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From the Director:

Dear IOOS Community,

I hope everyone had a restful Thanksgiving. Here at the IOOS Office, we have been busy closing out items as the end of the calendar year approaches and preparing for the final meetings of 2024. This week, I’m writing to you from the NERACOOS region where they will hold their Annual Meeting today followed by a celebration of their 15th anniversary. The annual meeting will focus on insights from the past 15 years of ocean observing and a look to the future at the challenges and opportunities that will most shape the next 15 years for NERACOOS. 

Next week, the American Geophysical Union (AGU) comes to Washington, D.C. to hold their annual meeting. There will be a strong NOAA presence at the meeting as always. NOAA and the IOOS Office are hosting a Town Hall at the meeting on Wednesday, December 11th at 12:30pm ET titled “The Ocean Enterprise and Weather Enterprise: Collaboration Toward Improving Forecast Skill.” The Town Hall will be moderator by NOS Assistant Administrator Nicole LeBoeuf and include panelists Cheyenne Stienbarger, Program Manager, NOAA/OAR Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing (GOMO) Program; Scott Glenn, Distinguished Professor, Rutgers University; Clarissa Anderson, Director, Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System (SCCOOS); Zack Baize, Economist-Program Manager, IOOS; and Kelly Knee, Executive Director Ocean Science at RPS, A Tetra Tech Company. The Town Hall will focus on discussing how the Ocean Enterprise is taking lessons from the Weather Enterprise  as we continue to expand and improve NOAA’s integration of ocean and coastal observing programs into forecast systems. The town hall participants will explore ways to further evolve connections between the Ocean and Weather Enterprises in the delivery of improved weather forecasts and climate projections in support of coastal resilience and the Blue Economy. If you are in town, please plan to join us. 

Thanks,

Carl

 

From the U.S. IOOS Office:

  • MTS Dialogues with Industry - HABs Webinar Series: Join the Ocean Enterprise Initiative, MTS, GOOS, and IOOS for an exciting Dialogues with Industry series focused on tackling the challenges of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs). This series will bring together experts from public, private, and academic sectors to explore opportunities and barriers in advancing collaboration, capability, and capacity to address the growing societal need for actionable HAB data and solutions. Upcoming Sessions in the series (all session times are from 10:30 AM - 1:30 PM ET):
    • Dialogue 1 (Jan 15, 2025): Instrument Provision | Register!
    • Dialogue 2 (Jan 29, 2025): User-Driven Ocean Information | Register!
    • Dialogue 3 (Feb 12, 2025): Focus on Mechanisms for Control | Register!
  • IOOS Employees Receive National Ocean Service Employee of the Year Awards: Congratulations to Debra Esty and Mathew Biddle on receiving NOS Employee of the Year Awards today. Debra Esty was recognized for exceptional performance and leadership executing an unprecedented number of grants while building and sharing expertise in the new grants management system. Matt Biddle (part of a group award across NOS was recognized for establishing the NOS Data Governance Board, fostering a data-centric culture and establishing the foundation needed to support the NOS Data Community. Great work!
  • Jennifer Hinden Awarded NOAA Silver Sherman Award: Jennifer Hinden received a NOAA Silver Sherman Award last month for delivering outstanding service to mission, colleagues, and customers. Jennifer regularly works across the IOOS Office, the National Ocean Service, other NOAA programs, and with industry partners. Through all of her work, she is often called out for going above and beyond what is normally expected. Jen is always prepared, efficient, informed, and ready to jump through any hoops necessary to move things forward and get things done. Furthermore, she always does it with a smile! The Silver Sherman award was initiated during Dr. Kathy Sullivan's tenure as NOAA Administrator, to recognize individuals who excel in their work, achieve a milestone that contributes significantly or critically towards a particular program's goal, or demonstrate leadership toward process improvement of a significant magnitude.
  • In Loving Memory of Forest Collins: It is with deep sadness that we note the death of our GOOS colleague Forest Collins, at the age of 54, on Tuesday 26 November 2024. She was a valued and well loved staff member of UNESCO for over 18 years. Initially starting her work in the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission’s (UNESCO-IOC) Tsunami Unit, she made a key contribution in the development of the tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean basin after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. Later, she brought her energy and enthusiasm to ocean observing. Her dedication, empathy, and strong support as an administrative assistant made her an integral part of the Global Ocean Observing System’s Management Team. She will be deeply missed. https://goosocean.org/news/in-loving-memory-of-forest-collins/ 
  • From the IOOS Association:
    • No update.

