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

Click here to subscribe a new address or if you no longer want to receive the newsletter.

 Want to read this edition in a browser or check out the archive?  Visit us online!

From the Director:

Dear IOOS Community,

Welcome to March everyone. First off let me thank our entire IOOS Inflation Reduction Act implementation and planning team, for completing proposals and submitting them by the March 5 deadline. This massive effort included many players across the entire IOOS enterprise and I have been really impressed with how much collaboration took place in partnerships across the IOOS RAs, the IOOS Association, NOAA programs, the IOOS Office and others.  Thank you all who put in many hours from concept to final proposal to get this proposal process completed on time.

Last month many of us had the opportunity to participate in the AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting 2024 in New Orleans, LA. The meeting brought together almost 6,000 attendees to share science, meet collaborators, and discuss advancements in ocean science. During the conference week, we announced the first group of awards for the Ocean-based Climate Resilience Accelerator program, funded through the Inflation Reduction Act. This program fosters public-private partnerships to develop and support sustainable business models focused on coastal, oceans, and Great Lakes climate resilience. The IOOS Program along with the Marine Technology Society hosted a kick-off event for the OCRA program on Feb 20th and NOAA Administrator Dr. Rick Spinrad provided opening remarks at the event. "In the information-based new economy, we have to make investments that will spur development," said Dr. Spinrad during his remarks. Many thanks to the IOOS, NOAA, and DOC staff for their extraordinary effort to expedite our grants review to get this to the finish line in time for this important kick-off event. 

Next week, the IOOS Association, the IOOS Regions, and the IOOS Office will meet for the annual spring meeting in Washington, D.C. The meeting will include a panel with BOEM on wind energy, a congressional briefing on ICOOS Act reauthorization, and working sessions focused on Modernization/New Priorities vs Sustaining Systems and Maturing and evolving organizationally. We are looking forward to two days of collaboration to advance the IOOS mission. 

Lastly, there are some new faces around the IOOS office. Welcome to Sarah Nickford, Laura Brenskelle, Rhyan Grech, and Mary Solokas. You can read more about them below.

 

Thanks,
Carl

From the U.S. IOOS Office:

  • IOOS Federal Advisory Committee Public Meeting - March 18th - 1pm-3:30pm: The IOOS Federal Advisory Committee will hold a virtual public meeting on March 18th, 1pm-3:30pm ET. The meeting will focus on: (1) IOOC Strategic Plan, (2) final recommendations from the Phase 2 workplan, and (3) updates on the spring public meeting. The latest version of the agenda will be posted at https://ioos.noaa.gov/​community/​u-s-ioos-advisory-committee/​. More information about the meeting is available in the Federal Register Notice. 
  • Ocean-Based Climate Resilience Accelerator Awards Announced: This week, NOAA and IOOS announced $3.9 million in awards through the Inflation Reduction Act to support development of 16 proposed Ocean-Based Climate Resilience Accelerators. These awardees are invited to apply to an exclusive Request for Applications that will grant up to $55 million to successful accelerators for program implementation over four years. The accelerators, led by IOOS, will create a nationwide, coordinated business accelerator program that identifies and develops key commercial opportunities for improved use of ocean and coastal observing technologies and information services essential to climate resilience. The program supports the accelerator development that provides early-to-mid-stage businesses with training, resources, mentorship, and seed funding to facilitate taking opportunities to market. All Phase 1 awardees are invited to apply for funding for up to four years for accelerator implementation; awards are anticipated next winter.
  • Welcome! We have new faces around the IOOS Office:
    • Welcome Laura Brenskelle! Laura Brenskelle is joining the IOOS office as a Physical Scientist in the Operations Division, specializing in data management and product development with a focus on marine life data. Before IOOS, she supported NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) as the lead of their Metadata Team for two years. Laura has a strong background in biodiversity informatics with an M.S. from The University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. from the University of Florida. She is looking forward to contributing to the advancement of biological data management practices in the IOOS community.
    • Welcome Rhyan Grech! Rhyan Grech is joining IOOS as a Program Analyst for Regional Coordination. Rhyan will be working with the Regions, Budget, & Policy Division of IOOS to support the Regional Associations' projects advanced by IRA funding as well as working with communications to share the progress of these initiatives. Rhyan has 20 years of experience working with environmental NGOs in restoration, conservation, education, policy, and advocacy. She has a B.S. in Biology from West Chester University, and a M.S. in Oceanography from Rutgers University.
    • Welcome Sarah Nickford, 2024 Sea Grant Knauss Fellow! Sarah joins the IOOS Office as the 2024 IOOS Science and Technology Ocean and Coastal Enterprise Knauss Fellow. Sarah received her B.S. in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, with minors in Geospatial Science and Coastal Environmental Studies, at Stony Brook University. From there, she went to the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography where she received her Ph.D. in Oceanography with a concentration in physical oceanography.
    • Welcome Mary Solokas! Mary is joining the IOOS office as a Program Analyst under the Regions, Budget, and Policy Division. Mary spent the past year as a Knauss Marine Policy Fellow working in NOAA's Uncrewed Systems Research Transition Office. Prior to the fellowship, Mary completed an M.S. in Freshwater and Marine Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she researched the impacts of climate change on freshwater fisheries. She also holds a B.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Notre Dame.
  • From the IOOS Association: 
    • 2024 Caraid Award Recipient: Dave Jones: The IOOS Association is pleased to announce that Dave Jones of StormCenter Communications, Inc. is the 2024 recipient of the Caraid Award. Dave is receiving this award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to observing, understanding and protection of our oceans and coasts through vision, leadership, friendship, and collaboration. Send a message to Dave here!

