THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 25, 1994 TAG: 9410250319
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUCK LENGTH: Long : 156 lines
By shooting infrared beams through the ocean, Carl Miller of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is counting particles of sand in saltwater.
By rolling an elongated tricycle along the shore and monitoring global positioning satellites 10,000 miles away, Rob Holman of Oregon State University is creating a three-dimensional profile of this Outer Banks beach.
By sucking plankton off the ocean floor with a special pump she designed, Cheryl Ann Butman of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute is collecting millions of microscopic clam larvae to see how they ride the waves.
These scientists are part of the world's largest near-shore research experiment - DUCK 94 - being conducted this month at the Corps of Engineers' waterways station at this Outer Banks resort community.
``The area between 1 and 30 meters offshore is hardly ever scientifically studied because it's so difficult to get sensitive instruments in there,'' said Butman, a lead investigator with the Massachusetts institute.
``With an experiment of this scope and the types of equipment they have here, we are finally able to get measurements of both biological and physical processes over a relatively long period of time. ``This is the best study of near-shore activities that's ever been done.''
More than 100 researchers from the United States, Canada and Great Britain are gathered at the 1,840-foot-long Duck pier for the three-week conference.
The federally funded program cost taxpayers about $15 million.
Results of the research could:
Alter the way engineers design bridges.
Help people pick sites for beach nourishment programs.
Improve projections about where the coast might erode.
Determine how and why sandbars move.
Predict what effect rock jetties might have on Oregon Inlet.
``Work from this experiment will be very, very helpful in terms of figuring out how sand moves and where it might go,'' said Bill Dennis of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Earlier this month, Dennis was helping Miller create computerized graphs of the ocean floor by studying sand samples. An official from the corps' Wilmington branch, Dennis designed the rock groin on the south end of Oregon Inlet.
``The more data scientists can collect,'' Dennis said, ``the better we will all be in modeling future ocean projects.''
Scientists simultaneously are conducting at least 35 separate experiments on the 176-acre federally owned facility in Duck. Researchers placed nearly 500 data collection instruments along the beach and under the ocean. High-tech devices stretch from the dunes across the continental shelf - about 60 miles offshore.
``We brought in 10 trailers and 80 computers to support everyone involved in this project,'' said William Birkemeier, chief of the corps' 15-year-old Duck research station. ``The scientists shipped so many special instruments and equipment that the local Federal Express company had to bring in a bigger truck. This whole experiment grew much larger than we ever predicted.''
The pier's 12 full-time employees spent three years planning DUCK 94. They scheduled the conference for October, hoping for turbulent weather. But they did not expect the good fortune of having a storm blow in during the experiment.
For more than a week, researchers retrieved buoys blown back to shore, repositioned instruments tossed about in the surf and even shimmied up 40-foot poles to clean salt spray off camera lenses.
Equipment - much of which was anchored under water - had to withstand gale force winds and 10-foot waves.
``Some of the experiments will have to stay on hold until the winds die down,'' Birkemeier said as sand pummeled the beach-front station. ``But really, this is a wonderful opportunity to study storm and beach dynamics. Ultimately, we want to do better with understanding sand movement.''
An impressive array of instruments has been assimilated to collect data. Underwater acoustic sensors record the sound of breaking waves. Dual rotating sonar beams help graph three-dimensional shifts in the ocean floor. Nine small boats, a 150-foot oceanographic research vessel, a metal surf sled and a 35-foot-tall Coastal Research Amphibious Buggy - the CRAB - all carried scientists and equipment into the sea. A researcher rode on the outside of a helicopter, dropping yellow buoys far offshore in the overhead waves to help chart current movements.
Additional data came from photographs from NASA's space shuttle.
Throughout the experiment, scientists are recording wave heights and forces, current speeds and directions; sand movement and deposits; water temperature, salinity and suspended sediment content; storm surges; and dozens of other oceanographic indicators. One researcher is studying shallow capillary currents that run along the sea's surface. All data is linked to a single clock so researchers can share information - and remain completely accurate in their calculations.
``Almost all of our research is interrelated in some way,'' said Steve Elgar, a professor at Washington State University. Elgar is trying to determine whether ripples along the ocean floor move sand to and from shore. ``We can't study waves without studying water and sand. We need other researchers' data to help with our calculations.
``Plus,'' Elgar said, ``it really helps to be able to share all our perspectives, come up with different interpretations, talk about conflicting theories. We're all very competitive. But we share a single goal: to collect the best near-shore data possible.''
A second group of researchers, working on the Coastal Ocean Processes conference - CoOp - are gathering information about biological aspects of near-shore ecosystems. By studying larvae of clams, crabs, worms and snails, they hope to gain a better understanding of how ocean critters live, move and spawn.
Initially, each researcher will be responsible for his or her own DUCK 94 reports. Birkemeier said it might be years before all the data is even understood. But the ultimate goal is to produce one single conference paper.
``We'd like to publish one journal to include most of the scientific papers which come out of this experiment,'' said Thomas Kinder, manager of the Office of Naval Research's Coastal Dynamics Program. Kinder's naval office supplied about half of the grant money for DUCK 94.
``The Navy wants to learn how to find mines better - that was our practical interest in this conference,'' Kinder said. ``We hope to get a better understanding of how the waves drive currents and move sediment. That way, we can learn how mines might move in the ocean, how they might become buried, how the water's visibility can be affected, whether we can use acoustic tracking methods to find them offshore.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff color photos by DREW C. WILSON
Rob Holman of Oregon State University rolls a dolly along the beach
to measure its contours with the help of satellites.
Scientists drive the CRAB - a 35-foot-tall Coastal Research
Amphibious Buggy - into the surf at Duck.
Staff map
Duck, N.C.
For copy of map, see microfilm
DUCK 94
Funded with $15 million in grants from the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, the Office of Naval Research, the U.S. Geological Survey
and the Naval Research Laboratory, the three-week DUCK 94 scientific
research conference is being conducted this month at the Corps'
research pier in Duck, N.C.
More than 100 scientists from the United States, Canada and Great
Britain are staying on the Outer Banks for the experiment - the
world's largest gathering of near-shore researchers.
Scientific companies Arete Associates, Neptune Sciences, Inc., and
SIRAD, Inc. also are participating in the experiment.
Data gathered during the conference is assimilated and graphed
almost immediately. Results are sent to Internet computer
communications and the World Web computer network daily. The Weather
Channel will air a special report on the conference during the week
of Nov. 7 to 11.
For more information, call the Duck research pier (919) 261-3511.
KEYWORDS: DUCK 94
by CNB