Subtidal to monthly timescales of variability for telemetered moorings in Puget Sound

The Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) maintains moorings in Puget Sound and Willapa Bay (Figure 1) as part of a more extensive monitoring program. Operational moorings provide near real-time data to the internet that can be useful for a variety of purposes, but most presently lack any real-time interpretation. The general public is less likely to learn anything directly from a stream of data (Figure 2) unless it is put into some kind of spatial or temporal context. We calculate anomalies in key parameters and track them as they transit between moorings or evolve with time. For example, a 3°C depression at a deep seaward station might show up several days later as a 1°C depression at a landward station despite the fact that all the landward temperatures are elevated relative to seaward; we highlight the anomaly. Actual flux determinations are impractical from a few fixed-point moorings because of lateral and vertical variations in transport throughout Puget Sound. We apply modern statistical techniques such as wavelet analysis and track anomalies in probabilistic temperature-salinity space to alert the public to statistically significant events, such as periodic intrusions of seawater.