Observation Subsystem and Sensor Technologies:

  • Surface Current Mapping
    • Registration is open now through May 1, 2024 for the 13th Radiowave Oceanographers Working Group Meeting (ROWG-13)!  Using the form here, you are invited to register and help shape the agenda of the ROWG-13 hybrid meeting. ROWG-13 will be held May 21–23, 2024 at the University of Southern Mississippi’s Hardy Hall in Long Beach, Mississippi, U.S.A. Operators of HF-radars worldwide are welcome to attend ROWG-13. Registration for and attendance of ROWG-13 is free; your only costs will be for your own travel, lodging, and meals. In line with the ROWG Charter, the focus of this meeting will be on the installation, operation, and maintenance of oceanographic and liminographic HF-radar sensors. For more information, including a meeting hotel discount code, please see the registration form.
  • Gliders 
    • 2024 Glider Workshop Planning: The Underwater Glider User Group (UG2) is making plans for a 2024 Glider Workshop, building on the success of previous meetings. The date is tentatively scheduled two-and-a-half days the week of Sept. 9, 2024, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. UG2 is also seeking input from potential workshop attendees on topics to cover and other details. Please click here to fill out the expression of interest form and help organizers plan the agenda and confirm meeting dates, etc.
  • Buoys & Moorings
    • Backyard Buoys All-Hands Meeting: The Backyard Buoys project partners convened in Honolulu in February to strengthen bonds as collaborators. Participants shared success stories and lessons learned, and worked together on plans for upcoming Backyard Buoys efforts. A beta version of the new Backyard Buoys website was launched; the site will become a portal for buoy tutorials, links to regional data portals, news, and more. Backyard Buoys is funded through the NSF Convergence Accelerator Program.
  • Harmful Algal Blooms 
    • Ciguatera Workshops in the Republic of the Marshall Islands and Hawaii: Dr. Eileen Nalley, an Ocean and Coastal Health Specialist at Hawaiʻi Sea Grant working with PacIOOS and NOAA, facilitated a ciguatera training workshop in the Republic of the Marshall Islands in collaboration with Andrew McInnis (Hawai‘i Sea Grant and PacIOOS) and Dr. Alison Robertson (with a team from Dauphin Island Sea Lab, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, and Cawthron Institute). The week-long workshop in Majuro marked the first in-person event for the Pacific Ciguatera Network. Attendees shared experiences, engaged in reciprocal learning, identified priorities, explored future capacity, gained experience in field collections and lab analyses, strengthened partnerships, and discussed next steps for addressing ciguatera issues in the RMI and throughout the Pacific. A second, condensed workshop was held on O‘ahu at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology.
    • HAB Bloom Forecasting Used in Novel Lake Champlain Study: A new paper compares the variability of harmful algal blooms from year to year in Lake Champlain’s Missisquoi Bay with previously monitored water bodies in Green Bay, Wisconsin; Saginaw Bay, Michigan; and western Lake Erie. The three previously monitored embayments showed a statistically significant relationship between bloom sizes and river discharge; however, this did not occur in Missisquoi Bay. A two-parameter multiple regression model fit the cyanobacterial data well and showed that the year-to-year variability of blooms in Missisquoi Bay are a function of atmospheric instability and water temperature and not river discharge.
    • NHABON Webinars: 
      • March Webinar: Please join us for our next webinar on March 20, 2024 from 3:00-4:00 PM EST on Observing Sargassum. Stay tuned for a registration link. You can watch the latest webinar here!
  • Marine Life
    • TOS Honors 2024 Recognize Dr. Frank Muller-Karger: MBON is pleased to announce that Dr. Frank Muller-Karger, MBON co-chair, was recognized by The Oceanography Society (TOS) 2024 Honors as a Fellow for his exceptional achievement and contributions to ocean sciences.The citation recognizes him for extraordinary endowment and leadership in furthering our understanding of Earth and, in particular, the ocean, through the use of remote sensing and field work.Dr. Muller-Karger’s achievements will be celebrated during The Oceanography Society’s Honors Breakfast taking place on February 21, 2024, during the Ocean Sciences Meeting. You can learn more about the 2024 TOS Honors recipients here.
    • NANOOS has published its first Darwin Core aligned dataset to the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)! This zooplankton dataset was collected by Julie Keister (University of Washington / NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center) as part of a larger study led by examining the effects of hypoxia on species composition, distributions, and predator-prey interactions between zooplankton and fish in a pelagic marine ecosystem. The alignment to Darwin Core was led by Emilio Mayorga with input from Julie Keister's team. Day/night paired zooplankton sampling was conducted in Hood Canal, Puget Sound, during 10 monthly cruises from June to October, 2012 and 2013, at five stations. An obliquely towed multi-net system was used to collect depth stratified and full water column samples. Zooplankton densities were calculated based on quantitative subsampling and microscopic counting. All individuals were identified to species or larger taxonomic grouping, and by life stages for some species, within each sample. This dataset as published with OBIS contains 6,853 occurrences and incorporates corrections and updates to a dataset previously published on BCO-DMO. The process by which these data were aligned to Darwin Core has been thoroughly documented in a GitHub Repository and has already lowered the barrier for mobilizing other, related NANOOS data.
    • Call for Photos: Share your best photographs of tagged marine animals with the IOOS Marine Life Program! Select photos will be featured in the updated ATN/Marine Life Implementation Plan and possibly other IOOS publications, presentations, and social media platforms. All images should be a minimum of 1200 pixels wide and MUST include the following information: photographer’s name, affiliation, permit number (if applicable), and a short description of the photo (species, application, and location). Please submit photos and questions to ATN.NC@noaa.gov. By submitting photos, you are assuming ownership of them, giving us permission to use them, and declaring you used best practiceswhile collecting them. Photo credit will be provided for all photos. Please share this announcement with your telemetry colleagues.

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

  • IOOS Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2024 Announcement - Request for Project Proposals: IOOS has been accepted to the 2024 Google Summer of Code program! We have a short window of time before March 18 during which we are able to accept new student project proposals. You do not need to work for IOOS to participate as a student mentor — we’ll accept any suitable projects that involve furthering an existing open source, ocean data-related software package. IOOS’ list of 2024 projects is available at: https://github.com/ioos/gsoc/blob/main/2024/ideas-list.md, with additional information about IOOS’ GSoC participation at: https://github.com/ioos/gsoc — including projects completed during GSoC 2021 and 2022. Mentoring for GSoC involves developing a student coding project of either 90, 175, or 350 hours for students to complete during summer 2024. Mentors will review code students develop, provide feedback, and help guide them towards success (and in the process contribute new functionality to your software/tools). Please reach out to IOOS leads Micah Wengren (micah.wengren@noaa.gov) and Matt Biddle (mathew.biddle@noaa.gov) if you are interested in submitting a new project.  We need any new project ideas soon (before March 18, but ideally ASAP) so that students can begin preparing their applications and discussing the projects with you.
  • QARTOD
    • No update.
  • Artificial Intelligence
    • IOOS at the World Fisheries Congress: Hassan Moustahfid (U.S. IOOS), Jan Newton (NANOOS), Sheyna Wisdom (AOOS), Clarissa Anderson (SCCOOS), Jake Kritzer (NERACOOS), and Henry Ruhl (CeNCOOS) chaired a Symposium at the 9th World Fisheries Congress this week in Seattle on  "Enhancing coastal and ocean observing networks for ecosystem and fisheries monitoring and prediction.” The session covered topics on the power of integrated coastal ocean observing long-term time series data that provide knowledge of the past, present state of the oceans, including fish and other living resources, and are useful for predicting future changes. This session also highlighted the key gaps and future needs of coastal observations, full data lifecycle from data procurement, processing, product development and communication to effectively monitor and manage marine ecosystems and fisheries in a changing climate. See more about the session here: https://www.xcdsystem.com/afs/program/Yf71aaK/index.cfm. Big thank you to Jan, Clarissa, Sheyna, Henry and Jake for all the great work to put this symposium together. It was a great success.

Modeling and Analysis Subsystem:   

  • NOAA Releases 10-Year Modeling Strategy: We are excited to announce the official public release of NOAA’s 10-Year Modeling Strategy! Download the document here. 

Around the Regions:

  • Hawaiian Islands Saildrone Survey Completed: From April through November, 2023, three Saildrone Explorers conducted a comprehensive near-shore ocean water quality survey around the main Hawaiian Islands. These autonomous surface sailing vessels gathered over one hundred thousand essential water quality measurements, including temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, turbidity, pH and CO2 levels in both the water and air. Data from the missions can be viewed on PacIOOS Voyager.
  • Ocean Observing in California: Celebrate the Past, Showcase the Present, Envision the Future, May 14-16, 2024. A Joint Meeting Hosted by SCCOOS, CeNCOOS, and CalCOFI. Important dates: 
    • Early Bird Registration closes 3/28
    • Abstract deadline March 8th - This Friday ... If you need an extension contact us
  • CARICOOS data for students, tourism: CARICOOS took part in an educational conference aimed at students during the International Surfing Association World Games in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Their participation was made possible through an invitation from the Surfrider Foundation, and over 100 students joined us to delve into CARICOOS products focusing on wave height and forecasting. In addition, CARICOOS took part in Hoteliercon, a convention specifically aimed at tourist operations, with a focus on addressing topics related to water safety in ocean activities within the sector.
  • GCOOS Howard Scholarship Fund Fellows: The GCOOS Fellowship supports travel expenses for Fellows to attend the 2024 Ocean Sciences meeting in New Orleans (Feb. 18-23, 2024) and, over the next six months, they will also have opportunities to participate in meetings and discussion panels as they work with the GCOOS Board of Directors, staff and partners to learn about ocean science career opportunities and the management of big ocean data. The Fellows are:
    • Matthew Barrs, an undergraduate studying mechanical engineering in the Burnett Honors College at the University of Central Florida. He is also the newest member of the GCOOS Outreach and Education Council; and
    • Cassandra Stanish, an undergraduate studying mechanical engineering at the Florida Institute of Technology.

