Greg Dusek, a graduate student in the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill will present his study “Rip Current Observation, Study and Prediction at Kill Devil Hills, NC” on February 9 at 6 p.m. in the Kill Devil Hills Town Hall. This study was performed in partnership with Kill Devil Hills Ocean Rescue under the guidance of David Elder in an effort to improve our understanding of rip current formation and to address the need for an improved forecast system.
An observational study of rip currents, beach morphology, waves and the near shore ocean bottom was conducted from 2001-2009 in the town of Kill Devil Hills with the support of KDH Ocean Rescue, US Army Corps of Engineers Field Research Facility and the UNC Coastal Studies Institute. This project was undertaken in an effort to fill a gap in rip current research regarding how rip currents vary over time and space, and what physical factors have the greatest influence on this variability. An improved forecast system can be generated using these variables, potentially reducing the number of rip current- related rescues and drowning.
Dusek will focus his presentation on the field work that was completed in KDH in 2008-2009 with an overview of some results from those observations. David Elder from KDH Ocean Rescue will present the importance of this project from a lifeguard’s perspective, and their involvement in the project.
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