Port Freeport outside of Houston, Texas, had a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration system installed to enhance efficient and safe marine navigation.
The technology is a component of the Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System, a national network, according to an Oct. 4 NOAA news release.
“Precision navigation is critical to our nation’s data-driven blue economy and helps our environment," NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said in the release. “The real-time information tracked by NOAA allows ships to move safely within U.S. waterways to make operations more efficient and lower fuel consumption, which also lowers carbon emissions.”
The new system, like others across the country, will reduce ship accidents by more than 50%, Nicole LeBoeuf, director of NOAA’s National Ocean Service, said, according to the relrease. Larger ships can get in and out of seaports with reduced traffic delays.
“PORTS can also provide real-time data as conditions rapidly change, giving our coastal communities time to prepare and respond,” she said, according to the release.
In waterways where circumstances might vary fast and over short distances, newly installed current meters capture and transmit real-time current observations. To gather crucial cross currents data outside of the Surfside Jetty, one current meter placed on a buoy has been installed along the port entrance channel, the release reported.
To gather information about the strength of the currents near a crucial turning point for ships entering and leaving Freeport Harbor, a second current meter is mounted on a pier in the intercoastal waterway not far from the Surfside Bridge, according to the release.
