The Eyes on the Ocean™ Bi-weekly is an informal way of keeping you up-to-date on U.S. IOOS® activities.

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From the Director:

Hello IOOS Community,

A big congratulations to AOOS Executive Director Molly McCammon who will receive the prestigious Walter J. and Ermalee Hickel Lifetime Achievement Award from the Alaska SeaLife Center in recognition of her exceptional contributions to management of Alaska’s coastal and ocean resources for over 20 years. BRAVO! https://www.thecordovatimes.com/2020/01/31/aslc-honors-ocean-researchers-communicators/

We have some important meetings coming up over the next few weeks. Next week, the IOOS Federal Advisory Committee will meet in Washington, D.C. More information on that meeting is available below. The following week, at the AGU Ocean Sciences 2020 Meeting in San Diego, CA, we will host a Town Hall - “U.S IOOS: The Power of Partnership over 20 years and beyond” - that will highlight U.S. IOOS and SCCOOS partnerships with stakeholders in Southern California. The panel will discuss water quality and sea level rise issues, coastal resilience, and harmful algal blooms. We hope you will join us at the town hall on February 19th at 6:30pm. There will also be a variety of other IOOS participation at the conference including an Marine Biodiversity Observation Network Town Hall, a panel on IOOS data visualization, and various posters presented by IOOS staff and regional partners. Check out the “Upcoming Meetings with IOOS Participation” section below for more information on these sessions at Ocean Sciences. We are looking forward to seeing some of you there!

Best wishes,
Carl

From the U.S. IOOS Office:

  • Welcome Michelle Harris: Michelle Harris joined the IOOS Office today as our new Knauss Sea Grant Fellow. Michele graduated with her MS in Geography from the University of South Carolina, where she studied coastal geomorphology in the Wind-Induced Nearshore Dynamics (WIND)lab. Her previous research focused on coastal hazards and recovery, aeolian transport, and employing low-cost mixed method approaches to field data collection. She is initially from League City, TX. She will provide support on projects in the IOOS Director’s Office, including supporting the development of the OAR/IOOS Workshops, staffing the Director on the NOAA National Water Initiative, USGS/NOAA Coasts Team, and Blue Economy, and serve as the IOOS Office Tasker Team Lead. Welcome Michelle!
  • IOOS Advisory Committee Meeting, 11 – 12 February 2020, Washington, DC: The IOOS Advisory Committee will meet in Washington, DC, February 11 & 12, 2020. The meeting agenda is available on the IOOS Website and more information is available in the Federal Register Notice as well. Dial-in information is available in the meeting agenda if you would like to join the meeting remotely. 
  • Powering the Blue Economy: Ocean Observations Prize: U.S. IOOS has published a new article on our website to discuss the motivation for creating this joint prize with the Department of Energy and to boost awareness.  Submissions for the prize close on February 12 with award announcements anticipated in late March.

Observation Subsystem and Sensor Technologies:

    • No update.

    • New U.S. Underwater Glider User Group Coordinator: GCOOS and IOOS are pleased to announce that we have filled a newly funded position developing the U.S. Underwater Glider User Group (UG2). Bill Lingsch has been named Coordinator. He will further develop UG2 and facilitate the exchange of information and expertise among glider users throughout the Gulf of Mexico and the broader U.S., including sharing best practices. Lingsch’s 37-year career in the ocean sciences has included 31 years with Naval Oceanography and six years in the private sector supporting Navy Oceanography in R&D and operations. He is Past Chair of the GCOOS Board of Directors (2016-2017) and has been a GCOOS member for five years. He is most recently the Director of Ocean Science and Technology for Perspecta (formerly Vencore, Inc.) at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Welcome aboard Bill!

    • ATN Argos Fees Program Continues to Expand: U.S. Telemetry researchers who agree to have their real-time satellite tag trajectories displayed on the ATN DAC Data Portal  (https://portal.atn.ioos.us) and to submit their complete raw tag data (location, behavior, environmental, etc.) to the ATN DAC in real-time for the duration of their project can have their Argos data collection and location fees paid by the ATN. This successful program funded by the Office of Naval Research is currently supporting 30 research programs with a total of 1,059 tags. To participate, please contact Bill Woodward (bill.woodward@noaa.gov) or Megan Mckinzie (mmckinzie@mbari.org).

Data Management and Communications (DMAC) Subsystem and Tools Built on IOOS data (DMAC listserv – contact Micah Wengren, DMAC System Architect, data.ioos@noaa.gov):

  • ERDDAP Project Update: The ERDDAP project team has continued to engage the Climate and Forecast (CF) governance committee to add QARTOD-inspired QC standard names to the CF standard names table (next release due in February).  This has been a lengthy process but should culminate in several QC names being added to CF (https://github.com/cf-convention/cf-conventions/issues/216) and will allow finalization of IOOS Metadata Profile 1.2 (https://ioos.github.io/ioos-metadata/ioos-metadata-profile-v1-2.html).  Once complete, and with the upcoming release of an updated plugin for Compliance Checker (https://github.com/ioos/compliance-checker/milestone/13) to test Metadata Profile 1.2, this will allow the ERDDAP project to move to the implementation phase.  This phase will allow RAs to deploy ERDDAP-based services for their in situ datasets, eventually delivering data to customers via ERDDAP rather than SOS, as well as publishing data to the GTS/NDBC via ERDDAP rather than the legacy XML/FTP approach.  IOOS’ long awaited transition to ERDDAP is finally taking shape!  
  • DMAC Tech Webinar: The January DMAC Tech Webinar was held on Thursday January 30, featuring Felimon Gayanilo (GCOOS) presenting the topic ‘Resolving Data Provenance with OGC SensorML’.  Felimon described the NSF/EarthCube X-DOMES (Cross-Domain Observational Metadata for Environmental Sensing) project, which developed, among other tools, the SensorML Viewer/Editor (SVE) and SensorML Registry and Repository (SRR) to assist the ocean observing community in providing sufficient description of sensors used in measuring ocean phenomena to establish data provenance in publically-available data access services.  Additionally, Felimon discussed approaches to connect data access services to data provenance information utilizing community metadata standards. For those unable to join, the recorded webinar is available here: https://mmancusa.webex.com/webappng/sites/mmancusa/recording/07e25097f6a64456872a386840c867de.  
  • Save the Date!  2020 DMAC Meeting: IOOS is pleased to announce that the 2020 DMAC Meeting will take place Tuesday, June 16 to Friday, June 19, in Silver Spring, Maryland. Further details forthcoming.
  • SAVE THE DATE: IOOS/ESIP Biological Data Standards Workshop, July 13, 2020, Burlington, VT:  This Biological Data Standards workshop, sponsored by the US Integrated Ocean Observing System (US IOOS) in partnership with ESIP, OBIS and BCO-DMO, invites participation from data providers and data managers across the marine community. See more in the “Upcoming Events with IOOS Participation” section below.
  • QARTOD (National Coordinator Mark Bushnell, mark.bushnell@noaa.gov):
    • QARTOD Paper to be Presented at AGU Ocean Sciences: The QARTOD Board of Advisors is drafting a paper that describes the present QARTOD status, the requirements that necessitate a QC manual, and the techniques used to create them. It details the IOOS core variables for which no QARTOD manual is presently planned, explains why that is so, and describes the benefits of a manual that arises to operators as observational capabilities develop and provide interoperable data used in real time. The paper will be presented as a poster at the Ocean Sciences meeting (https://agu.confex.com/agu/osm20/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/648398). Contact Mark if you’d like to review a draft.
    • Ocean Best Practice System update: There are now 931 holdings in the OBPS repository. Help us reach the 1000 mark! Submit your manual, guide, paper, or other document - even video clips and presentations are accepted. You’ll receive a Digital Object Identifier that enables you to readily cite the practice, and you’ll help your community as best practices evolve into better practices. If you’ve used the OBPS resource at https://obpsystem.org/, let us know what you think. We want to make the OBPS better too.

Modeling and Analysis Subsystem (IOOS PO and IOOS Coastal and Ocean Modeling Testbed (COMT) POC – Derrick Snowden, Derrick.Snowden@noaa.gov):   

  • Modeling and Prediction Workshop - June 2020: A Workshop on Modeling, Prediction, and Sensor Networks for Coastal Flooding in the US East Coast will be held at George Mason University in Washington, D.C. June 8-9, 2020. The goal of the workshop is to bring together several groups that are working on quantitative frameworks for monitoring and predicting coastal flooding along the coasts of the US East Coast and draft a strategy for advancing an integrated modeling system for coastal flooding that includes the ocean, atmosphere, land, and urban infrastructure components. Our ultimate goal is to map the synergies for co-designing a US East Coast Flooding Monitoring and Prediction Knowledge to Action Network (Coastal-FMAP-KAN). Please register to the workshop mailing list: https://forms.gle/hAuK6NTyvqTMArvb7

Interagency and International Collaboration/News:

  • Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) (IOOS PO POC Gabrielle Canonico, Gabrielle.Canonico@noaa.gov):
    • Presentation Highlights New Tools for Streamlining Ecosystem Assessment: National marine sanctuaries are an ideal setting to develop and apply ecosystem assessment tools because sanctuaries encompass a wide range of marine environments with a high density of research and monitoring efforts, as well as nearby coastal communities that depend on healthy ocean ecosystem for business and recreation. At the January 10th meeting of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Research Activities Panel, Andrew DeVogelaere gave a presentation titled "Streamlining Ecosystem Assessment: New Tools to Quickly Generate Management Information from Ocean Monitoring Data". This presentation provided an overview and update on efforts to develop data products and tools for incorporating key data streams from long-term monitoring programs into condition reporting along the west coast. This work is an on-going collaboration between MBNMS, Channel Islands NMS, the California Current Integrated Ecosystem Assessment program, the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON), U.S. IOOS, CeNCOOS, and EcoQuants, LLC. For more information, contact jennifer.brown@noaa.gov or Gabrielle.Canonico@noaa.gov 
    • MBON paper concludes eDNA can provide detailed information about marine ecosystem dynamics and key species as indicators of change: Congratulations to the Sanctuaries MBON team for publication of an analysis in Nature Communications demonstrating application of eDNA to identify indicators of change in marine ecosystems.  The team surveyed biodiversity from an eighteen-month (2015–2016) time-series of seawater samples from Monterey Bay, California; they concluded that ‘eDNA-based analyses can provide detailed information about marine ecosystem dynamics and identify sensitive biological indicators that can suggest ecosystem changes and inform conservation strategies.’   Please read the paper here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-14105-1.pdf 
    • Linkages of the 2014-2016 Pacific marine heatwave to record numbers of whale entanglements in the central California Current crab fishery: Congratulations to MBON, NMFS and other regional partners on a new publication looking at impacts of the northeast Pacific marine heatwave on whales and the regional Dungeness crab fishery.  The paper, published in Nature Communications, brings the work of the team to a broad audience to build understanding of climate-related challenges to fisheries management. Note the infographic (Figure 5) summarizing oceanographic and ecosystem changes within the California Current during the marine heatwave. The paper, ‘Habitat compression and ecosystem shifts as potential links between marine heatwave and record whale entanglements’ is available here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-14215-w.epdf 
    • 3rd Marine Biodiversity Workshop: from the Sea to the Cloud - MBON Pole to Pole of the Americas:The MBON Pole to Pole has announced the third ‘Marine Biodiversity Workshop: from the Sea to the Cloud’, which will be hosted by INVEMAR in collaboration with the Ocean Teacher Global Academy and the Smithsonian-led MarineGEO May 4-8, 2020, in Santa Marta, Colombia. After two successful workshops held in Brazil and Mexico since 2018, MBON Pole to Pole is continuing to develop a community of practice dedicated to understanding changes in marine biodiversity and generating knowledge and products that inform conservation and management efforts across the Americas. More info here: https://marinebon.org/p2p-colombia-workshop/
    • Ocean Sciences 2020 Town Hall: Expanding Access to Critical Marine Biological Diversity Observations, Wednesday, 19 February 2020, 12:45 - 13:45 (San Diego time): This town hall (https://agu.confex.com/agu/osm20/meetingapp.cgi/Session/96931) seeks to organize and gain insight from the community towards implementation of a global-scale data archaeology process for marine biodiversity. The goal is to develop novel technologies to speed up data rescue, sharing and curation for marine biodiversity information.  The approach would be to create online methodology and tools to digitize data and upload it to national and global data portals (including OBIS) via ‘hack-a-thon’ and ‘bio-blitz’ events. The effort would include building a reference list of datasets and expanding the ontologies that support such public databases. This town hall will gather input on candidate datasets and incentives for the research community to accelerate data curation and sharing.  It will invite input about previous similar efforts and lessons learned to ensure success. The objective is to recover marine biodiversity data from publications and researchers’ databases that are not publicly accessible. Rescue of these data is a critical step needed to assess change over decades to centuries, and develop forecasting capacity for biodiversity under future climate change scenarios.
