Real-Time Bay Information
Moment-to-moment information on air and water conditions in the San Francisco Bay region is now available free of charge on the Internet. Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System (P.O.R.T.S.) provides observations, updated every six minutes, of tides (water level), currents, winds, air pressure, water and air temperature, and salinity and specific gravity from sensor stations around the Bay. This information is valuable as a safety program for merchant shippers, but is also useful for fishers, recreational boaters, wind surfers, scientists, and others. It is offered by the nonprofit Marine Exchange of the San Francisco Bay Region, in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey, NOAA’s National Ocean Service, and the California Office of Oil Spill Prevention and Response. The observations are presented as raw data and in graphic displays, maps, and models. Short-term forecasts of tides and currents are also shown, along with comparisons of observed and predicted data. Continued funding for the program depends on the number of users.
P.O.R.T.S. data are available at www.sfmx.org or by phone: (707) 642-4337. For more information, call Bruce Clarke at Marine Exchange: (415) 441-6600. 
Secret Science Revealed
This issue of Coast & Ocean (the original print version) includeds an article about the Corona Project, a top-secret U.S. government satellite surveillance program that operated from Vandenberg Air Force Base from 1958 to 1972, and developed technology that led to GIS and GPS systems and much more. All Corona photography is now declassifed and available from the U.S. Geological Survey. Online images can be seen at edcwww.cr.usgs.gov/webglis—click on "Corona satellite photography." More information on the project and its applications can be found at www.geog.ucsb.edu/~kclarke/Corona/Corona.html.
Satellite imagery using the latest technology can be seen at two new NASA websites: high-resolution images from Landsat 7, launched in April 1999, at ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/LANDSAT/CAMPAIGN _DOCS/MAIN EDUCATION.HTML; and images from a variety of satellites at earthobservatory.nasa.gov.
