The Sofar Spotter buoy installed by the Dauphin Island Sea Lab earlier this summer as part of the Alabama Real-Time Coastal Observation System (ARCOS) is back in place after its mooring line was cut. The buoy reported its first off-watch message on Aug. 9, 2025, and could have been accidentally cut by a boater’s prop. Fortunately, the buoy was recovered the next day by the University of South Alabama and returned to the Lab.

By Friday, Aug. 15, the buoy was back on station about nine miles south of Dauphin Island, reports PI Dr. Brian Dzwonkowski. The buoy — the second-most visited station on the ARCOS website since its installation — was funded by GCOOS as part of the Supporting Coastal Resilience with Inflation Reduction Act supplemental NOAA-IOOS award. It collects and reports significant wave height, mean wave direction, surface water temperature and barometric pressure. NWS-Alabama requested the buoy to enhance their rip current advisories and validate their predictive models. Its data will be added to the GCOOS Data Portal.

• Check it out here

DISL is also working on adding a second GCOOS-funded Sofar buoy aimed at enhancing public safety south of Pensacola Beach. The deployment is pending permit approval.

• ARCOS network

While bringing the Sofar buoy back to station, the DISL team also did some work on another nearby buoy located about one nautical mile east of the Sofar buoy that measures wind speed, direction, air temperature, relative humidity and barometric pressure, along with hydrographic parameters — water temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen.