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Center Description
In 1991, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) established the Commonwealth Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography (CCPO) at Old Dominion University to promote research on the physical oceanography of the coastal ocean and related oceanographic processes. The coastal ocean is the focus of increasing research for reasons relating to both short-term anthropogenic impacts and long-term global change. Fundamental questions about coastal ocean physics need to be answered if human impact and global change are to be assessed appropriately.
Housed in Innovation Research Building 1, CCPO is located in the ODU Village. The Center provides office and laboratory facilities for 13 full-time faculty and their complement of research associates, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and support staff. Oceanographic observing systems include CTDs, current meters, and ADCPs. The Center has an agreement with NOAA/NOS that facilitates the interchange of local environmental data. The Center has a state-of-the-art computer system based on Sun, SGI, and PC X61/Windows/Linux workstations. Advanced computational and visualization software is provided. A full-time computer systems engineer maintains the system and provides support for CCPO researchers.
Through funding which allows faculty, visitors, students, consultants, and research associates to focus their efforts on specific research areas, CCPO supports and facilitates innovative research on the physical oceanography of the coastal ocean and other coastal related processes. Research supported by the Center includes particle trajectory analysis, large-scale along-shore flow, modeling cross-shelf transport mechanisms, effects of buoyancy forcing, and description of coastal ocean systems. The Center is particularly interested in the coupling of realistic physical models to ecosystems models in pioneering and innovative ways. CCPO also participates in cost sharing activities with Federal and Commonwealth agencies on research of common interest.
As a high-technology research center with a total operating budget of approximately $2,100,000, CCPO makes a considerable impact on the economy of Hampton Roads. The Center also conducts outreach activities through the local public television station (WHRO), museums, and school systems in the surrounding area.
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