Water-Level and Wave Measurements from the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana, 2011-2013

Description: This page provides access to measurements of atmospheric pressure and water levels made by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) at several locations on or adjacent to Chandeleur Island, Louisiana in 2011, 2012 and 2013 as part of the Barrier Island Evolution Research (BIER) program. Simple, inexpensive pressure sensors mounted in shallow wells were buried in the beach and left to record. Underwater pressure recorders were deployed at the north tip of the Island on the tower and near the other buried loggers at the pelican site. Additionally, a pressure sensor was mounted on the tower to provide a local atmospheric pressure measurement for correcting the submerged pressure records. The objective of this field effort was to deploy relatively inexpensive pressure sensors in a rapidly evolving barrier island system to directly measure inundation levels on both sides of the barrier island during seasonal and storm events. These water-level measurements will be used to validate numerical models and to help interpret the morphological response of barrier islands to storms.

Duration: Jul-Sept 2011, Jul 2012 - Jul 2013

USGS PI: C.R. Sherwood

Publications:

Dickhudt, P., Sherwood, C., Dewitt, N., 2014. USGS Water-level and Wave Measurements in the Chandeleur Islands, 2012 and 2013. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2014-1246. (Available online at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2014/1246/)

Field Activity Reports: 2012-026-FA, 2013-011-FA, 2013-024-FA.

Explore where measurements were made and the kinds of data collected during this
experiment using GoogleEarth (V4 or better required) and chandeleur_13.kml.

Click to see a larger image of the map