      • Town Hall Title: Expanding Access to Critical Marine Biological Diversity Observations
      • Date and Time: Wednesday, 19 February 2020: 12:45 - 13:45
      • Location: SDCC, 7A, UL
  • 2019 Annual IOOS Report to the Interagency Ocean Observation Committee (IOOC) Now Available: On January 27th, IOOS Director Carl Gouldman presented the 2019 Annual IOOS Report to the IOOC. The presentation provides highlights of IOOS activities over the last year and looks at upcoming activities for 2020. The presentation is now available on the IOOS Website. 
  • Coast Guard opens new Blue Technology Center of Expertise in Partnership with Scripps Institution of Oceanography: The Coast Guard and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego launched the Blue Technology Center of Expertise (COE) on the Scripps Oceanography campus with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on January 24th, 2020. Coast Guard Deputy Commandant for Mission Support Vice Adm. Michael F. McAllister spoke at the event to celebrate the partnership between Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Coast Guard. “The Blue Technology Center of Expertise will better connect the Coast Guard with the tremendous government, academic and industry innovation ecosystem in the San Diego area,” said McAllister. “It will create a unique pipeline for the rapid identification and implementation of new maritime technologies into critical Coast Guard operations around the globe.” Read more here.
  • 2019 Arctic Report Card Released: The Arctic marine ecosystem and the communities that depend upon it continue to experience unprecedented changes as a result of warming air temperatures, declining sea ice, and warming waters. Arctic Report Card 2019 draws particular attention to the Bering Sea region, where declining winter sea ice exemplifies the potential for sudden and extreme change. Indigenous Elders from the Bering Sea region offer their experiences of living at the forefront of climate change. See the report here: https://arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card/Report-Card-2019 
  • Drifters Help Scientists Measure Waves in the Open Ocean: Five drifting buoys were deployed off OceanX's research vessel, the Alucia in December as it traveled from Miami to Portugal. All five were Directional Wave Spectra Drifters, developed in the Scripps Lagrangian Drifter Lab, and measure wave properties (period, height, and direction of surface waves) in addition to  sea surface temperature, wind, and atmospheric pressure. The drifters deployed from this research cruise will study the Gulf Stream, a powerful Western boundary current. Read more here.
  • NOAA releases 2020 hydrographic survey season plans: NOAA hydrographic survey ships and contractors are preparing for the 2020 hydrographic survey season. The ships collect bathymetric data (i.e. map the seafloor) to support nautical charting, modeling, and research, but also collect other environmental data to support a variety of ecosystem sciences. NOAA considers hydrographic survey requests from stakeholders such as marine pilots, local port authorities, the Coast Guard, and the boating community, and also consider other hydrographic  and NOAA science priorities in determining where to survey and when. Visit our “living” story map to find out more about our mapping projects and if a hydrographic vessel will be in your area this year! Read more here: https://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/updates/noaa-releases-2020-hydrographic-survey-season-plans/
  • NOAA Completes Tidal Current Survey of New York Harbor: NOAA recently concluded its Current Survey for New York Harbor. Tidal current predictions have ensured safe navigation of local waterways in this area since the middle of last century, back to 1855 in some locations. NOAA engaged regional partners to pin-point the best location for each instrument, and in 2019, deployed 36 temporary instruments in New York Harbor to assess tidal currents from the Hudson River to Sandy Hook Bay. Data collected are not only analyzed to update tidal current predictions, but also support NOAA’s Operational Forecast System (OFS) hydrodynamic models and Precision Navigation efforts; safeguarding navigation of New York Harbor ports and waterways into the future. Updated information will be available to mariners in the summer of 2020. All tidal current predictions can be accessed here. Read more here: https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/news_posts/article.html?post=903
  • NOAA’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) Installs New Simplified Water Level Station: CO-OPS designed and installed a new, simplified water level station in Gulf Breeze, Florida. The system is now collecting and transmitting via GOES satellite, providing water level observations at 6-minute intervals, and following CO-OPS measurement and sampling standards. This station is designed for areas that are not part of the National Water Level Observation Network (NWLON). Closing gaps in the NWLON by using simple water stations will provide coastal communities with data to monitor their sea level risk. Contact: Robert.Heitsenrether@noaa.gov 
  • NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey (NGS) Completes Site Survey to Improve Precise Reference Frame: NGS field staff conducted a geodetic local site survey at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, which is located below the Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii. The site is particularly important to the International Earth Rotation and Reference System Service (IERS) both because of its remote location in the Pacific Ocean and because of the two space geodesy systems at the site — a Very Long Baseline Array antenna station and a Continuously Operating Reference Station that receives data from the Global Navigation Satellite System. IERS uses data from local site surveys, along with satellite observations, to improve the International Terrestrial Reference Frame, which provides the coordinates for the world’s navigation systems. Contact: Ryan.Hippenstiel@noaa.gov
  • Grants & Funding Opportunities
    • Addressing Economic and Market Needs of the U.S. Aquaculture Industry: The National Sea Grant Office anticipates approximately $5,000,000 will be available for research projects and programs that will significantly advance the understanding of the economics of aquaculture businesses in the U.S. and address gaps regarding important  market information. The overall goal is to advance business management towards development of a sustainable marine and Great Lakes aquaculture industry in the U.S. Partnership forms due 2/12/2020, LOIs by 2/26/2020. Read more and how to apply here.
    • Department of Energy Challenges Innovators to Harness the Power of the Oceans: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced developments in two new prizes: Waves to Water, which challenges innovators to desalinate water using the power of ocean waves, and the Powering the Blue Economy™ Ocean Observing Prize, a joint DOE-National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) prize, which challenges innovators to pair marine renewable energy technologies with ocean observing platforms. These announcements were made at a White House multi-agency public-private partnership summit on November 14th that was focused on accelerating science, technology, and research in the oceans. Submissions close 2/14/2020. Read more and apply here: https://americanmadechallenges.org/oceanobserving/
    • 2020 American Lobster Research Program Funding Opportunity Now Open: This program will support research to address critical gaps in knowledge about how the American Lobster and its fishery is being impacted by environmental change. It is informed by listening sessions with regional fishing industry stakeholders, state and federal fisheries managers, and university, state and federal fisheries researchers. Research topics suitable for study on American lobster under this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) should have a geographic focus on the Gulf of Maine, Georges Banks, and/or southern New England and address one or more of the following: (1) Increased understanding of life history parameters, including but not limited to, growth, maturity, and species interactions; (2) Larval ecology and early biology; (3) Spatial distribution and migration, including but not limited to, habitat and trophic interactions; and/or (4) socio-ecological investigations to inform future management decisions, including but not limited to, research exploring bait alternatives to herring and their implications for the lobster fishery. Pending appropriation of funds, Sea Grant anticipates awarding between five to ten research projects totaling between $1 million and $2 million dollars in FY2020. Projects must have a maximum duration of two years. Questions about the competition should be sent to oar.hq.sg.competitions@noaa.gov. Formal Notice of Funding Opportunity on grants.gov. Closes March 19, 2020.
    • Coral Restoration Projects in Honor of Dr. Ruth Gates: As part of our efforts to restore resilient coral ecosystems, NOAA is announcing the availability of approximately $500,000 in funding for coral restoration in 2020. The competition is in direct response to the recently completed National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine study on Interventions to Increase the Resilience of Coral Reefs. This is the first competition under the new Ruth Gates Coral Restoration Innovation Grants. Proposals are due by 3/20/2020. More information and how to apply here.
    • DARPA BAA: This BAA invites proposers to submit innovative basic or applied research concepts in the following technical domains: Frontiers in Math, Computation & Design; Limits of Sensing & Sensors; Complex Social Systems; Anticipating Surprise. The research topics of interest within each domain are described in the BAA. Closes June 12, 2020.

Delivering the Benefits:

  • State Ferry Reveals Ocean Acidification Conditions in SE Alaska: The Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) ferry Columbia has been collecting ocean acidification data since late October 2017 during its ~1,600 km route between southeast Alaska and Bellingham, WA. In southeast Alaska the ferry transits between Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Juneau, Haines, Skagway, and Sitka, collecting measurements of temperature, salinity, oxygen and carbon dioxide content every 2 minutes while underway. More than 290,000 measurements have been collected during 135 transits during the project’s first two years.  To read more about the project to date (and other AOOS news), check out the AOOS Newsletter.

  • GLOS 2019 Annual Impact Report Published: 2019 was a busy one with the launch of the Smart Great Lakes Initiative, continuation of multi-year projects, and the start of some new. Read about some of the most important projects of 2019 in GLOS's latest annual impact report, available here.

  • How waves propagate in coral reefs? CARICOOS and UPRM scientists, in partnership with the US Geological Survey and the Tres Palmas Marine Reserve Management Board, installed several wave gauges across the seabed in Tres Palmas to measure the extreme wave event of January 19-20, 2020. The USGS is partnering with the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez (UPR-M) to better understand how waves propagate across coral reefs and cause coastal flooding along tropical shorelines. Read more here.

  • 2020 Sargassum Update Now Available: The January 2020 Sargassum Bloom update for the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico is now available. Read more here.

  • December CA HAB Bulletin Available: Check out the December CA HAB Bulletin for the latest collection of model output, observations, and advisories. Read more here.

  • PAPER: Equipping smart coasts with marine water quality IoT sensors: In the Agua Hedionda Lagoon (AHL) in Carlsbad, CA, researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System and Carlsbad Aquafarm have come together to measure ocean acidification parameters in near real-time using a combination of cutting-edge research technology alongside off-the-shelf and easy-to-implement Internet of Things communications packages. Read the full paper online here.

Congressional:

  • ICOOS Act Update: No update.

Communications/Outreach/Education:

  • West Watch webinar slides posted:  NOAA's most recent West Watch was held on 7 January 2020. The webinarsummarized coastal environmental conditions and impacts in the Western Region, including recent behavior of the NE Pacific marine heat wave. The temperature anomaly signal dissipated over fall along the coast, but was still evident farther offshore. The webinar included contributed slides from the NANOOS, CeNCOOS, and SCCOOS regions, who regularly report on their local coastal ocean conditions. The next webinar date is 21 April 2020. Contact us at NANOOS if you want to participate and please let us know if you have any comments.
  • Alaska Marine Science Symposium: The AOOS team had a major presence at the 2020 AMSS, starting with serving on the planning and implementation steering committees for workshops, keynotes, and the science program. More than 700 people attended this year’s symposium. For a full run down of the Symposium and events, see AOOS's January update.
  • Building Ocean Observing Capacity in Pohnpei: PacIOOS held a regional capacity building workshop in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia, with participation from the states of Chuuk, Kosrae, and Pohnpei. The purpose of the workshop was to raise awareness of PacIOOS activities and how to access coastal and ocean information; provide information and training to help local agencies identify and prioritize their needs for ocean observing, including potential collaborators; and gather information from stakeholders on priorities for future PacIOOS activities.  Read more about the workshop here.
  • NOAA Ocean Acidification Program Community Meeting:  NANOOS's Jan Newton attended this 3-day meeting in Miami on 7-9 January.  NANOOS has two buoys (off La Push, WA, and Coos Bay, OR) that are part of NOAA's national OA observing network and they are conducting a NOAA-funded  Regional Vulnerability Assessment (RVA) on the Olympic Coast. Jan gave a talk on the RVA research, a project she leads with WA Sea Grant's Melissa Poe, with many co-PIs and partners including co-PIs from all four coastal treaty tribes, OCNMS, and Olympic NP.

Upcoming Meetings with IOOS Participation:

  • IOOS Advisory Committee Meeting, 11 – 12 February 2020, Washington, DC: The IOOS Advisory Committee will meet in Washington, DC, February 11 & 12, 2020. More information will be made available on the IOOS Website soon. An announcement will be published in the Federal Register Notice as well.

  • Ocean Obs RCN Annual Meeting, 16 February 2020, San Diego, CA: The Ocean Obs Research Coordination Network (RCN) will host an OceanObs’19 Conference follow-up meeting on February 16, 2020, in San Diego, CA, immediately preceding the AGU/TOS Ocean Sciences Meeting. The OceanObs’19 conference (Hawaii 16-21 September, 2019) was the third conference of this series, held once every ten years. The Ocean Obs RCN annual meeting on 16 February 2020 will be dedicated to the synthesis of threads and recommendations emerging from the OceanObs’19 Conference. Of particular interest will be focusing the community on the planning for the implementation of initiatives emerging from OceanObs’19. The meeting will advance links between observation networks and operational users to facilitate the delivery of critical information to stakeholders, and to address critical policy issues that require multidisciplinary ocean observing systems. For more details on the meeting, clickhere.

  • Ocean Sciences 2020 Meeting, 16 – 21 February 2020, San Diego, CA: The Ocean Sciences Meeting (OSM) is the flagship conference for the ocean sciences and the larger ocean-connected community.  As we approach the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, beginning in 2021, it is increasingly important to gather as a scientific community to raise awareness of the truly global dimension of the ocean, address environmental challenges, and set forth on a path towards a resilient planet. More info here: https://www.agu.org/ocean-sciences-meeting

    • MBON Town Hall: Expanding Access to Critical Marine Biological Diversity Observations: This town hall (https://agu.confex.com/agu/osm20/meetingapp.cgi/Session/96931) seeks to organize and gain insight from the community towards implementation of a global-scale data archaeology process for marine biodiversity.

      • Town Hall Title: Expanding Access to Critical Marine Biological Diversity Observations

      • Date and Time: Wednesday, 19 February 2020: 12:45 - 13:45

      • Location: SDCC, 7A, UL

    • IOOS Town Hall at OSM 2020 - “U.S IOOS: The Power of Partnership over 20 years and beyond”: The town hall will highlight U.S. IOOS and SCCOOS partnerships with stakeholders in Southern California. The panel will discuss water quality and sea level rise issues, coastal resilience, and harmful algal blooms, with a focus on the US/Mexico border. 

      • Date: Wednesday, 19 February 2020

      • Time: 18:30 - 19:30

      • Location: SDCC, 1B, UL

    • Special Panel Session: IOOS Data Visualization Panel: This session will explore how regional coastal and ocean data portals across the United States integrate quality data from a variety of federal and non-federal sources to deliver timely and reliable information to data product developers, government authorities, and stakeholders to improve understanding and aid decision making.

      • Session: OD51B: Integrating, Disseminating, and Visualizing Quality Data at the Regional Scale to Support Resilient Coastal Communities I Panel

      • Session Type: Oral

      • Date and Time: Friday, 21 February 2020; 08:00 - 10:00

      • Location: SDCC; 14B, Mezzanine

  • Save the date! 2020 IOOS Spring Meeting, 4 – 5 March 2020, Washington, DC: The IOOS Association, IOOS Regional Associations, and the IOOS Program Office will meet for their annual spring meeting March 4-5 in Washington, D.C. Check back for more information. Questions? Contact Katie Liming, Katie.Liming@ioosassociation.org.

  • CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: 2020 MTS Buoy Workshop: The 2020 MTS Buoy Workshop will be held April 13-16, 2020 in Wilmington, NC. We gather to discuss updates on past and present projects (and future), offshore in the deep and shallow water environments, bays, estuaries, ports and harbors and what we expect for the future of buoy and mooring applications. This year’s theme is “Moored Systems for the Future.” Areas and topics will include, but are not limited to: Ecosystems Monitoring, Long-Term Observing System, Reliability & Harsh Environments, Power Systems, Data, Sensors & Instrumentation, and Mooring Design.  Abstracts and exhibitor applications are due February 28. Early bird registration ends Friday, January 31 and regular registration is available through April 16. Registration and more details found here: https://buoytech.mtsociety.org/

  • MARACOOS Annual Meeting, 14 May 2020, Baltimore, MD: The MARACOOS 2020 Annual Meeting is coming up on Thursday, May 14, 2020, in Baltimore, MD preceded by an evening networking reception on May 13. A major focus of this year’s meeting will be to seek your input and refinements to the MARACOOS Strategic Plan --- a Plan that will be under development with all of you in the Mid-Atlantic ocean and coastal community in the months leading up to the Annual Meeting.  Join individuals from the private sector, non-profit sector, academia, and government as we come together to discuss the goals and strategies for the future of ocean and coastal observing in the Mid-Atlantic region. Register for the meeting here. 

  • Save the Date!  SECOORA Annual Meeting, 18 – 19 May 2020, St. Petersburg, FL: More info coming soon!

  • IAGLR 2020: Focusing on the Future, 8-12 June 2020, Winnipeg, Manitoba: The International Association for Great Lakes Research (IAGLR) 63rd annual conference is accepting abstractshttp://iaglr.org/iaglr2020/abstractsuntil Friday, January 24. GLOS is leading the following sessions:

    • #25 The role of observations, base data and models in the new GLOS tech platform

    • #26 GLOS: Lakebed 2030 - building a better basemap

    • #27 Map the Great Lakes to understand underwater habitats

For more information and registration (when open) click here.

  • Save the Date!  2020 DMAC Meeting: IOOS is pleased to announce that the 2020 DMAC Meeting will take place Tuesday, June 16 to Friday, June 19, in Silver Spring, Maryland. Further details forthcoming.

