In this activity you will go to the P.O.R.T.S. site, access a set of data, rename and copy it to a folder on your computer or send it directly to your printer. You will do this at approximately the same time of day for 5 consecutive days. You will also answer questions regarding these data each day.
Objective: Read, interpret and identify trends from data.
1. Go to the P.O.R.T.S. site and scroll down to the chart entitled Tampa Bay P.O.R.T.S. Data Summary. As stated in the chart, data marked with a yellow dot are temporarily unavailable. We will use data from the Port Manatee station but if this is unavailable at the time you begin collecting data for this activity, you may substitute another station for your study.
2. We will be recording data for Tides and Meteorological information for Port Manatee.
a. Click on Tides data button for Port Manatee.
b. Before studying the data save the graph picture on this page to the desktop. First, create a new folder on your desktop and name it "Data". Save the graph by holding down your mouse on the image and selecting Download Image To Disk(for Mac users). PC users should right click and select Save Picture As from the pop up menu. Rename this picture by deleting its current name up to “.gif” and type the new name as follows: - the new name should have this format - PtMan_July071999_Tides.gif. You will need to do this for two graphs on each page. Be sure to give them different names. Use PtMan_Date_Tides.gif and PtMan_Date_Elevation.gif You will repeat this operation as you visit this site for five consecutive days.
c. Now let's take a look at the data you have for the first day. Study the charts; then fill in the appropriate information and answer the following questions:
Date: __/__/__
Time: Zulu __________ EST __________
Station ID _________________________
Latitude _________________________
Longitude _________________________
Check wind speed
What was the maximum wind speed during the past 24 hours? _______________ m.p.s
At what time? ____________________ Zulu
At what time? ____________________ EST
What was the wind direction at this time? ________
What wais the maximum wind speed during the strongest gusts during the past 24 hours?
____________________m.p.s.
At what time? _______________ Zulu
At what time? _______________ EST
d. Now let's take a look at the chart which shows Elevation Above MLLW at Port Manatee.
Remember that the data are given for the past 24 hours. The red line indicates data for the current day. The green line indicates data for the previous day. therefore if you are doing your data check in the morning, most of your data line will be green - data from the previous day. If you are doing your data check in the afternoon, most of your data line will be red - data from the current day. The time of day you choose in not important. What is important is that you check data at the same time each day. This will avoid data loss over the 5-day interval and also allow for easier comparison of the data from graph to graph.
Remember, the yellow line represents the astronomical tide. This is the tide change which is caused by the movement of the earth, moon, and sun. Comparing this to the actual tide change (the red and green lines), we can see how local conditions of geography and meteorology affect tides.
Fill in the following information.
Within the past 24 hours, what is the measure of low tide and high tides and the times they occur?
High tide __________ m, time __________ Zulu __________ EST
Low tide __________ m, time __________ Zulu __________ EST
High tide __________ m, time __________ Zulu __________ EST
Low tide __________ m, time __________ Zulu __________ EST
Our area usually experiences two high tides and two low tides each 24 hours. What
kind of wave does this graph? ______________________
What does this wave frequency represent? ________________________________
What does the waves magnitude represent in relation to the tide? _______________
__________________________________________________________________
E. Click on the Meteorological Info. for Port Manatee. Compare this information with that from the data recorded. Write a short statement comparing the types of data presented at these two sites.
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
Remember to check these charts for 5 consecutive days at the same time each day. Copy the page to your data folder and rename the copy according to the instructions above. Also remember to record data and answer questions above for each day’s data collected. You can simplify the recording of data by copying this data page to your data folder for each day’s data, and naming the file appropriately.