2004 Hypoxia Watch Bottom CTD Station Locations

The NOAA Hypoxia Watch project provides near-real-time, web-based maps
of dissolved oxygen near the sea floor over the Texas-Louisiana continental shelf during a
period that extends from mid-June to mid-July. The NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service
Mississippi Laboratories at Pascagoula and Stennis Space Center and the NOAA's National
Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) began the Hypoxia Watch project in 2001.
Scientists aboard the NOAA Research Vessel Oregon II measure seawater properties, such as
water temperature, salinity, chlorophyll, and dissolved oxygen, as the Oregon II cruises the waters south of Pascagoula, MS and then makes its way from Brownsville, Texas, to the mouth of the Mississippi River. A scientist aboard the ship processes the measurements from electronic dissolved oxygen sensors, checks the measurements periodically with chemical analyses of the seawater, then sends the data by FTP to the NCEI approximately every three to four days. Physical Scientists at NCEI transform the dissolved oxygen measurements into contour maps, which identify areas of low oxygen, or hypoxia. During the cruise, as the data is received from the ship, NCEI generates new maps and publishes them on the web. The first map will usually cover an area off the Mississippi coast, successive maps will add areas of the continental shelf from Brownsville to Corpus Christi, and the final map will
usually cover the entire Texas-Louisiana-Mississippi coast. Maps are published every three
to four days from approximately June 22 to July 20.