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March - April 2019 4 A VIRTUAL CHECKUP OF A RIVER’S VITAL SIGNS by Steve Stannes T hose who teach about the Hudson swear that the best way to engage their audiences with the river is to gather on its waters or its shores and “get wet” – not necessarily by immersion, but by hauling a seine net, collecting a water sample to check its salinity, or tracking the rise and fall of its tides. These teachers also agree that as often as one visits the river, it is never the same. Weather, currents, tides, birds, fish, boats – a seemingly infinite set of variables combine each day to make the Hudson dynamic and fascinating. That said, a visit to one place on one day offers only a limited picture of this 153 mile long arm of the sea. And even the most avid river educators are not eager to get out on the Hudson in a nor’easter or on subfreezing February days – nor are scientists, anglers, boaters, and others interested in the river. Technology and the internet now offer a virtual alternative allowing river lovers to supplement and inform their real-time experiences on the Hudson. Using computers or smart phones, they can access information about river conditions through the Hudson River Environmental Conditions Observing System (HRECOS). This sensor network collects hydrological and weather data 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year at 14 sites from Manhattan up into the Mohawk River. These data are available for free anytime at www. hrecos.org . HRECOS began operation in 2008 through a partnership involving government agencies, academic institutions, research institutes, and non-profit groups. According to its mission statement, the network is “intended to provide new insights on the functioning of the Hudson River system; inform management decisions; support formal and informal education; support safe and efficient river navigation; and serve as a window on the Hudson to engage the general public” for years to come. Planning a sail? Going striper fishing? Worried about low water at your marina during a blowout tide? Using HRECOS, one can see what’s happening on the Hudson in near real-time. Measurements are generally made every 15 minutes, though data may be transmitted only hourly for posting to the web. The HRECOS Current Conditions page is where the action is. It has dropdown menus that allow a user to choose a station and parameter of interest – Piermont Pier (met, for meteorology) and Wind Speed, for example – and then click on Plot 1 to see near real-time data on a graph. Want to know the wind direction as well? Select Piermont Pier (met) as Station 2 and Wind Direction as Parameter 2, then click on Plot 1-2 to see both wind speed and direction on one graph. One can also compare conditions at two different locations – Salinity at Piermont Pier (hydro, for hydrology) and at West Point, for instance. As a default, Current Conditions graphs present four days’ worth of data, but one can use Start and End Date functions to extend perspective (what is the trend in water temperature over the last few weeks?) or examine conditions during an unusual event (current velocities at Albany on January 25, 2019, when flooding and ice wrenched eight vessels free from their moorings near Troy and sent them careening into bridges downriver). In addition to Current Conditions data, the HRECOS website has a lesson plans page with links to resources useful in education. While intended for teachers, PowerPoint presentations available for free download here offer a handy introduction to using the observing system and its capabilities. So next time you’re stuck at home but wishing you could be out on river, open up your computer or smart phone and let HRECOS take you there. About the Author: Steve Stanne began teaching about the Hudson in 1980 aboard the sloop Clearwater, and was the organization’s education director for 19 years. In 1999 he joined NYSDEC’s Hudson River Estuary Program, coordinating its education efforts through 2017. Now retired, Steve continues to lecture and write about the estuary.