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From the Director:

Welcome to June! This is a busy month with summer officially starting, the beginning of hurricane season, National Ocean Month and World Ocean Day, and LGBTQI+ Pride Month. 

NOAA predicts an above-normal 2022 Atlantic Hurricane Season and predicts a below-normal 2022 Central Pacific hurricane season this year. If you live near the coast, now is a good time to prepare and be ready for whatever the season will bring. To help prepare, listen to the National Ocean Service podcast to learn how NOS responds to hurricanes and what steps you can take to be ready. And check out IOOS Hurricane Season Resources here. 

As we celebrate our ocean this month, keep an eye on IOOS social media (we’re on facebook and twitter!) and join NOAA and NOS on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for features and highlights for #OceanMonthNOAA. The ocean is the defining feature on our blue planet. All life, including our own, exists because of the ocean. Our ocean is for everyone and IOOS promotes inclusivity in our ocean and coastal spaces. We take pride in providing science-based solutions through collaborative partnerships to address evolving economic, environmental, and social pressures on our ocean and coasts.

Thanks,
Carl

From the U.S. IOOS Office:

  • Successful IOOS Advisory Committee Public Meeting: The IOOS Advisory Committee held a public meeting on May 11th and 13th to begin deliberations on their next set of recommendations to NOAA and the IOOC. The first session was “Growing the New Blue Economy,” and included a briefing from Carl Gouldman (IOOS) and a wind energy panel featuring national and regional experts. The second session focused on “Climate Services” and included a briefing from Mark Osler (NOS) on NOAA’s ClimateReady Nation and a panel of regional experts. The final session on “Diversity, Inclusion, and Service Equity” featured a presentation on NOAA’s Equity Assessment from Nicholas Schmidt (OCM) and an update from the IOOS Association’s DEIA Fellow, Ashley Peiffer. The Committee submitted a recommendation to the IOOC to endorse the U.S. CLIVAR coastal climate signal workshop proposal submitted by the IOOS Association. The Committee is currently developing additional recommendations for deliberation at their fall public meeting.
  • Welcome Shaketa Malone: We are pleased to welcome Shaketa Malone to the IOOS team.  Shaketa will be serving as our Office Manager and will be part of the Regions, Budget, and Policy (RB&P) team.  Shaketa steps into a key role in the office, supporting a wide range of operations, both day to day and ad hoc.  Included in these are travel request and voucher reviews, managing supplies and non-accountable equipment, and providing the Ops Div and Advisory Committee with meeting support. Welcome Shaketa!  
  • From the IOOS Association: 
    • Help find the next IOOS Association Executive Director: The IOOS Association Board of Directors is leading a search for a new Executive Director. The IOOS Association’s long-time Executive Director, Josie Quintrell, is retiring this fall, starting a leadership transition over the next few months. This is a tremendous opportunity to grow the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System. The Executive Director position is now open. To learn more about the position and how to apply, click here.

Observation Subsystem and Sensor Technologies:

  • Surface Current Mapping
    • New Great Lakes HFR active! The first HF radar in the Great Lakes is located in the Straits of Mackinac where, operated by Michigan Technological University (MTU) researchers Lorelle and Guy Meadows, a single radar pair covers the waters on the west side of the Mackinac Bridge. Read more and connect to the data here.
    • HFR and Wave Measurement Capability: MARACOOS continues to develop the wave measurement capability of its high-frequency radar (HFR) network.  Currently three 13 MHz HFR stations report hourly wave measurements. NOAA Weather Forecast Office Philadelphia/Mt. Holly uses the HFR wave measurements in an operational forecast.  Example:  Lead Forecaster Sarah Johnson was using the HFR wave data because of a small craft advisory that was active on October 6, 2021 when seas were above five feet.  Quoting Forecaster Johnson:  “As is often the case with these tropical systems, the guidance tends to hang on to the higher waves a little bit longer than what actually happens.  And so we still have the small craft advisory up.”  By October 5, 2021 Hurricane Sam was northeast of Newfoundland.  The closest it came to New Jersey was on October 3, 2021 1200 UTC.  Sara used the HFR wave data to build her confidence to cancel the small craft advisory.  The HFR stations had better spatial coverage than the three buoys in the forecast area.  More recently, the HFR network measured wave heights in excess of 4 m during the recent Mothers’ Day Storm 2022.  The IOOS Surface Currents Program is working to expand the wave measurement capabilities and utility of the HFR network to other regions.
    • Save the Date! 12th ROWG Meeting: The ROWG Planning Committee is pleased to announce that the 12th Radiowave Operators Working Group (ROWG) meeting will be a hybrid in-person/virtual meeting at the ECU Coastal Studies Institute in Wanchese, North Carolina (https://www.coastalstudiesinstitute.org/)  Nov. 2–3, 2022 with a Radar Manufacturer Day on Nov. 4, 2022.  Feel free to forward this announcement to interested parties who may not be members of this list.

