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:

We are glad to be back home and energized after a week in Honolulu with over 1,500 ocean scientists, technologists, and stakeholders at the OceanObs’19 decadal conference. The week was inspiring, engaging, and thought provoking. Each day consisted of plenaries, special sessions, and breakout sessions that generated recommendations covering a wide variety of topics. 

I had the opportunity to moderate a special session hosted by NOAA entitled “An Ocean of Data: NOAA’s Roles in Marine Extreme Events and Hazards” where NOAA provided an agency overview to show the integration and interconnected contributions necessary to connect observations to services that support response to extreme events and hazards. 

I also spoke on a special session panel hosted by DOE and NOAA focused on innovation - “Powering the Blue Economy: Energy Innovation for Ocean Observations”. The session discussed how energy innovation can lead to entirely new capabilities in ocean observation. This session followed the announcement of a new $3 million prize competition funded by DOE and developed with NOAA called - “Powering the Blue Economy™: Ocean Observations Prize”. The competition will draw upon American innovators to accelerate technology development through a series of contests to innovate and demonstrate renewable energy-powered ocean observing platforms.

NOAA and IOOS also had a tremendous presence in the Expo Hall with a very engaging exhibit booth that included a great line-up of lightning talks on NOAA mission and priority areas, hands on demonstrations of NOAA and IOOS products and services, and a wealth of ocean observing information. You can catch up on all the IOOS engagement at OceanObs’19 here: https://ioos.noaa.gov/ioos-at-oceanobs-19/  

Best Wishes,
Carl

From the U.S. IOOS Office:

  • U.S. IOOS Kicks Off 20th Anniversary: To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS), the U.S. IOOS Program Office, IOOS Association, and PacIOOS hosted an evening reception at the Waikīkī Aquarium on September 17th  to celebrate IOOS' past, present, and future. Over 430 international, national, and local partners gathered to reflect on the past, present, and future of IOOS. The event also offered an opportunity to honor those that were instrumental to building IOOS. Eric Lindstrom, NASA was recognized at the event for his lifetime of work in support of IOOS and wished well in his retirement. Mahalo to all sponsors who supported the event, including Sea Bird Scientific, Shell, Teledyne Marine, Axiom, Kongsberg, Ocean Conservancy, RPS, CODAR, XPRIZE, Wildlife Computers, and SECOORA. Many thanks to the planning team for pulling together an amazing event - Laura Griesbauer Gewain, Fiona Langenberger, Katie Liming, Abbey Wakely, Josie Quintrell, and Melissa Iwamoto. Over the next year, we will continue to celebrate 20 years of IOOS. Be on the lookout for future events. We also want to hear from you! Please e-mail us at eoto@noaa.gov and let us know what you want to see from us in the decade to come. 
  • IOOS Advisory Committee Meeting: 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. 
  • Bill Woodward Selected as NOAA Team Member of the Month: Bill Woodward, Animal Telemetry Network (ATN) Coordinator with the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System Office (IOOS) in Silver Spring, MD was selected as NOAA Team Member of the Month for the month of September. The multi-agency ATN provides consistency in the collection, management, and availability of that data. Bill is being recognized for implementing seven regional ATN workshops, featuring presentations from over 139 speakers from the commercial, conservation, and research sectors to identify existing assets and prioritize needs to develop a reliable and permanent animal telemetry data stream. Bill has also recruited a range of stakeholders to ensure that all constituent community needs are represented. Bill’s guidance, organization and perseverance has had a profound impact on the nascent ATN, supporting a key NOAA goal of gathering information on the behavior and movement of marine animals. Congratulations Bill!
  • U.S. IOOS & NOAA's OAP team up on Ocean Acidification: NOAA’s Ocean Acidification Program (OAP) is teaming up with the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS®) to fund four projects aimed at improving the observing system design for characterizing ocean acidification. This work will evaluate the capability of existing observations to characterize the magnitude and extent of acidification and explore alternative regional ocean acidification observing approaches. Ultimately this work will minimize errors in measurements, better integrate existing observations, and minimize costs of monitoring ocean acidification. Read about these projects here. https://oceanacidification.noaa.gov/WhatsNew.aspx
  • U.S. IOOS Ocean Technology Transition Funding Opportunity: U.S. IOOS Program, in conjunction with NOPP, is seeking to fund projects, subject to the availability of funds, which advance new or existing technology-based solutions that address long standing and emerging coastal observing, product development, and data management challenges. See the bullet under “Grants & Funding Opportunities” below for more info. View the full notice here. More information can be found at the following links:

Observation Subsystem and Sensor Technologies:

  • Pensacola Tide Gauge Station Upgraded with New Sensors: The tide gauge station in Pensacola, Florida has successfully been upgraded to include Continuous Global Navigation Satellite Systems (cGNSS) sensors. This upgrade is part of a larger upgrade plan for all US based Global Sea Level Observing System (GLOSS) tide gauge stations. The new cGNSS sensors allow for tide gauges to detect vertical movements in the land where the gauges are located, which can help us understand total sea level change in a region. This information is  valuable to the local community and planners, as well as the global community affected by sea level change. Researchers from around the world use the GLOSS tide gauge data to study the effects of regional and global sea level. NOAA and the US has committed to upgrading all 27 GLOSS stations in the country. This work was supported by the Ocean Observing and Monitoring Division.

  • Surface Current Mapping: (IOOS PO POC, Derrick Snowden, Derrick.Snowden@noaa.gov):  
    • No update.

  • Gliders (IOOS POC LCDR Benjamin LaCour, Benjamin.Lacour@noaa.gov):
    • Hurricane Gliders Launched in the Gulf Stream: Two hurricane gliders are making their way up the Gulf Stream to measure heat content to help forecast tropical storms and hurricanes. One glider was released on July 24th from Miami, FL and the other is expected to deploy in September. These deployments are part of a new project from PI Robert Todd at WHOI, funded by NOAA’s Ocean Observations and Monitoring Division (OOMD). The Gulf Stream carries large quantities of warm water northward along the US East Coast. This reservoir of warm water can be an important source of energy to fuel hurricanes. Measuring the heat content in the Gulf Stream along the coast from Florida to North Carolina helps inform forecasts for a region in which tropical storms and hurricanes often form or intensify. Northeastward from from North Carolina, the Gulf Stream flows away from the coast and its northern edge is a boundary between the warm tropical waters that fuel hurricanes and the much cooler subtropical waters that can weaken passing hurricanes. Measuring the location and shape of this boundary is important for informing forecasts of when and where storms may begin to weaken and lose their tropical characteristics. Complementing satellite measurements that capture sea surface temperatures, the gliders provide key information on the subsurface heat content available to passing storms.
  • Animal Telemetry Network (ATN) (National Coordinator Bill Woodward, Bill.Woodward@noaa.gov):
    • Marine Megafauna Task Team Workshop at OceanObs’19: Bill and Megan McKinzie participated in the Marine Megafauna Task Team Workshop at OceanObs’19 which focused on the relevance of tracking data of marine megafauna, highly migratory marine vertebrates, as an ocean-observing tool for the decade 2019-2029. The group led by Rob Harcourt  (McQuarie Univ.) and Ana Sequeira (University of Western Australia) established two overlapping Steering Committees to work towards standardize tracking data (1) to understand the distribution, movement, behavior of marine megafauna, and be able to compare across regions and taxa, AND (2) to provide associated environmental data that (a) puts the animal movement information into its oceanographic context and (b) contributes to global ocean observing.  One Steering Committee will focus on observations collected to support the EOV/EBVs defined by the GOOS Bio-Eco Panel and the other will focus on supporting the application of oceanographic data collected by marine animals as an emerging network of the Observations Coordination Group (OCG) of JCOMM/JCOMMOPS. ATN is represented by Bill and Megan on both committees. 

