In February 2011, the Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science (CBI), Division of Nearshore Research (DNR), at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, through a partnership with the NOAA’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) completed the installation of two (2) Sentinels of the Coast water level stations in Texas that will become part of the Texas Coastal Ocean Observation Network (TCOON). The Sentinels, installed at Texas Point and the Galveston Entrance Channel North Jetty, were funded by the US Army Corps of Engineers due to the destruction of existing monitoring stations by Hurricane Ike in 2008.

After the passage of Ike, the US Army Corps of Engineers initiated a requirement for the installation of stations that would withstand the forces of storm surge along the Texas coast, and the CO-OPS designed Sentinel was the answer. Through an active partnership between DNR, the US Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District, and CO-OPS, the Sentinel design was provided and approved for installation. CO-OPS provided site specific Sentinel designs to DNR along with onsite technical representation during the construction and installation of the Texas Sentinels so that each structure met the CO-OPS standards. The DNR is in the process of upgrading all TCOON stations with instrumentation that meets CO-OPS National Water Level Observation Network (NWLON) operational standards. For this reason, CO-OPS provided instrumentation for the two new locations with the goal of identifying them as NWLON stations in the future.

The installation of instrumentation at the Texas Point and Galveston Entrance Channel North Jetty Sentinel stations should be completed by May 2011. Both stations will be operational before the 2011 hurricane season. DNR currently provides operational support for all TCOON stations, and for all 10 NOAA Ocean Service, Office of Ocean & Coastal Resource Management NWLON stations in Texas (under contract with CO-OPS). For further information on the TCOON and CO-OPS water level observation networks, see the following links:

• Texas Coastal Ocean Observation Network (TCOON)

•NOAA Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS)