The NOAA U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) awarded CARICOOS $2.7 million to maintain and enhance ocean and coastal observations in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. CARICOOS is one of eleven coastal ocean observation systems and regional associations that together with federal agencies constitute the national coastal component of the Integrated Oceanic Observing System from the United States.  CARICOOS provides coastal ocean data and forecasts from a variety of sources including satellites, ocean instruments and numerical models to give the user an integrated view of past, present and forecasted ocean conditions in the US Caribbean region through the web page https://www.caricoos.org/.

For the next year, CARICOOS will continue to support 5 data buoys, 5 high frequency radars, 15 meteorological stations, 1 MapCO² buoy, 4 ocean gliders and 2 operational models that compromise the CARICOOS ocean observing system. The additional funding over previous years responds to IOOS support for restoring the CARICOOS observing capabilities to pre-Irma and Maria status, but also to enhance glider based upper ocean observing for hurricane forecasting and HF radar surface current observations in the region.  Furthermore, additional funds were assigned for the development of products integrating information making it readily available to our stakeholders and for initiating efforts toward informing researchers, environmental managers and the citizenship in general on ecosystem properties such as biodiversity.