Data Management and Communications (DMAC) Subsystem and Tools Built on IOOS data (DMAC listserv – contact Derrick Snowden, Derrick.Snowden@noaa.gov)

  • IOOS DMAC Code Sprint 2019, Oct 8-10 - Ann Arbor, MI: The inaugural IOOS DMAC Code Sprint will bring together software developers, data managers, and technical representatives from the US IOOS, CIOOS, and external communities to work together in person to further open source technologies for managing ocean data. Agenda topics include ERDDAP Development and Configuration, Biological Data Management, QARTOD Python Library Consolidation and Implementation, Pangeo Workshop, Common IOOS Mobile/Web App Development, IOOS Client Libraries and GitHub Management, Cloud Migration Challenges and Solutions, and Data Cataloging and Data Discovery. For more info: Website: https://glos.org/code-sprint/  
  • GCOOS welcomes new Data Manager Dr. Leila Belabbassi: Dr. Belabbassi joins GCOOS most recently from Rutgers University, where she managed and directed the OOI 1.0 Data Team transition role on the NSF-grant "Educational support and synthesis based on the initial phase of the Ocean Observatories Initiative." In her earlier role with OOI, she was responsible for data evaluation of the OOI Pioneer Array on the U.S. east coast and she has also served as the OOI Associate Data Manager.

  • QARTOD (National Coordinator Mark Bushnell, mark.bushnell@noaa.gov):
    • Input sought: In preparation for the Ocean Sciences Meeting 2020, we’re working on a paper which will examine the viability of real-time QC for the core variables without a QARTOD manual. A manual is appropriate when: a) interoperable data are generated, b) they are used in real time, and c) operators and users support the effort. We’re interested in hearing your thoughts, please let us know why your variable of interest does / doesn’t need real-time QC.

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

  • COMT Annual Meeting: The COMT Annual Meeting will be held October 22-23rd in Silver Spring, MD. More details coming soon.

Interagency and International Collaboration/News:

  • Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) (IOOS PO POC Gabrielle Canonico, Gabrielle.Canonico@noaa.gov):

     

    • MBON Pole to Pole Data Contributions in the Americas Region Expanding:  Data contributions from MBON Pole to Pole partners in the Americas to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) have grown extensively over the past two months. The team has uploaded over 14,000 new records for rocky intertidal and sandy beach areas from 10 monitoring sites across seven countries in the Americas (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Uruguay). These biodiversity records have been published via the OBIS Caribbean Node and are fully available here and at the OBIS data portal (https://obis.org/).  These records were produced using standardized field sampling techniques developed by the MBON Pole to Pole, and that are fully checked with the highest available quality control standards. The team continues to format datasets following the Darwin Core schema and expects to double the number of records (possibly more) in OBIS by the end of the year.
    • MBON Pole to Pole Efforts Supporting Conservation and Sustainability: GEO BON Webinar and Community Discussion:  On September 9, Enrique Montes, University of South Florida, presented to the global GEO BON community on the tremendous progress of the MBON Pole to Pole network in the Americas region.  The talk, titled “A Marine Biodiversity Observation Network Pole-to-Pole of the Americas in support of conservation and sustainable use of living resources in the sea” was recorded and is available here.  In summary, knowledge on the status and trends in marine biodiversity, and associated drivers of biodiversity change across the Americas is sparse and geographically uneven. International cooperation is needed to fill observational gaps to satisfy policy targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Convention of Biological Diversity. MBON Pole to Pole responds to this need by coordinating data collection using standard methods, and facilitating the sharing of information and data, capacity building, technology transfer between nations and groups, and voluntary participation of citizens in biodiversity monitoring.  Progress of the MBON Pole to Pole team was highlighted in posters, presentations, and discussions during Ocean Obs 19 in Honolulu, and will be showcased by the US GEO team at GEO Week in Canberra, Australia.
    • New BeachCOMBERS Data Portal and Products: On Monday, September 23, Patrick Daniel (CeNCOOS), Jennifer Brown (ECOS Consulting with Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and MBON), Andrew DeVogelaere and Erica Burton (MBNMS) presented the new Data Portal and data products for the BeachCOMBERS Coastal Ocean Mammal and Bird Education and Research Surveys to the Office of National Marine Sanctuary West Coast Regional office and MBNMS leadership team. MBON has been working to establish a protocol for on-going monitoring information to dynamically update sanctuary status and trends reports. This effort to build out interactive infographics for various habitats in sanctuaries, led by Jennifer Brown and Ben Best (EcoQuants) with support from MBON, US IOOS and others, has been using Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network (MARINe) monitoring data for rocky reef habitats in Monterey Bay and Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuaries and is expanding to incorporate other data types and other sanctuaries. The presentation was very well-received; pursuant discussion included a number of other data types and management issues for which the teams would like to have data available in this way to help with sanctuary management. To learn more, please contact Gabrielle Canonico.

       

  • Looking Back at The Blob: Record Warming Drives Unprecedented Ocean Change: Temperatures of up to 7 degrees Fahrenheit above normal disrupted the marine ecosystem in both expected and surprising ways. Read more here: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/looking-back-blob-record-warming-drives-unprecedented-ocean-change
  • Harmful Algal Blooms: Regional Information: If you live near the coast or the Great Lakes, you've probably experienced a harmful algal bloom — HAB for short. HABs occur when algae — simple photosynthetic organisms that live in the sea and freshwater — grow out of control while producing toxic or harmful effects on people, fish, shellfish, marine mammals, and birds. Visit our new portal for region-specific HAB information, links, and resources. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/hazards/hab/
  • NOAA awards $10.2 million for harmful algal bloom research: NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) is allocating $10.2 million in FY 2019 to fund HAB research across the nation. Approximately $8.4 million of that will cover the first year of new 3- to 5-year projects, and $1.78 million will go to 3-year projects already in process. Funded under NOAA’s ECOHAB and MERHAB programs, new projects will begin in Alaska, California, Chesapeake Bay, Florida, the Great Lakes, New England and the Pacific Northwest. A full list of the new grant awards is available online. Awardees include IOOS regional partners. 
  • NOAA Ship Nancy Foster performs full-coverage mapping survey of Northern Blake Plateau: NOAA Ship Nancy Foster conducted survey operations offshore of coastal South Carolina from August 12-30, 2019, as a joint effort between NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey and Office of Ocean Exploration and Research. This survey encompassed portions of the Blake Plateau, and was particularly special because this region has never been mapped using contemporary sonar systems. The project served Coast Survey’s mission of providing contemporary data to update nautical charting products and supported the U.S. contribution to Seabed 2030, a multi-national initiative to map the world ocean by 2030. NOAA’s contribution to this project includes providing continuous multibeam survey coverage within the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone. Read more here: https://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/updates/noaa-ship-nancy-foster-performs-full-coverage-mapping-survey-of-northern-blake-plateau/
  • NOAA searches for dangers to navigation following Hurricane Dorian: Storms, particularly hurricanes, can be unpredictable. Therefore, NOAA’s hydrographic survey response teams that aid in the reopening of ports following storms, are designed to be flexible, proactive, and are on call 24/7 should the need arise to identify dangers to navigation. Dorian became a hurricane on August 28 and reached Category 5 strength on September 1 as it made landfall over the Northern Bahamas. While there, the storm stalled and left communities devastated. It continued northwest bringing strong winds and storm surge along Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, and eventually made landfall over the Outer Banks of North Carolina as a Category 1 storm on September 6. Read about how NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey readies navigation response teams in advance of hurricanes and conducts surveys to allow for the safe reopening of ports following Hurricane Dorian here.
  • National Geodetic Survey Hurricane Dorian Damage Assessment Imagery Available Online: From September 4-7, 2019, the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) collected U.S. aerial damage assessment images for Hurricane Dorian. Imagery was collected in specific areas identified by NOAA in coordination with FEMA and other state and federal partners. NGS collected 12,516 images over four days, covering 3,682 square miles. Collected images are available to view online via the NGS aerial imagery viewer.
