|
SEARCH ALF WEB
Help ALF
Today!
American Lighthouse Foundation, Inc.
P.O. Box 565
Rockland,
Maine 04841
Phone: 207-594-4174
Fax: 207-596-1091
info@lighthousefoundation.org
The American Lighthouse Foundation is a
Non-Profit 501(c)(3) Organization dedicated to the
preservation of America's historic
lighthouses & lightships and
their heritage.
|
| |
| |
| |
|
|
|
| |
FOWIL Partners With GoMOOS
By Sheri Poftak
|
|
| |
|
No, we are not
cheering on a team of chickens and moose in a foot race. GoMoos is the
acronym for the Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System. The bygone
light keepers at Wood Island were also Gulf of Main ocean observers
watching for shipwrecks and mariners in distress, so today’s partnership
forged |
Photo by Bob Trapani, Jr.
Wood Island Lighthouse
|
|
|
| |
between the
Friends of Wood Island Lighthouse (FOWIL) and GoMoos is a natural fit.
The Friends of Wood Island Lighthouse is a new chapter of the
American Lighthouse Foundation as of 2003. The group is excited about their
partnership with GoMoos, which they see as a modern extension of the
navigational aids that lighthouses provided to mariners in centuries past.
For many years, Maine’s lighthouses have afforded mariners with an
“instrument of safety,” a bright indicator to ships of their location and |
|
| |
|
 |
proximity to the rocky shore, especially
during the night and dark foggy days. GoMoos too is an “instrument of
safety,” a cutting edge, ultra modern, high tech version for today’s
mariners. A system of 10 buoys through out the Gulf of Maine
continuously collect data such as barometric pressure, wave height,
periods between waves, wave |
|
|
| |
direction and currents. This information is then streamlined, via high
speed radar antennas, to mainland telephone lines where it can be sent
onward to the ultimate user – commercial and recreational mariners as well
as scientists, educators and others. Wood Island provides a land-based
location for two of the antennas needed for data transmission.
Wood Island’s location is optimal for both of these “instruments of safety”
– the lighthouse itself and GoMoos. In 1808, the marine maps showing
routes to Winter Harbor, a very busy fishing port, and the Saco |
|
| |
|
River, a bustling hive of sea born commerce, brought
ships to both the north and south side of Wood Island. A lighthouse on
the east end of Wood Island could readily identify both Saco River and
Winter Harbor. The GoMoos buoys need CODAR (Coastal Ocean Dynamics
Application Radar) in order to stream their up-to-the-minute ocean data
to the mainland and on. Wood Island was ideally located to perform this
task for several of the GoMoos buoys. Installed on the island are two
high-frequency radar receiving and transmission antennas. One pole like
antenna is about 15 |
Photo courtesy of Karl Schlenker
Transmitting antenna (right) for
the
Coastal Ocean Dynamic Applications Radar
|
|
|
| |
feet in height and
the second approximately 40 feet in height sited approximately 200 feet
apart.
Lighthouse keepers
maintained the flashing beacons atop the towers at their facilities while
the “keepers” of the GoMoos equipment keep the information about the seas
streaming to those who need it for safe voyage and marine work. Both types
of keepers battle the difficulties of |
|
| |
|
Photo courtesy of Karl Schlenker
Receiving antenna for the
Coastal
Ocean Dynamic Applications Radar
|
a harsh environment on the equipment. Lighthouse keepers
became search and rescue personnel simply because they were usually the
“first on the scene” for nearby shipwrecks. GoMoos, with the help of her
attendant “keepers,” is an important advisor for the search and rescue
teams of today providing key information about the surface of the ocean
and probable location of mariners in trouble.
Interestingly enough both Wood Island Lighthouse and
GoMOOS are educators. The past being illuminated by the educational
programs of FOWIL, and GoMoos |
|
|
| |
offering the
possibility for current curriculums to be enhanced by the incorporation of
real time oceanographic data.
FOWIL is happy to be in partnership with GoMoos considering it to be a
natural extension of the historic mission of the US Lighthouse Service.
FOWIL would like to encourage readers to view the GoMoos website at
www.gomoos.org
Look way out onto the Gulf of Maine and see what is happening right now!!
|
|
| |
Photo by Bob Trapani, Jr.
Data buoys similar to those that
communicate with GoMOOS equipment
at Wood Island Light Station
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
