Tampa Bay Physial Oceanographic Real-Time System (PORTS)

The Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System (PORTS) is an public information acquisition and dissemination technology developed by the National Ocean Service (NOS) in cooperation with the Greater Tampa Bay Marine Advisory Council. The first permanent, fully integrated, operational PORTS was deployed in Tampa Bay during 1990 and 1991. The system is managed, operated, and maintained by the Greater Tampa Bay Marine Advisory Council-PORTS under a cooperative agreement with NOS and the University of South Florida. Tampa Bay PORTS includes the integration of real-time currents, water levels, winds, wave height, visibility, air and water temperatures, and barometric pressure at multiple locations with a data dissemination system that includes telephone voice response, modem dial-up, dedicated modem displays, and World Wide Web/Internet sites. Tampa Bay PORTS consists of four acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs), four water level gages, six anemometers (wind sensors), an atmospheric temperature and barometric pressure sensor, a directional wave gage, packet radio transmission equipment, a data acquisition system, and an information dissemination system (IDS).