  • NGS Conducts Geodetic Survey to support U.S. Coast Guard: NGS employees coordinated and conducted a geodetic survey to support the “Aids to Navigation” units in the U.S. Coast Guard, establishing a control point at a facility in Crisfield, MD. The new local control mark will allow vessels to verify their GPS units when equipment has been changed or accuracy questions arise. Additionally, the new mark is near docking locations which provides better accessibility to local and visiting U.S. Coast Guard resources than previous survey mark locations. Once the coordinates are entered into the U.S. Coast Guard database, vessels can easily verify their on-board GPS positioning by navigating close to the mark and comparing results produced by their equipment. Additionally, the coordinates of the mark are referenced to the National Spatial Reference System, critical for the consistency of all federal mapping applications. For more information, contact ryan.hippenstiel@noaa.gov.
  • OceanObs'19 Conference Statement And Presentations Now Online: Thank you to everyone who made OceanObs’19 a success! Over 1,500 attendees from over 70 countries, including more than 50 delegates representing Indigenous Peoples and First Nations gathered in Honolulu, Hawai'i, for five days of meetings. To learn more about the outcomes of the conference, you can read the Final Conference Statement and Aha Honua Coastal Indigenous Peoples’ Declaration at OceanObs’19. An archive of the presentations and videos can be found on the OceanObs’19 website here.
  • POGO call for proposals: POGO is issuing a second call for proposals for 2019/20 POGO working groups, observational training, travel support and other support for ocean observing-related initiatives, with a deadline of 20th October 2019. Further information can be found and the relevant documents downloaded from http://ocean-partners.org/proposals.  Requests for extension of existing WGs are also invited at this time. Please inform the Secretariat in advance (by the end of September) if you intend to submit a proposal. The Secretariat, in consultation with the Board of Trustees, will be able to advise you as to whether your proposal fits the requirements, and answer any questions you may have.
  • EMODnet’s 2nd Open Sea Lab: a look back: With 70 participants from 19 nations, the second edition of EMODnet Open Sea Lab (OSLII) was a great success. OSLII captured the imagination in a way that few events in the marine data world can, which is largely due to the openness, creativity and enthusiasm of all of those involved. In total, 16 teams competed for a prize, developing novel marine and maritime applications using EMODnet, ICES  and Copernicus Marine’s wealth of marine data and services in just three days. The overall winner of Open Sea Lab 2019 was ‘Team Ilvo’ with the creation of an interactive fish stock assessment tool to allow non-specialists to understand and interpret fisheries data. The VLIZ and OVH awards went to ‘CODeFISH’ for their tool to provide near-future decision support for fisheries; and the Greenbridge award went to ‘Changing Seas’ for their educational augmented reality app to help families make responsible choices to protect their marine environment. Read more here: http://www.emodnet.eu/emodnets-2nd-open-sea-lab-look-back
  • Grants & Funding Opportunities
    • U.S. IOOS Ocean Technology Transition Funding Opportunity: The U.S. IOOS Program, in conjunction with NOPP, is seeking to fund projects, subject to the availability of funds, which advance new or existing technology-based solutions that address long standing and emerging coastal observing, product development, and data management challenges. The projects will be focused on those technologies for which there are demonstrated operators who commit to integrated, long term use of those technologies and open data sharing. A Transition Manager for the project should be identified and a Transition Plan will be a Year One deliverable. Closes 1/13/2020. View the full notice here. 
    • Notice of Funding Opportunity: NOAA’s Climate Program Office FY2020: NOAA’s CPO supports competitive research through three major program areas: Earth System Science and Modeling (ESSM); Climate and Societal Interactions (CSI); and Communication, Education and Engagement (CEE). Through this announcement, CPO is seeking applications for 10 individual competitions in FY20. Closes 10/28/2019.
    • DARPA BAA: This new 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:

  • Rogue buoy recovered (with a little help from our friends!): After a nearly 9-month vacation, NERACOOS' buoy N has been recovered off the coast of San Miguel Island, thanks to some generous help from the Portuguese Navy. Check out the blow-by-blow on NERACOOS' facebook page.
  • SECOORA Funds Research to Study Sound in the Marine Environment: SECOORA is excited to announce that Dr. Eric Montie, Associate Professor of Biology at the University of South Carolina Beaufort, has received $30,000 to support his work in measuring sound in the marine environment. Dr. Montie’s proposal was selected for funding through the 2019 SECOORA mini-proposal opportunity.  Read more here.
  • Operational Forecasting System model data for Great Lakes available on GLOS Portal: This operational forecasting system shows modeled currents, water levels, and temperature. This NOAA model can be accessed by opening the GLOS portal and choosing "Models" from the Category dropdown.  You'll see the OFS listed below and can click on any and add to the map!
  • New AOOS data portal version released: The Alaska Ocean Observing System (AOOS) is joining 10 other regional ocean observing systems around the US coast and Great Lakes in celebrating the 20th anniversary of the first concrete steps taken toward establishing the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) in 1999. To commemorate this milestone, AOOS has released the latest version (v2.11) of its flagship Ocean Data Explorer (https://portal.aoos.org/), the largest assembly of Alaska ocean and coastal data available to the public and meeting federal standards for data assembly. Read more here.
  • Tsunami Preparedness App Improved: NANOOS revised their NVS Tsunami portal to re-establish links with the U.S. Tsunami Warning Center for their warnings to alert the public of an earthquake generated in the Pacific basin and, potentially, a destructive tsunami. The revision to the Tsunami Evacuation Zones web portal alerting capabilities will eventually enable similar information to be pushed directly to a user's smartphone, providing users with needed information about a distant tsunami. Check out the app here.
  • New Wave Forecast for Manu'a Islands: PacIOOS is now offering a new wave model grid for the Manu'a Islands in American Samoa, encompassing the islands of Ofu, Olosega, and Ta'u. With a high resolution of 275m, the Simulating WAves Nearshore (SWAN) model captures shallow water effects and nearshore coastal dynamics. Information on wave height, period, and direction are provided for the upcoming 5-days, in 1-hour intervals. The forecast is updated daily.  Access the forecast here.
  • West Hawaiʻi Habitat Focus Area Map Viewer: PacIOOS partnered with NOAA's Habitat Blueprint Program to build a map viewer for the West Hawaiʻi Habitat Focus Area. The tool allows users to see where scientific data has been collected within the Habitat Focus Area, and also provides datasets such as boundaries, protected areas, land and seafloor features, monitoring sites, etc.  Read more and access the viewer here.
  • Three Naval Oceanography ocean gliders join six operated by NOAA AOML-CARICOOS in the Caribbean Sea and Tropical Atlantic: Naval Oceanography recently delivered three ocean gliders that will join six currently in operation by NOAA AOML-CARICOOS in the Caribbean Sea and Tropical Atlantic waters for a mission primarily focused on improving hurricane intensity forecasts. Read more here.
  • CARICOOS continues its collaboration with the Jobos Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (JBNERR): Continuing a collaboration that began back in the early days of CARICOOS, its chemical oceanography team commenced a series of field campaigns focused on documenting the spatial variability of critical chemical and physical properties in Jobos Bay. Read more here.

Congressional:

  • ICOOS Act Update: H.R. 1314 (The ICOOS Act) passed out of the House Committee on Natural Resources by unanimous consent on September 18.
  • Roundtable: MI Rep. Debbie Dingell hears from GLOS and Other Great Lakes Organizations: Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan's 12th district, sat down with us and leaders from Great Lakes conservation, research, and environmental organizations to hear their top concerns. The meeting, which took place at NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab (GLERL) in Ann Arbor, gave attendees the chance to individually present to the congresswoman, and then field her questions.

