Regional Partners

The success of a U.S. IOOS depends on the coordinated development of observing and prediction systems.  These systems will link observations to the data and information needs of multiple users at the global, national, regional, and local scales.

IOOS Regional Associations (RAs) and Regional Coastal Ocean Observing Systems (RCOOSs) provide a vital and vast network to identify and address regional priorities, expand the coverage of the existing the U.S. IOOS, and ensure that the system develops based on a strong customer focus and connection.  Each of the eleven RCOOSs (see Table 1) is comprised of many, smaller observing systems, as well as a regional management structure responsible for collaboration and coordination within the region. 

RAs provide the primary framework to coordinate ocean observing activities and are responsible for the design and coordinated operation of sub-regional coastal ocean observing systems within their respective geographies.  RAs work with user communities at the state and local levels to ensure that the regional system is designed to be as useful as possible. For a list of current RA Development Projects, please see the NOAA Coastal Services Center.

Table 1. Regional Associations
RA Name	Geographic Extent
Alaska Ocean Observing System (AOOS)	Alaska
Caribbean Regional Association (CaRA)	Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the island of Navassa
Central and Northern California Ocean Observing System (CeNCOOS)	Central and Northern California
Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS)	The Great Lakes
Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS)	Gulf coast of Florida to Texas
Mid-Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association (MACOORA)	Cape Cod, Massachusetts to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina
Northeast Regional Association (NERA)	Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia
Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems (NANOOS)	Oregon and Washington
Pacific Islands Integrated Ocean Observing System (PacIOOS)	Hawaii and Pacific Islands
Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association (SECOORA)	North Carolina to the Atlantic coast of Florida
Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System (SCCOOS)	Southern California Bight

Support and Development of IOOS Regional Capacity

NOAA’s Coastal Services Center (CSC) assists the NOAA IOOS Program with the implementation of the IOOS regional component, managing and coordinating NOAA's annual, regional funding and project selection processes.  NOAA CSC also works with regional partners and the NOAA IOOS Program to ensure that the regional IOOS capacity develops in a manner consistent with and providing an effective contribution to the larger U.S. IOOS. This involves both programmatic and data management-related regional support, including standards and data models, access to RAs and local observatories, and a Regional Observation Registry.  CSC's IOOS Regional Observation Registry provides the operational status and distribution of regional observations to facilitate discovery and utilization of observation data.

 

To enhance regional observing systems, NOAA funded several competitively selected projects in FY'07 that supported four main priority areas:

• building capacity for regional ocean observing systems;
• establishing coordinated regional observing and data management infrastructure;
• developing applications and products for regional stakeholders; and
• establishing regional and national data management and communications protocols.

 

Some of the FY'07 regional projects enhance ocean and coastal observing capacity to address an issue or challenge of interest to a particular geographic region.  Others, while managed in a specific region, provide benefits at a more national scale. 

 

Using the descriptions of products and services in the funded proposal submissions, NOAA developed a series of fact sheets. The two fact sheets below provide descriptions of current IOOS Regional projects and proposed outputs.

 

• FY2007 National Cross-cutting IOOS Development (pdf, 74kb)
• FY2007 Regional IOOS Development (pdf, 185kb)

• FY 2007 Regional Fact Sheets (by region):
  
  
  • Alaska(pdf, 45 kb)
  • Central and Northern California (pdf, 55kb)
  • Great Lakes(pdf, 56kb)
  • Gulf of Mexico (pdf, 51kb)
  • Mid-Atlantic (pdf, 64kb)
  • Northeast Atlantic (pdf, 63kb)
  • Pacific Islands (pdf, 59kb)
  • Pacific Northwest(pdf, 57kb)
  • Southeast Atlantic (pdf, 73kb)
  • Southern California (pdf, 69kb)

 

NEXT: Regional Partners (continued)

 

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