Congratulations Matthew and Cassandra, and you can read more here. 

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility:

  • Inaugurating CARICOOS’ First Coastal and Aquatic Hazards Educational Center in Puerto Rico: On February 1, 2024, CARICOOS inaugurated the first Coastal and Aquatic Hazards Education Center at the Alejandro Tapia y Rivera Montessori school in La Parguera, a frontline community in Lajas, Puerto Rico. CERCA aims to educate and inform citizens about the risks and vulnerabilities faced by communities living in coastal areas. Read more here.
  • New online course from the Alaska Ocean Acidification Network: The Alaska OA Network is launching a free online course that provides a process-based understanding of ocean acidification’s impacts in Alaska waters. The self-paced course is comprised of 8-modules filled with short videos, vibrant photos, and easy-to-digest language. Please share! 
  • IOOS staff participated in the Voyage to Justice: Equity and Climate Justice Forum on Feb 14 & 15. The forum featured presentations and panel discussions with leadership from NOAA, Department of Commerce, the White House, and other federal agencies speaking on the need to improve our commitment to equity and environmental justice throughout government services. The program actively engaged the participants, a mix of staff from NOAA/government and community based organizations, in a dialogue about ways to better understand and improve equitable service delivery. 

Interagency and International Collaboration/News:

  • UN Decade of Ocean Science For Sustainable Development updates: 
    • 2024 UN Ocean Decade Conference - 10-12 April - Barcelona: With an expected attendance of 1,500 people, the 2024 Ocean Decade Conference will feature the participation of over 40 international speakers and be complemented by more than 130 Satellite Events. Click here for the latest announcements. Discover the first confirmed Satellite Events happening during the Ocean Decade Week in Barcelona on 8-12 April! From interactive panels and workshops to hackathons, these partner-led events will be action-oriented and contribute in a tangible way to one or more of the Conference outcomes.
    • A New Set of Endorsed Ocean Actions: Kicking off its fourth year of implementation, the Ocean Decade has endorsed a new batch of 45 Decade Actions focused on the advancement of science-based solutions for a healthy ocean. Learn more here. 
  • Global Ocean Observing System news:
    • Closes Soon! Call for Nominations: GOOS Steering Committee Experts: The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO is accepting nominations for scientific and technical experts to serve on the Global Ocean Observing System's Steering Committee alongside the five members elected by the IOC Member State Electoral Groups in June 2023. The GOOS Steering Committee plays a pivotal role in guiding the strategic direction of GOOS, fostering collaboration, and ensuring the effective implementation of ocean observation initiatives worldwide. Expertise of the Steering Committee members should include capacity in ocean observing (including in situ and satellite), data management, operational services, risk management, governance, resource sourcing and management, technology development, capacity development, and/or outreach and communications. Nominations of Early Career Ocean Professionals are welcome. Steering committee members are expected to attend annual in person Steering Committee meetings which are held in English, and 2 to 3 virtual meetings throughout the year. Nomination forms should be sent via email to Ms Forest Collins (f.collins@unesco.org) no later than 8 March 2024. Please refer to the IOC Circular Letter (CL-2983) for more information.
    • New paper published: "An Integrated Buoy-Satellite based Coastal Water Quality Nowcasting System: India's Pioneering Efforts Towards Addressing UN Ocean Decade challenges”: This article discusses the development and implementation of a Water Quality Nowcasting System aimed at monitoring and forecasting water quality in Indian coastal waters. This paper is our efforts towards observing the ocean in an integrated way with a focus on tackling some of the ocean challenges while meeting the national priorities on clean oceans. The paper represents a significant milestone in India's efforts to address the challenges outlined by the UN Ocean Decade and underscores the importance of innovative approaches in coastal water quality monitoring. We believe that this research contributes valuable insights into the field of coastal oceanography and will be of interest to researchers, policymakers, and stakeholders involved in marine conservation and sustainable development.
  • Ocean Observatories Initiative news:
    • Jupyter Hub Town Hall Video Available: OOI hosted a virtual town hall on Wednesday March 6, 2024 highlighting how you can learn how researchers and educators are using OOI’s Jupyter Hub in their research and classrooms.  During this one-hour town hall, OOI Data Lead Jeffrey Glatstein, OOIFB Chair and Queens College Assistant Professor Dax Soule, and OOI Data Expert Stace Beaulieu gave hands-on demonstrations of OOI Jupyter Hub. See the video here. 
    • OOI in the Classroom: Collaboration Opportunities: The Ocean Observatories Initiative and the OOI Ocean Data Labs are serious collaborators.  While two different NSF-funded initiatives share portions of their names, their roles are different, but complementary.  The OOI Ocean Data Labs Project uses OOI data in creating instructional materials for undergraduate classrooms. This collaboration is helping to expand the use of OOI data into classrooms and into the hands of potential future researchers. To honor this collaboration, the OOI has launched a new Discourse forum "OOI in the Classroom," where educators can share their experiences teaching with OOI data and establish dialogues with their colleagues. (Photo Credit: Janice McDonnell). Learn more. 
    • Instrumentation Updates for Pioneer MAB Array: Community input was sought on measurements that would be desirable for the proposed relocation of the Pioneer Array to the Mid-Atlantic Bight. More than 40 instruments or measurement types were initially discussed, which was winnowed down to about a dozen high-priority recommendations. After considering applicability to the science themes, technical readiness level, operational feasibility, and budget impacts, the OOI can implement most of the high-priority recommendations. Among the goals for the relocation process was to optimize the use of existing inventory, and it was possible to do so while addressing several of the instrumentation recommendations. In some cases, new procurements were required, although one of these procurements was needed to replace an obsolete core sensor. Learn more. 
  • CO-OPS Expands Port Everglades PORTS®: CO-OPS installed two buoy-mounted currents meters as part of the Port Everglades Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System, or PORTS®. The meters bring a new type of data to the system, which previously delivered only water level data. This information will assist pilots with more effectively navigating an area with challenging cross-currents and a short channel. The enhanced measurements will further support the Port Everglades Navigation Improvement Project, which will enable safe passage of today’s larger, more-efficient cargo vessels to their berths. Currents data from one of the sea buoy meters is now available. Data from the second meter is scheduled to be available next month. As Port Everglades grows, the expanded PORTS system will help the port continue to operate safely and maintain its position as a trusted port in the region.
  • CO-OPS Expands Jacksonville PORTS®: CO-OPS recently added a buoy-mounted current meter in Jacksonville’s Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System, or PORTS®. Located in the newly established secondary approach channel to the St. Johns River, the sensor collects and delivers real-time tidal current speed and direction. Capturing currents data at this location is helpful for understanding cross-currents that affect anchorage procedures and create concerns for navigation. This information is especially valuable for the St. Johns Bar Pilots, who use the St. Johns Approach channel and are critical to navigating commercial, deep-draft vessels to and from Florida’s Port of Jacksonville. Real-time data from the sensor will further support vessels following speed restrictions that protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales passing through the area. This expansion supports the CO-OPS mission to provide reliable real-time data to the public and maritime community.
  • CO-OPS at the Virtual Reality Sea Level Rise Demonstration: CO-OPS participated in a virtual reality, or VR, sea level rise demonstration at the 2024 ESRI FedGIS Conference. The VR experience was developed by ESRI and Old Dominion University, or ODU. This collaborative effort between federal, private, and academic entities brings data from the 2022 interagency sea level rise report to life through the visualization of potential sea level rise scenarios in Norfolk, Virginia. Media analysts and journalists interested in covering this work in future articles and reports attended the event. During the demonstration, ESRI and ODU discussed the value of these immersive visualizations for helping coastal communities understand potential vulnerabilities and plan for at-risk areas in a hands-on way. CO-OPS highlighted the importance of NOAA’s authoritative data underpinning these visualizations and of the technical assistance programs that help communities interpret and apply data to decision-making.