Communications/Outreach/Education:

  • GLOS to release new five-year strategic plan: On October 22, GLOS will be rolling out their plan through 2025, and they'd like to invite you to join in via webinar.  For details and registration, click here. 
  • Citizen Scientists Utilize Coral Color Card to Assess Coral Health: Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology's Coral Reef Ecology Lab has developed a Hawaiian Koʻa (coral) Card to help determine the health and bleaching status of Hawaiʻi's coral reefs based on actual health factors related to each color. The color of corals serves as a health indicator and helps to identify baselines, current conditions, and change over time. Learn more and/or pick up a coral card at your nearest Division of Aquatic Resources office and become a citizen scientist yourself!
  • Congratulations to GCOOS' Chris Simoniello, EPA 2019 Gulf Guardian Winner!: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Gulf of Mexico Division announced Dr. Christina Simoniello as a 1st Place Gulf Guardian award winner for work with the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS) Regional Association to improve water quality, habitat and environmental education in the gulf. “Protecting the Gulf of Mexico requires innovative approaches and proactive measures,” said EPA Region 4 Administrator Mary S. Walker. “The Gulf Guardian award winners are paving the way for ‘out of the box’ thinking and replicable practices.” Read more here. 
  • Tell your NERACOOS story: The NERACOOS Annual Meeting (December 6, 2019 in Portsmouth, NH) is a yearly one-day event that serves to highlight ocean observing and modeling efforts in the region. This year marks the 10-year anniversary of the NERACOOS observing system. To celebrate the past, present, and future of ocean observing in the Northeast, we would like to hear how these data and information impacted people's lives, research and decisions. Read more here.
  • GCOOS is On the Ocean: GCOOS has collaborated a series of episodes of Texas A&M's podcast "On the Ocean," which started airing in September.
  • NANOOS Presents on Marine Heat Wave for NOAA West Watch: NOAA's most recent West Watch was held on 10 September 2019. The webinar summarized coastal environmental conditions in the Western Region including discussion of the marine heat wave that has developed off the Pacific coast. The webinar included contributed slides from the NANOOS, CeNCOOS, and SCCOOS regions on their local coastal ocean conditions. NANOOS Director Jan Newton presented slides of satellite views and Pacific Northwest buoy data. Some buoys are recording temperatures >3 s.d. above normal. View the webinar slide set here. 
  • NANOOS Supports Students at NOAA Ocean Science Camp: NANOOS Outreach staff helped to facilitate an NVS tutorial and a buoy building and ocean data collection exercise. Students used the NANOOS NVS Data Explorer and Climatology applications to observe ocean buoy data and changing ocean temperatures. Student teams designed, built, tested, and deployed their own buoys in Lake Washington followed by analyzing results and presenting findings to parents and staff. The camp is held each July and is directed by Washington Sea Grant. The campers are part of NOAA Science Camp's Junior Leadership Program.
  • CARICOOS collaborates with MREP educating fisherman about how science plays a major role in recreational and commercial fishing: For the past years, CARICOOS has been collaborating with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in their annual Marine Resource Education Program (MREP) Workshop. MREP has been helping commercial and recreational fishers comprehend the complex nature of fisheries and how local organizations and agencies work together in fisheries management. Read more here. 
  • Partners in Science: Offshore Wind and the Mid-Atlantic Cold Pool: Offshore wind developers and coastal managers need accurate information about the ocean to responsibly introduce wind energy to the Mid-Atlantic Bight. On July 17, 2019, MARACOOS co-sponsored a workshop that brought together developers, state and federal agencies, commercial fishers, and scientific researchers to discuss the oceanographic features of the Mid-Atlantic Bight Cold Pool that impact offshore wind. Read more here. 
  • IOOS in the News:

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? Talk to us: eoto@noaa.gov!