 

  • Gliders 
    • UG2 Updates:
      • UG2 Workshop Seattle ’22: The registration & call for abstracts for the 2022 UG2 Workshop in Seattle is now open! The deadline to submit an abstract has been extended to June 30, 2022. We welcome all abstract submissions relevant to the broader underwater glider community. This new deadline will serve as the final call for abstracts. This workshop will bring together the global underwater glider community to strengthen international collaboration through community dialogue, exchanges of information, sharing of experiences, and development of best practices to support the glider community. If you have any questions, please reach out to info@underwatergliders.org. Registration and Logistics:
        • Dates: September 20-22, 2022
        • Location: University of Washington Botanical Gardens | NHS Hall and Merrill Commons, Seattle, WA
      • Click here to join UG2
      • UG2 Glider Related Job Postings

 

  • Buoys & Moorings
    • Wave buoy back near Saipan: The Tanapag wave buoy was recently redeployed off Saipan! Click the link below to see wave height, period and direction. The buoy also provides sea surface temperature available here.
    • California Imaging FlowCytobot (IFCB) Network: More stations are continuing to come online, with about 7 stations running in real-time. Deployments at San Francisco Pier 17, Santa Cruz Wharf, MBARI Power Buoy, Stearns Wharf, Newport Beach Pier, Del Mar Mooring, and Scripps Pier. Data are available here. High-resolution data products with quantitative abundances of the major HAB taxa are coming soon!

 

  • Marine Life
    • MBON side event at the All-Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance Forum 2022: MBON Is co-hosting a side event at the forum Friday, June 3rd, at 9:30 am (Brasilia). The session will promote a dialogue about local stakeholder needs for, monitoring, information, and capacity development in different parts of the Atlantic. The goal is to identify similar needs and complementary approaches that require the integration of biology and ecosystem observations into ocean observing systems and open access to the information that is generated. Link to registration.
    • Twelfth Meeting of the Animal Telemetry Network (ATN) Steering Group, SG-12, convened May 6, 2022. SG-12, co-chaired by Sean Hayes (NMFS/Northeast Fisheries Science Center) and Bill Woodward (ATN Network Coordinator) with great support from Masha Edmonson (COL), brought the SG Members together to: I) Welcome new SG members from the Marine Mammal Commission: Merra Howe (replacing Sam Simmons) and Erin LaBrecque (alternate for Merra) II) Learn about the IOOS Marine Life Program Vision and funding, III) Hear reports from members on their telemetry activities, IV) Review ATN program updates and report on Actions from SG-11, V) Present Team Activity progress on developing ATN DAC Data Management Services to support Agency PIs, and VI) discuss the succession plan for the Network Coordinator. Meeting minutes will be available soon at https://ioos.noaa.gov/project/atn/. 
    • NOAA/NCEP/EMC Adjoint-based Data Impact System Reveals that Animal-Borne Ocean Profiles of Salinity and Temperature Have High Impacts on Reducing Model Forecast Error:  NOAA/NCEP/Environmental Modeling Center generates QC maps which provide a quick-look capability for data providers to see if their data are making it onto Global Telecommunications System (GTS) and into an operational ocean data assimilation system, and whether or not their data were accepted and used. The EMC also runs an adjoint-based data impact system that informs data providers of the importance of their data in the system. In particular, the data impact system demonstrates that animal-borne ocean profiles of temperature and salinity can have relatively large impacts on reducing model forecast error. Although these impacts can vary over time, it is believed that the large impacts are because the animals typically travel in ocean regions with high variability and which are poorly sampled by other observing systems.
    • FACT Network Biannual Meeting: The FACT network recently hosted a hybrid event for its summer meeting, May 17th – 19th, 2022 at the Brevard Zoo in Melbourne, FL. Sixty-five researchers and network partners were welcomed to enjoy a series of project updates and student presentations, as well as partner and sponsor talks provided by SECOORA, Innovasea and Lotek, and network updates provided by the Ocean Tracking Network (OTN), Animal Telemetry Network (ATN) and the Atlantic Cooperative Telemetry Network (ACT). The meeting marked the official launch of FACT’s new data visualization tool – DaViT and attendees also had the option to participate in OTN sponsored report writing and acoustic data analysis workshops. 
    • FACT Network Releases New Data Visualization Tool (DaViT): Telemetry users collect millions of lines of data while tracking animals. The DaViT is an interactive tool to summarize that data and show what we are learning. DaViT can be used to explore acoustically tagged species home range and distribution patterns, and visualize how these may change throughout the year. It can be used to see which species’ range overlaps with each other or with a particular area of interest. Use it to discover just how far these animals migrate. This new tool is fun and flexible. Check it out for yourself at: Data Visualization Tool (DaViT) - SECOORA. For more information, contact the FACT network at Data@theFACTNetwork.org or watch this recent webinar. 
    • Marine Life 2030: building global knowledge of marine life for local action in the Ocean Decade: The first article in the ICES JMS series on Co-Design in the Ocean Decade has been published and highlights the Marine Life 2030 Decade programme: https://academic.oup.com/icesjms/advance-article/doi/10.1093/icesjms/fsac084/6589469 
    • Land-based Acoustic Receivers Improve Animal Tracking off Hawai‘i Island: The Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology shark research group recently installed land-based acoustic receivers (motes) on high ground at three sites along the Kona Coast of Hawai‘i Island. These motes can significantly increase the data acquired from satellite-linked transmitters on animals such as turtles, whales and sharks. These motes will augment the units already installed on Maui and O‘ahu, and there are plans to install additional units on Kaua‘i. The resulting array will greatly enhance telemetry capabilities throughout the Main Hawaiian Islands islands.
    • Explore Sounds from South Carolina’s estuaries: A new SECOORA web page allows you to listen to a variety of marine animal sounds – including bottlenose dolphin – from South Carolina. These sounds are captured by passive acoustic recorders deployed by Dr. Eric Montie and his team from the University of South Carolina Beaufort. Read more here.