Observation Subsystem and Sensor Technologies:

  • Surface Current Mapping
    • No update.
  • Buoys & Moorings
    • Celebrating One Year of the Majuro Backyard Buoy: Deployed through a collaboration between the Marshall Islands Conservation Society (MICS) and Ajeltake Community Development Association (ACDA), this buoy is an essential tool providing community-led ocean observing. Located in the main channel of Majuro Atoll, next to Kalalin Island, the buoy offers near real-time information on wave height, direction, period, and water temperature. The buoy is part of the Backyard Buoys program, which is currently funded by the National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator and managed by multiple partners, including PacIOOS.
    • WA Coast Seasonal Deployments: Working aboard Oregon State University's R/V Pacific Storm from 21-24 October, UW APL's Northwest Environmental Mooring team along with Jennifer Hagen from the Quileute Tribe and a student volunteer from Western Washington University swapped the summer Cha'ba mooring with the winter version of the mooring, recovered the seasonal NEMO-subsurface profiling mooring and the ESP HAB-monitoring mooring, and successfully recovered the two hypoxia-monitoring Quileute landers. After the cruise was delayed a few days due to rough weather, the team was blessed with three days of light winds and calm seas, contributing to the success of this whirlwind 3-day cruise. 
    • The 2024 Backyard Buoys season in Alaska was a success, with 19 of 26 buoys successfully recovered before winter.
  • Harmful Algal Blooms 
    • New pH and dissolved oxygen sensors deployed at Stearns Wharf: A new SeapHOx instrument, developed by SCCOOS PI Todd Martz, was installed at Stearns Wharf in California. The SeapHOx is an autonomous water sampling device that gives us real-time measurements of seawater conditions including pH, temperature, salinity, and oxygen. This instrument is an invaluable addition to the network of SCCOOS Automated Shore Stations, which can be used to investigate changes in ocean conditions over time as well as detect and assess threats to local communities and ecosystems, such as ocean acidification and hypoxia events and harmful algal blooms.
    • 2024 Lake Erie Harmful Algal Bloom Seasonal Assessment: The 2024 Western Lake Erie cyanobacterial bloom had a severity index, or SI, of 6.6, which is moderately severe and more intense than 2023, which had an SI of 5.3. Bloom severity was slightly above the June 27 seasonal forecast, which predicted an SI between 4.5 and 6. The SI captures the biomass amount over the bloom’s 30-day peak and is calculated using satellite imagery. NOAA scientists will examine the differences between predicted and observed bloom severity in comparison with forecasts for previous years to evaluate the models. The year 2024 had the earliest bloom start on record, followed by 2018 and 2023. Formation started in late June along the Michigan coast, and the bloom was fully developed by early July.
  • Marine Life
    • NOAA, White House, others release strategy for marine carbon dioxide removal research: The Biden-Harris Administration and NOAA released the National Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal Research Strategy to advance safe and effective research on the benefits, risks and tradeoffs of marine carbon dioxide removal. The strategy outlines how the U.S. government can accelerate marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) research in a way that is safe and effective, and will help to determine if the emerging approaches are viable climate solutions. Read more here: https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/white-house-noaa-and-other-federal-partners-release-national-strategy-for-marine-CO2-removal-research 
    • NOAA and Carbon to Sea team up to develop data management guidelines for marine carbon dioxide removal projects: NOAA announced a new Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the Carbon to Sea Initiative, a nonprofit that brings together funders and scientists to support research, technology development, and knowledge-sharing to evaluate whether the ocean can safely remove and store billions of tons of carbon dioxide. The three-year partnership between NOAA and Carbon to Sea will establish guidelines to ensure consistency and comparability across marine carbon dioxide removal projects, enhancing the impact of research findings in this critical field. Read more here: https://research.noaa.gov/noaa-and-carbon-to-sea-team-up-to-develop-data-management-guidelines-for-marine-carbon-dioxide-removal-projects/ 

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

  • DMAC Tech Webinar: The DMAC team, Laura Brenskelle and Micah Wengren, hosted a DMAC tech webinar by GLOS (Joe Smith and Tim Kearns) on Thursday, Nov 21. The webinar was titled “Seagull Omics: Integrating Omics Data into a Cloud First, Internet of Things Oriented Platform for Laurentian Great Lakes Data”. It highlighted the development and functionality of the Omics layer in Seagull, specifically for eDNA data related to harmful algal bloom detection. The agenda and chat from the webinar are available here.
  • IOOS Attends Hack the Hackathon: Matt Biddle attended Hack the Hackathon from November 18-22nd at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. Hack the Hackathon is an unconference series and interdisciplinary community exploring scientific collaboration, learning, and civic engagement through hackathons. During the event, participants were encouraged to “hack” on projects to advance a collective resource of tools, services, and understanding of hackathon style events. Matt and Max Grover (a former IOOS Code Sprint participant) developed a template for establishing materials for a hackathon event. The template builds the resources to establish a website, using GitHub Pages, create a series of GitHub Issues for planning and executing a hackathon style event, create project pages based on content from GitHub issues. The “cookiecutter” template is intended to be formally approved by Hack the Hackathon to be provided as the foundation for hosting a hackathon style event. See https://github.com/hackthackathon/hackathon-template-cookiecutter. Matt also presented on IOOS’ efforts in coordinating various types of events
  • CETACEAN Geospatial Data Repository is Live! This five-year collaborative project — funded through NRDA Open Ocean Restoration Area funds from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill with NOAA as the Lead Implementing Trustee and managed by GCOOS — is focusing on helping to restore cetacean populations, including common bottlenose dolphins, Atlantic spotted dolphins, Bryde’s whales, and sperm whales, injured during the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Check it out here.
  • Artificial Intelligence

Modeling and Analysis:   

  • The IOOS Regional Models and Applications inventory webpage is now live! This webpage provides a central repository for users to browse and access the regional associations’ vast collection of coastal and ocean models. Feel free to send any questions, concerns, or feedback to breanna.vanderplow@noaa.gov.

Around the Regions:

  • CARICOOS Hosts First Cari-CAN Ocean Acidification Workshop: The Caribbean Coastal Acidification Network (Cari-CAN) hosted its first Ocean Acidification Workshop on November 13, 2024, at the Sheraton Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The event, which welcomed in-person and virtual participants, was organized by the Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observation System in collaboration with the NOAA Ocean Acidification Program CAN. Read more here.
  • GCOOS Fall Meeting: A record 145 members and friends registered for the Nov. 8 GCOOS Fall Meeting, which included an introduction to new board members, updates on new database catalogs for dolphins, whales and sea turtles, along with summaries of new projects being funded through the federal Inflation Reduction Act. We also discussed ongoing efforts to improve and strengthen the only ocean observing system dedicated solely to the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the events and projects we are looking forward to in 2025. If you were unable to attend the meeting, you can still learn about ocean observing activities in the Gulf by reviewing the meeting presentations and recordings on our website.
  • History of Ocean Observing in the Gulf: As GCOOS prepares to celebrate its 20th Anniversary in 2025 we’d like to highlight historical datasets, images, video and other resources from the Gulf of Mexico’s ocean observing community. And, if you were there in the early days when GCOOS was just an idea being developed by visionaries like Dr. Worth Nowlin, retired TAMU Distinguished Professor, and others, we’d like to hear your story, too! Contact Nadine Slimak, GCOOS Communications lead, at Nadine@VettedCommunications.com.
  • AOOS hosts workshop on November 19 for Marine Particle Tracking and Viz Tools: AOOS hosted a stakeholder workshop on November 19 for the IOOS Ocean Technology & Transition (OTT) project Marine Particle Tracking and Visualization Tools aimed at developing an intuitive model-driven particle tracking capability for the AOOS Data Portal. The new portal capabilities will expand stakeholder use of the NOAA Cook Inlet Ocean Forecast System (CIOFS) products by providing new, user-friendly interfaces and visualizations of 3-D model forecast and hindcast information for planning scenarios. The longer term goal is to make this tool adaptable to other models and NOAA Forecast Systems across the country.
  • Alongside California and USC Sea Grant, Heal the Bay, and Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples, SCCOOS held the 3rd community meeting on October 25th at USC. Over 150 attendees heard the latest research findings about where DDT has been found and how it could impact humans and wildlife. The videos of our meeting are in Spanish and English.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility:

  • The Alaska OA Network has been helping to organize a coastal radio show highlighting local voices of scientists and community members and their perspectives on ocean change. The first two Kodiak shows have been aired (1 | 2), and plans are underway to record in Sitka. 
  • IRA Project: Ice Thickness Data Workshop: GLOS is kicking off a new project to help improve regional ice predictive models. Currently, ice modelers have little to no information regarding ice thickness on the Lakes. GLOS will attempt to help fill this data gap with community assistance. On December 9th, GLOS will be hosting the project kickoff workshop at UW-Green Bay to share project details and gauge interest from the ice fishing community on sharing their ice thickness measurements. Interested community members can volunteer to test the system. See the web page and the event flyer for more information. 

Interagency and International Collaboration/News:

  • UN Decade of Ocean Science For Sustainable Development Updates: 
    • No update.
  • Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) News:
    • GOOS Ocean Decade Support Officer: UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) is now looking for a consultant to fill the role of the GOOS Ocean Decade Support Officer. The role will focus on supporting DCO-OO Lead in coordinating and supporting Ocean Decade programmes and actions under the DCO, in line with the DCO’s Terms of Reference and work plan; working with GOOS to provide support to the GOOS Ocean Decade Programme Observing Together. The position is a full-time, 11-month consultancy and will be carried out remotely. Learn more here: https://goosocean.org/news/call-for-individual-consultants-goos-ocean-decade-support-officer/ 
    • Call for applications: Chair of the GOOS Observations Coordination Group: GOOS is seeking applications for the position of Chair of its Observations Coordination Group (OCG). This role is an active working role and requires someone who is experienced in ocean observing at a senior level and interested in evolving the OCG ‘enterprise’, within the overall GOOS vision, strategy, governance, and implementation plan. The set of attributes and skills that GOOS is seeking in candidates, are laid out in the IOC Circular Letter No. 3014 Annex 1, and the commitments in Annex 2. Read more here: https://goosocean.org/news/call-for-applications-chair-of-the-goos-observations-coordination-group-ocg/ Applications close 18 December 2024 at 13:00 CET.
  • Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) News:
    • Exploring OSU's Ocean Observatories Initiative Through Virtual Reality: Students and faculty at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology (OIMB) had the opportunity to participate in a 360-degree virtual reality (VR) tour of Oregon State University’s (OSU) U.S. National Science Foundation’s Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) Ocean Observing Center in Corvallis. Led by Dr. Jonathan Fram, co-PI and project manager for the OOI Endurance Array, the tour provided an in-depth look at the advanced instruments and systems used to study the ocean’s physical, chemical, geological, and biological processes. Read more here: https://oceanobservatories.org/2024/11/exploring-osus-ocean-observatories-initiative-through-virtual-reality 
  • NOAA seeks nominations for Climate Services Advisory Committee: The CSAC will advise NOAA on the accessibility and effectiveness of NOAA's climate services – data, information, science, tools and decision support – in preparing our nation for the impacts of climate change, consistent with our Equitable Climate Services Action Plan. The CSAC will be made up of up to 20 non-federal members, including representatives from underserved and highly impacted communities, community-based organizations, nonprofit organizations, philanthropy, state and local governments, Indigenous communities, and groups from sectors such as public health, affordable housing, workforce and economic development, food security, small business and education. Nominations are due by December 20, 2024, see the Federal Register Notice here.
  • MAFAC Nomination Period Open: NOAA Fisheries seeks nominations to fill four vacancies on the Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee. Committee members are highly qualified, diverse individuals with experience in commercial, recreational, aquaculture, and non-commercial fisheries and businesses; seafood industry, including processing, marketing, restaurants, and related industries; marine, ecosystems, or protected resources management and conservation; and human dimensions or social sciences associated with living marine resources and working waterfronts. Full details on the opportunity, including instructions for submitting nominations, can be found here.
  • Calling all Ocean Guardian Youth Ambassadors! Are you a youth passionate about the ocean and the natural environment? Are you looking for a way to develop the skills you need to engage in conservation and stewardship opportunities? Do you want to connect with like-minded youth and become an environmental leader at your school or in your community? Apply for Cohort 3 of the NOAA Ocean Guardian Youth Ambassador Program!
  • Call for Abstracts: NOAA Enterprise Data Management Workshop (EDMW) 2025: The 2025 NOAA Enterprise Data Management Workshop (EDMW) call for abstracts is now open! Abstracts submissions will be accepted from November 21, 2024 to January 8, 2025. All NOAA federal employees, contractors, affiliates, and NOAA partners are eligible to submit abstracts. Submit abstracts here.
  • CO-OPS and the Office for Coastal Management (OCM) released the first version of NOAA’s Sea Level Calculator! This new tool is a major accomplishment for both our offices and a testament to what can be achieved when we work together. The Sea Level Calculator provides the best available information on sea level change and coastal flooding. It features a customizable interface with five “Quick Views” that provide easy access to information about past, current, and future flooding served up in easy-to-understand charts and maps. Each “Quick View” is accompanied by a short video to help users learn about and make the most of the tool’s features. Underlying data comes from CO-OPS foundational water level observing network, NASA, OCM inundation map services, and the 2022 Interagency Sea Level Technical Report.
  • CO-OPS rebuilds two Great Lakes water level stations: CO-OPS rebuilt two National Water Level Observation Network stations on the Great Lakes, including the station at Ogdensburg, New York, after the previous 1940 structure was damaged during Hurricane Sandy. CO-OPS added a new fiberglass insulated shelter with new sensors and electronics and a Continuously Operating Reference Station. This new station will continue the long history of measuring water levels on the St. Lawrence River at Ogdensburg, with the first official measurements dating back to 1900. Further west, the water level station at Point Iroquois, Michigan, underwent major structural repairs and upgrades and was outfitted with a new, updated electrical panel. Both rebuilds were made possible by funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which is funding CO-OPS’s critical upgrades to its coastal observing infrastructure.
  • Moving Mountains - NOAA Ocean Podcast: Episode 79: Since 2007, NOAA’s National Ocean Service has been working to update the National Spatial Reference System. This huge project will modernize the system for measuring the horizontal positions and vertical elevations of the United States and its territories. During the course of this work, NOAA scientists realized that the heights of Colorado’s famous “Fourteeners” — or mountains with peak elevations of at least 14,000 feet — had been overestimated. In this episode, we learn why this occurred, how this impacts the status of these mountains, and what benefits this project will have for the nation. Our featured expert is Derek van Westrum, physicist with NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey. Listen to the episode here. 

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