A new, collaborative National Science Foundation research grant awarded to Dr. Mike Muglia and his colleagues aims to shed light on small-scale oceanographic processes in the southernmost waters of the Mid-Atlantic Bight, a region that includes the eastern U.S. continental shelf area from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Muglia leads the Oceanography and Marine Hydrokinetic Energy Lab at the Coastal Studies Institute. The project team, led by Dr. Anthony Kirincich at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in conjunction with Dr. Harvey Seim (UNC- Chapel Hill) and Muglia, seeks to understand how eddies, fronts, and wind forcing affect the exchange of water masses, nutrients, and pollutants across the continental shelf at the shallower, narrower southern end of the Mid-Atlantic Bight.
Water masses such as the South Atlantic Bight (SAB) and Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB) Shelf Waters converge at the Hatteras Front. (Image courtesy of D. Savidge, A. Boyette, Skidaway Institute of Oceanography.)
Eddies are circular currents that form off of larger currents like the Gulf Stream. They are not permanent, but often transport sediment, nutrients, and marine life.
The funding will enable the team to collect observations of ocean surface currents with coastal, land-based, high-frequency radar systems and assess the data alongside satellite-based images and in situ water column samples taken by the OOI’s Coastal Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB) Pioneer Array. The array, currently positioned off the Outer Banks, consists of a variety of oceanographic observing equipment, buoys, and other mobile apparatus. Together, the elements of the array collect physical, chemical, geological, and biological data that can, in turn, provide insight for tracking, predicting, managing, and adapting to changes in the marine environment.
Various elements of the Pioneer Array located along the Outer Banks from Duck to Cape Hatteras, as highlighted on the map above, will be utilized for the newly funded project.
To put it simply, “We will examine the space and time scales of small-scale features over the southern Mid-Atlantic Bight shelf and their impact on exchange across the shelf via a multi-faceted observational approach,” says Muglia.
Within the area of study, water circulation and stirring are quite complex and are dictated by a myriad of factors such as wind conditions, topographic effects, the varying location of the Gulf Stream, and plumes of both fresh and saline waters from the Chesapeake Bay and Albemarle/Pamlico Estuarine Systems. The resulting environment provides a unique opportunity to study the exchange of heat, salt, and biologically important nutrients across the shelf.
The research team will utilize a high-frequency radar (HFR) system to assess fine-scale, spatially varied movement of water across the study site. The system, which consists of an antenna network, operates by transmitting high-frequency radio waves toward the ocean surface. The radio waves are reflected off the ocean surface by ocean waves. Subsequently, the system uses the Doppler-shifted, returning radio waves to measure the speed and direction of flow of the water moving through and around the study area.
The team will employ the HFR systems for three years and hourly ocean surface current measurements received from them, with other datasets from satellites and the Pioneer Array. Combining the many observations will provide the most holistic snapshot of exchange and the associated influences like eddies and fronts, as well as the mixing of different water masses across the southern Mid-Atlantic Bight.
The results of their work will improve understanding of small-scale oceanographic processes by providing insight into the characteristics and drivers of water stirring and exchange at finer scales over the southern Mid-Atlantic Bight. Their findings may also reveal critical information about biologically important exchange- for example, the transport of larval fish- across the shelf, as well as carbon transfer to the deep ocean. Finally, the results of the study will provide baseline information and methods for future ocean exchange research.
A HFR station like those that will be used for the project is currently stationed at Jennette’s Pier. Pictured is a transmitting antenna.
An example of processed data from an HFR network. The small arrows represent water flow direction, and their colors indicate the speed at which the water moved in centimeters per second. The red arrows highlight where the fast-flowing, variable Gulf Stream was located at the time of measurement. Finally, the underlying grey scale denotes water depth in meters.
While the study will have many benefits, Muglia is particularly excited about the prospect of learning more about estuary influences on shelf water exchange.
“I’m excited to learn more about the relative contributions from the Chesapeake Bay and the Albemarle/ Pamlico Estuary Systems, the two largest estuaries in the United States, to the shelf water in our region. This is a question that hasn’t previously been the focus of our past observation programs,” he says.
The preceding story first appeared in the Winter 2026 edition of CoastLines, published in January.
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