  • OCS Hosts Basic Hydro School: OCS is hosting NOAA’s annual Basic Hydro School. This three-week intensive course includes the fundamentals of underwater acoustics, sonar theory, positioning and datum information, and project-based learning. It also includes an introduction to the technical aspects of NOAA’s hydrographic mission. Students include personnel from NOAA Ships Rainier, Fairweather, Ferdinand R. Hassler, and Reuben Lasker, the OMAO Relief Pool, Hydrographic Surveys Division operations, Integrated Ocean and Coastal Mapping, and the OMAOs’ Marine Engineering Emerging Tech Division. The U.S. Marine Corps Topographic and Collections Platoon, Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency are also attending. Rear Admiral Benjamin Evans visited the students during the first week to discuss OCS’s mapping mission and the role of the students as the future of hydrography. This year’s training is administered by the Center of Excellence for Ocean and Great Lakes Mapping at the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center in Yorktown, Virginia.
  • OCS Hosts Field Procedures Workshop: OCS’s Hydrographic Surveys Division hosted its annual Field Procedures Workshop in Seattle, Washington. The three-day workshop brought together subject matter experts from several offices, including OCS, OMAO, CO-OPS, NGS, NCEI, and NOAA Research; NOAA and NOS senior leadership; private industry; federal partners; international partners; academic partners; and software and hardware vendors. The workshop’s primary topics focused on exchanging best practices, emerging technologies, and the latest hydrography developments and applications. This year’s goal was to reestablish direct and indirect communication lines across the various offices, ensuring the hydrographic community fosters healthy, diverse, and inclusive workspaces with professional development that includes training, field experience, and continuing education. Another overarching goal is to ensure more efficient and timely delivery of data to our customers.
  • NGS Is a Founding Member of World Lidar Day: NGS, along with many public and private partners, is a founding member of World Lidar Day, which will celebrate lidar and its expanding applications each year on February 12. The holiday will coincide with Geo Week, one of the world’s largest geospatial conferences. The NGS Remote Sensing Division and the Coastal Mapping Program have pushed the limits of lidar technology for the past two decades. Using lidar data collected from NOAA aircraft and the VDatum software tool to transform between tidal and geodetic datums, NGS developed the procedures for extracting the national shoreline for official U.S. nautical charts. NGS has driven advances in topobathy lidar to map the nearshore zone, dramatically increasing the efficiency of accurate data collection for nautical charts in shallow water. This lidar use also decreased the risks faced by NOAA’s hydrographic survey vessel crews, who historically mapped the nation’s shallow waters from small survey launches.
  • OR&R Unveils ERMA Update: OR&R released a new version of the Environmental Response Management Application, or ERMA. ERMA is a web-based mapping application used by environmental responders and natural resource decision-makers. It serves as the common operational picture for NOAA, the U.S. Coast Guard, and other state and federal agencies during environmental disaster response and cleanup. Key enhancements in this release include enhanced map filtering, which allows users to filter down to the data displayed on the map, and dashboard data filtering, which enables users to dive deeper into datasets by applying filters directly within dashboards to extract and visualize insights quickly. ERMA dashboards can now be customized to allow users to filter data from charts or stat cards. A revamped table of contents for intuitive navigation and streamlined bookmark access is also part of the update package. View the full suite of updates and details on our blog post.

Click here to subscribe a new address or if you no longer want to receive the newsletter. Want to read this edition in a browser or check out the archive? Visit us online! 

Comments, questions, or suggestions? Please contact us at eoto@noaa.gov.

NEW! Click here for upcoming meetings, webinars, funding opportunities, and job postings! NEW!

 

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

Find out what's happening around NOAA's National Ocean Service: check out the NOS Assistant Administrator Weekly Newsletter.

Manage Subscriptions