  • SAVE THE DATE: IOOS/ESIP Biological Data Standards Workshop, July 13, 2020, Burlington, VT:  This Biological Data Standards workshop, sponsored by the US Integrated Ocean Observing System (US IOOS) in partnership with ESIP, OBIS and BCO-DMO, invites participation from data providers and data managers across the marine community. The workshop will be designed to alternate between working sessions with all participants and hands-on sessions on topics including: 

    • Data Standard and Stewardship Best practices 

    • Vocabularies and ontologies 

    • Shared technology, shared knowledge and knowledge transfer 

    • Development of methodologies 

    • More about the workshop: Hands-on work around data transformation and management processes Scientific observations of marine biodiversity and biology are essential for effective conservation of ocean species. These observations are collected at great cost, and are fundamental to advance scientific understanding of life in the sea. Marine ecological data are complex and heterogeneous, and there are unique methods and approaches to their collection, curation, sharing and distribution. To allow these observations to be reused for scientific, pedagogical and policy purposes, they need to be managed and well-described using standardized methods and formats. There is a pressing need in the marine community for standardized approaches to integrate biological data at local, regional, and global scales. This applies to observations spanning genetic to population data types, and across space and time. Major global databases such as OBIS and GBIF rely on Darwin Core, Ecological Metadata Language, and the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) to help manage taxonomic information. The observing community, focused on abiotic data collections, evolved to leverage netCDF and climate and forecast conventions, while the biological research and applications communities have traditionally operated outside of common standards; this landscape makes it difficult to assess the status and trends of critical indicators of living marine resources and ecosystem services. 

 

Other Upcoming Meetings: 

  • International Indian Ocean Science Conference (IIOSC2020), 16 – 20 March 2020, Goa, India: More info available: https://iiosc2020.incois.gov.in/  The International Indian Ocean Science Conference (IIOSC 2020) sponsored by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, will be held from 16-20 March 2019 in Dona Paula, Goa, India. The conference aims to not only act as a multi-disciplinary showcase of Indian Ocean oceanic and coupled climatic research in general, but will provide the opportunity to specifically present research resulting from the Second International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE-2) (2015-2020) and so act as a platform for the recently proclaimed extension of IIOE-2 out to at least 2025.

  • Capitol Hill Ocean Week 2020: Biodiversity, 9 – 11 June, 2020, Washington, DC: More information and registration (when open) is available on the CHOW website.

  • EMODnet 2nd Open Conference and Jamboree - Save-the-date: 22-25 September 2020: Five years after the first edition, we are delighted to announce the organisation of the second EMODnet Open Conference (22-23 September 2020) and Jamboree (23-25 September 2020). During the event, EMODnet partners, communicators and data providers and users will take stock of EMODnet achievements over the past 10 years, connect across stakeholder communities and set goals for the future. To start the week, the EMODnet Open Conference will focus on use cases and requirements for developing essential open marine data services for blue economy actors, the public sector, civil society and the research community. More details will follow soon.

 

Job & Internship Opportunities:

  • Executive Director, NERACOOS: The key roles of the Executive Director are to lead, manage, and inspire staff, principal investigators, partners, and board members to collectively sustain and improve a regional ocean observing system that is responsive to the information needs of the Northeast. The Executive Director is the principal spokesperson for the organization and will travel extensively to represent NERACOOS locally, nationally, and occasionally internationally, and to provide regional leadership and guidance.  Click here for more info and to apply: http://www.neracoos.org/edjobsearch

  • Observing Technology Manager, GLOS: The Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS) is searching for a self-motivated individual to lead coordination of its observing system programs and to engage with organizations throughout the region as an advisor on water monitoring technology and observing system assets. This is a full-time position based at the GLOS office in Ann Arbor, MI. For requirements and how to apply, click here.https://glos.org/job-opportunity-observing-technology-manager/ Closes 2/10/2020.

  • 2021 Knauss Fellowship Opportunity now open: The Sea Grant Knauss Fellowship provides a unique educational and professional experience to graduate students who have an interest in ocean, coastal and Great Lakes resources and in the national policy decisions affecting those resources. Students should apply by February 21, 2020. Learn more about the Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship.

  • Biology and Ecosystems Data Analyst: The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) is recruiting a Data Analyst with a focus on biology and ecosystem data to assist in integration and management. The post will be based at MBARI, which is located in Moss Landing, CA and will work closely with the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) and the Central and Northern California Ocean Observing System (CeNCOOS).  Read more and how to apply here. 

Click here to view the IOOS Association Calendar

Do you have suggestions for new things you would like to see in the Eyes on the Ocean IOOS Bi-Weekly? Contact us at eoto@noaa.gov.

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