Data Management and Cyberinfrastructure (DMAC) Subsystem and Tools Built on IOOS Data:

  • IOOS and Google Summer of Code: IOOS received 4 slots for this year’s Google Summer of Code (GSoC). Google Summer of Code is a global, online mentoring program focused on introducing new contributors to open source software development. GSoC contributors work on a 12+ week programming project with the guidance of mentors from their open source organization. You can view the projects for IOOS here. The accepted projects for IOOS this year include:
  • Wrapping up the U.S. IOOS Code Sprint: On the last week of April, some 40 coders, programmers, researchers, and developers gathered — in person and virtually — to put their skills to the test and tackle emerging themes in ocean observing data management. The second U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System Code Sprint, hosted by the Great Lakes Observing System, was a resounding success, drawing participants from all over the globe and resulting in five new processes and tools to continue to advance our ability to produce, integrate, and communicate high quality ocean, coastal and Great Lakes information. Read more here. 
  • Register Now Registration for the 2022 IOOS DMAC Virtual Workshop! June 14-16, 2022: The 2022 DMAC Meeting will take place virtually in the afternoons (1:00 - 5:00 PM ET) from Tuesday, June 14 through Thursday, June 16. Register for the meeting here. For this year's virtual meeting, we've planned a daily schedule including two hours of presentations, followed by concurrent hour-long breakout sessions on DMAC topics of interest.  More information about both presentation and breakout topics is available in the draft agenda posted on our DMAC community web site (https://ioos.noaa.gov/project/dmac/).
  • QARTOD
    • IOOS QC Tutorial at Regional Training Workshop: Matt will host a tutorial on the ioos_qc package during the Regional Training Workshop on Observing the Coastal and Marginal Seas in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO), from 7-9 June 2022 which will be hosted in Maputo, Mozambique and online. The purpose of the workshop is to encourage the countries bordering the WIO (including marginal seas) to be engaged in coastal observing programs and research as effective partners, and will also identify the training needs and capacity building in the participating countries and provide the opportunity for starting countries to learn from others who have already established programs. IOOS will provide a tutorial on the ioos_qc package, providing background on QARTOD, and exemplifying the importance of standards and data sharing via tools like ERDDAP. Materials for the tutorial can be found in this GitHub repository and slides are available here.
    • Ocean Best Practice System Update: Another new task team has been accepted by the OBPS Steering Group, which will address the creation of decision trees. The purpose of the TT is to develop recommendations for and templates of decision trees targeting the various interests of the OBPS community. To assist users in the development of effective decision trees, the TT will develop a best practice for decision trees as well as decision tree templates for users to reference and to promote standardization.  See the related article in the February issue of the OBPS News Flash - A Collaborative Effort to Develop Effective Decisions Trees by Katie Watkins-Brandt, Laura Riihimaki, and Jay Pearlman at https://us13.campaign-archive.com/?u=ab89e583ff8a6a2e366e1fdcf&id=4f6449dbfa.

