water temp Which is where Surfline pulls there info I usually subtract 2 degrees due to the nipple vein ! Stoked about the news-that will give John a break at the pier 🤙

A good way for us to all "calibrate" the turbidity numbers will be for people to report their general impression of visibility pretty often (including time of day) at the station.

Which brings up a point, where on the pier is the station/sensor?

The sensors are located on the middle octagon.
Cajun took this picture of the work Friday ...

Exactly Dave.
Turbidity is a measure of how clear water is, or how much light is scattered by particles in the water. Turbid water appears cloudy or muddy (dingy).
The particles that scatter light may be inorganic (silt stirred up by wind & waves), or organic (biological bacteria or algae suspended in the water).
Like frednic said it will take a little referencing to interpret how the numbers compare to what you are seeing from the pier, but it is a remarkable tool I have been using at other locations for years.
So glad to have it on the pier now.

Thanks, David. Great information!

FWIW, I found this site.
https://waterontheweb.org/under/wate...turbidity.html

If you scroll down to "What in the world are Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTU’s)?" you will see some picture examples.

I used to fill out reports on this stuff about 45 years ago, but I can't remember it all. IIRC we had a limit of 18 NTU's for rainfall events on reclaimed land and that water would have been quite fishable.

Edit: If you are curious about "FORMAZIN" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formazine

It's just something they use to standardize/calibrate meters.

@ Pier#r, is the "Depth" they report the SECCHI depth that is shown if you scroll down a little more on that "waterontheweb" site? If it's that, or something similar, then that's probably a number we will want to pay attention to.

I wonder if there’s an app that will show these conditions.