Modeling and Analysis Subsystem:   

  • EPIC Summer 2022 Code Sprint: The Summer Code Sprint will take place June 10, 2022: Are you interested in learning more about using the applications EPIC is developing?  Join the EPIC team on Friday, June 10, 2022 for a virtual day-long series of presentations designed to help new users configure and set up the Short Range Weather Application!  With presenters from the EPIC team, we’ll go through the process of configuring and running the application on different High Performance Cloud Computing infrastructures like Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure and provide tips and tricks to avoid common issues with the application. Hosted via Google Meet, limited to 100 attendees.

    Register for the EPIC Summer Code Sprint at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1G-6MFmNBRk6ihwJBSt7ktwdDn2BUI0YzcRVD9sFeD3c/edit 

  • EPIC Summer Hackathon June 13-15: Are you interested in learning more about the code that runs to generate weather predictions, or familiarize yourself with programming for a cloud computing platform?  The EPIC team and NOAA are hosting a 4-day virtual hackathon for anyone to join, regardless of your experience so anyone is welcome!  Join up with folks from around the country and work together to fix some theoretical vulnerabilities or issues in UFS code in a sandboxed environment and get some feedback from the experts on the EPIC team at the end to see what your team did right and what may have been missed or done better! Limited to 100 participants. Register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeTdObUCYbYQM3yG1pTu4z31sjEjpPUFtlb52TMOuYwCKoVzA/viewform
  • Unifying Innovations in Forecasting Capabilities Workshop will take place July 18-22 in College Park, MD and online! This workshop is presented by the Earth Prediction Innovation Center (EPIC), The Unified Forecast System (UFS), and The UFS Research to Operations (R2O) Project. Workshop attendees will have the opportunity to explore avenues for their own research development, learn about updates to the UFS, share successes within the scope of contributing to the most usable and accessible forecast modeling system in the world, and voice their thoughts on where our exciting future will go from here. It is the goal of the workshop to engage the greater weather enterprise and academia in the ongoing effort to accelerate involvement with the UFS. This first-of-its-kind event is your chance to dive into innovations in forecasting capabilities.Information is available here: https://epic.noaa.gov/eventsposts/epic-summer-workshop/ Registration is due on June 17, 2022 and abstracts are due June 10th. Registration and abstract submissions are included in one form, available here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe-PNhXYeAXpxdY5z9O1eoVOBeNo629t4CZpN9RIDbYEizSaw/viewform. There is no fee for registration or abstract submission. This is a hybrid workshop and you are able to attend in-person, virtually, or a combination of both. Please note that in-person registration will be limited to 200 attendees. If you have any problems accessing or submitting your registration, please email support.epic@noaa.gov. 

Around the Regions:

  • GLOS Annual Meeting and Seagull Launch: On April 28, over 100 people gathered at the Sable hotel on Navy Pier, and online, to hear the latest from GLOS leadership, and other partners including researchers, private sector leaders, decisionmakers from NOAA and IOOS, and more, including the companies who partnered with GLOS to build Seagull: SpinDance, DIG, and RPS. The sessions spotlighted partner projects, discussed recent GLOS priorities, and officially launched the Seagull platform.  The platform has served over 20,000 users since its launch!
  • Tsunami hazard tool developed for Hawai‘i, American Samoa, Guam harbors: PacIOOS is now serving a tsunami hazard tool that displays in-harbor hazard maps of surge, drawdown, and currents for hypothetical advisory- and warning-level tsunamis from potential sources around the Pacific. This decision-support tool, developed by researchers at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa with support from the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program, allows users to select an appropriate scenario using the estimated earthquake magnitude and location during an actual event.
  • California Imaging FlowCytobot (IFCB) Network: More stations are continuing to be brought online, with about 7 stations running in real-time. Deployments at San Francisco Pier 17, Santa Cruz Wharf, MBARI Power Buoy, Stearns Wharf, Newport Beach Pier, Del Mar Mooring, and Scripps Pier. Data are available at: https://ifcb.caloos.org/dashboard. high-resolution data products with quantitative abundances of the major HAB taxa are coming soon!
  • GCOOS Spring Meeting is a Wrap!  Speakers during the GCOOS Spring Meeting provided updates on the ocean-observing infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico and the U.S. The plenary speaker was Dr. William Burnett, Director of the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC), with additional speakers from the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System, and The Alabama Water Institute and the new Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology based at the University of Alabama.  Miss the meeting?  Catch up here.
  • SCCOOS Board of Governors Annual Meeting: The SCCOOS Board of Governors met in person and virtually on April 14th at the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project in Costa Mesa, CA. There were presentations from the IOOS Office, IOOS Association, SCCOOS, and CeNCOOS, which were accompanied by panel discussions on the New Blue Economy, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA), Modeling, Water Quality and Biodiversity, and the Coastal Climate Signal. Click here for the meeting agenda and presentations.
  • CARICOOS celebrated the 2022 General Assembly on May 19, 2022 at Vivo Beach Club, San Juan, Puerto Rico. This meeting was a unique opportunity to share the progress achieved, outreach and education efforts, and upcoming initiatives with our stakeholders. This year CARICOOS had a hybrid event with the participation of more than 125 participants including IOOS representatives, and stakeholders from different sectors including regulatory, marine operations, non-profit organizations, academia, and private sectors.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility:

  • IOOS and NOS staff are mentoring middle school, Mission Tampa Bay campers! Mission Tampa Bay is a free, week-long STEM camp for girls. The camp targets students in underserved communities to embark on a hands-on, STEM mission to determine La Nina impacts to Tampa Bay. Campers will build drones and buoys, use ROVs, microscopes, and perform chemical analysis to determine effects on the Gulf of Mexico and west Florida shelf. 
  • IOOS DEIA at CHOW: IOOS Association DEIA Fellow Ashley Peiffer will be attending Capitol Hill Ocean Week 2022 (SEA: The Future) June 7-9th in Washington, D.C. If you are in the area and interested in meeting with Ashley to discuss IOOS’ DEIA initiatives, please contact Ashley directly at ashley@ioosassociation.org. 

Interagency and International Collaboration/News:

  • UN Decade of Ocean Science For Sustainable Development Updates 
    • The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) at the United Nations Ocean Conference - June 27-July 1: The UN Ocean Decade will play a key role in the Conference through important events and opportunities to bring together a diverse ocean community bent on unlocking the knowledge needed to deliver the vision of the Ocean We Want. Ocean Decade Forum, exhibitions, and much more – discover the dedicated page for the occasion, and make sure you check back regularly as we will update it as new events are announced!
    • Call for Decade Actions No. 03/2022: Running until August 2022, the new Call for Decade Actions No. 03/2022 is an open invitation for partners worldwide to request endorsement for transformative Decade Actions that contribute to the Ocean Decade vision. In this context, 17 endorsed Decade Programmes have indicated that they are ready to solicit projects. Among them: Marine Life 2030, which aims to establish a globally coordinated system to deliver actionable, transdisciplinary knowledge of ocean life to those who need it, promoting human well-being, sustainable development, and ocean conservation. Access the Call documentation and submit your Action on the Ocean Decade Global Stakeholder Forum!
  • Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) News:
    • OOI Hydrophone Data Helping ID Whale Calls: Elizabeth Ferguson of Ocean Science Analytics used OOI hydrophone data with DeepSqueak – a computer program designed to sort mice squeaks that is also finding whales in the deep. She was interviewed about her work by Joe Palca on Morning Edition of NPR o n May 31, 2002.  Listen to the report here.
    • Last Deployment of Pioneer on NE Shelf Before Moving to New Home: The Pioneer 18 Array team and crew of the R/V Neil Armstrong pulled into the dock at Woods Hole, MA, on April 27, a day earlier than expected, having completed all objectives of the expedition. Their mission included the last deployment of the Pioneer Array at its current location on the New England Shelf. The Pioneer Array components now in the water will be recovered in November 2022 and redeployed in the Southern Mid-Atlantic Bight in the Spring of 2024.  A variety of ancillary activities, accommodating eight participants from five different institutions, were also facilitated during the cruise. Read more here: https://oceanobservatories.org/2022/05/successful-last-deployment-of-pioneer-array-on-ne-shelf/ 
  • NOAA predicts above-normal 2022 Atlantic Hurricane Season: Forecasters at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, a division of the National Weather Service, are predicting above-average hurricane activity this year — which would make it the seventh consecutive above-average hurricane season. NOAA’s outlook for the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season, which extends from June 1 to November 30, predicts a 65% chance of an above-normal season, a 25% chance of a near-normal season and a 10% chance of a below-normal season. For the 2022 hurricane season, NOAA is forecasting a likely range of 14 to 21 named storms (winds of 39 mph or higher), of which 6 to 10 could become hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or higher), including 3 to 6 major hurricanes (category 3, 4 or 5; with winds of 111 mph or higher). NOAA provides these ranges with a 70% confidence. Read more here: https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/noaa-predicts-above-normal-2022-atlantic-hurricane-season 
  • Summer High Tide Bulletin: There are some factors that cause the tides to be higher than what is "normally" seen from day to day. View our bulletin to see when you may experience higher than normal high tides for the period of time between June and August 2022. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/high-tide-bulletin/summer-2022/ 
  • Narragansett Bay Station Enhances Local Maritime Safety: CO-OPS worked with the Rhode Island Department of Emergency Management, one of NOAA’s local partners for the Narragansett Bay Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System (PORTS®), to install a new meteorological station at the Davisville terminal. The Port of Davisville is Rhode Island’s only public port, and the new meteorological station delivers wind, air temperature, relative humidity, and air pressure data to the community. Access to site-specific wind data at this location will enhance the safety and efficiency of navigation.
  • NOAA Ocean Podcast: Surveying the Great Lakes: Keeping our marine transportation system functioning in a way that is safe and efficient requires information about water depth; mapping the shape of the seafloor, lakebed, or coastline; pinpointing the location of possible obstructions; and understanding many other physical features of water bodies. Hydrography is the science behind this information, and surveying is a primary method of obtaining hydrographic data. In this episode, we learn about surveying and NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson's survey missions in the Great Lakes. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/podcast/may22/nop56-surveying-great-lakes.html 
  • NGS Leadership Met with Cuba’s Hydrography and Geodesy Office: NGS, the Office of Coast Survey, and Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services leadership met with leadership from Cuba's National Office of Hydrography and Geodesy (ONHG) on April 20 to provide updates on Navigation, Observation, and Positioning action items from the December 2021 engagement under the existing Memorandum of Understanding between NOS and ONHG. This Joint Action Plan provides a basis for data exchange and collaboration. Specifically relevant to NGS were discussions about data from continuous Global Navigation Satellite System receivers in Cuba and the potential expansion of the Gravity for the Redefinition of the Vertical Datum (GRAV-D) program over Cuba as a future effort. Both of these efforts would enhance the accuracy and reliability of the Caribbean Terrestrial Reference Frame of 2022 (CATRF2022) and North American-Pacific Geopotential Datum of 2022 (NAPGD2022) for the Caribbean region and the southern United States.
  • Smaller than Average Lake Erie Harmful Algal Bloom Projected: Lake Erie will likely experience a smaller than average harmful algal bloom this summer, according to the early season projection issued by NCCOS, with support from Heidelberg University. March and April rains and associated discharge and phosphorus loads for the Maumee River have been lower than average. Models currently indicate a likely bloom severity of less than 6, but if precipitation for the rest of the spring remains near or below average, a less severe bloom (<3) is likely. The cone of uncertainty for this forecast will continue to narrow as additional rain and river discharge data are collected. The impact of a bloom on drinking water and recreation on Lake Erie depends on its location, toxicity, and duration. Projections of the bloom’s severity will be issued weekly through mid-June.
  • Low to Moderate Red Tide Bloom Predicted for Gulf of Maine: Scientists from NCCOS and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are predicting a low to moderate red tide for the Gulf of Maine this summer. This prediction continues the pattern of smaller blooms observed in the region over the last few years. NOAA will provide coastal managers with weekly updates of modeled bloom extent, trajectory, and intensity throughout the spring and summer of 2022. NOAA will also provide guidance to states on monitoring harmful algae and shellfish toxicity along the shore. This marks the fifteenth year that NOAA and partners have issued the seasonal forecast.

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