June 2026

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!

geocolor satellite image of Earth from June 3, 2026, 15:45 Z. Brown and green of the Americas are surrounded by blue ocean with scattered cloud cover.

This image from the NOAA GOES-East satellite shows the vast blue of the ocean standing out against the starkness of space and the warm tones of the land it surrounds.

June is always a busy month at NOAA, and IOOS is no exception. June is National Ocean Month and the first full month of hurricane season. And today, June 8, is World Ocean Day, celebrated worldwide since 2008 to raise awareness of this vital resource and remind us all how deeply we're connected to and affected by it.

At IOOS, our mission is to gather and integrate the vital information that helps us understand and study the ocean. Our data helps forecasters measure water temperatures below the surface that could affect hurricane intensity. It helps search and rescue operations narrow their search areas, increasing the odds of successful rescues. It helps anglers and aquaculturists prepare for harmful algal bloom events by detecting blooms early. It helps researchers contextualize and better understand phenomena like marine heat waves. Ocean observations are foundational to our relationship with the ocean and all it provides.

Hurricane season began May 15 in the Pacific basin and on June 1 in the Atlantic basin, so the 2026 season is now fully underway. NOAA has predicted a below-normal season for the Atlantic basin, but an above-normal season for the eastern and central Pacific basin. If you are interested in the observations and models that help guide and inform those predictions, we've put together a reference page for our most relevant storm resources. This year, we've added a storm archive to our Model Viewer, allowing users to easily revisit significant storms since 2008, as well as all storms since 2020. As always, keep up with the National Hurricane Center for up-to-the-minute storm information throughout the season.

Finally, we want to take a moment to express our support and sympathy for longtime SECOORA/IOOS partners at The Marine Science Laboratory at the University of South Florida, along with their colleagues and students, who were affected by a devastating fire in early May. We also want to share our gratitude and appreciation to those same researchers and students, who were able to access their systems on-site and restore access to both buoy and high-frequency radar data for the West Florida Shelf within days — all with no loss of data. Our thoughts are with them as they continue to navigate the assessment and recovery process, and to all of those in the wider ocean science community whose lives and careers are connected to the lab. We also want to thank our friends and partners who have come to the aid of USF impacted programs, providing back up supplies to help mitigate the losses.

From the
IOOS Office

  • IOOS Google Summer of Code mentoring organization administrators Micah Wengren, Matt Biddle, and Filipe Fernandes hosted an IOOS kickoff and ”get to know you” meeting with the 2026 cohort on Friday, May 22. This year IOOS has GSoC participants from: Sweden, Egypt, Bangladesh, Taiwan, and India! The coding period commenced in late May and continues through August.

  • Lucila Houttuijn-Bloemendaal has joined IOOS as our new Modeling Program Manager! She will oversee the IOOS modeling portfolio, including the suite of projects that evaluate, improve, and transition coastal ocean models and tools for use in operations, working closely with the modeling community. She will also serve as the IOOS rep on the Modeling Prediction Team, the NOS Water Team, and the new Core Model Evaluation Team. Lucila has been part of the NOAA's National Ocean Service for a long time, and we're happy to welcome her to the IOOS team!

  • The IOOS Advisory Committee will meet virtually on June 16, 2026 from 11 am to 1 pm EDT and June 17, 2026 from 2 pm to 4 pm EDT. The meeting will include updates from NOAA and key NOAA partners and the committee will finalize recommendations from the current work plan. View the Federal Register Notice for more information, or access the agenda and meeting materials on the Committee website.

  • Over 100 participants attended the Radiowave Operators Working Group’s 14th workshop, virtually and in-person in Newport, OR on May 5-7th. Hosted by Oregon State University and NANOOS, and with support from CODAR, the ROWG-14 workshop focused on the technical aspects of operating HFR sites. Look for a workshop summary coming later this summer!

  • IOOS funding opportunity under the Ocean Technology Transition Program closes July 15. Visit the U.S. IOOS Ocean Technology Transition website for more information about the program, and find more about the notice of funding opportunity here.

Observing Systems, Data, and Modeling

  • U.S. IOOS was accepted to be an International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) Associated Data Unit (ADU) to facilitate the transfer of Ocean Biodiversity Information System USA (OBIS-USA) to NOAA. To formalize NOAA's role, IOOS has established an IODE ADU and transitioned OBIS-USA from USGS to NOAA. The ADU was established at the U.S. IOOS Office so that the office can easily step up if future needs arise related to IODE ADUs. 

  • The Interagency Council for Advancing Meteorological Services (ICAMS) 2026 National Hurricane Operations Plan, released May 1, now includes a dedicated section on ocean gliders, formally recognizing them as part of the nation’s hurricane observing enterprise. Gliders provide critical subsurface ocean data that improve hurricane intensity forecasts, especially during rapid intensification events. Their inclusion recognizes the operational role of gliders in supporting NOAA’s hurricane forecasting mission. 

  • The IOOS Regional Models and Products Webpage has been refreshed, and now includes links to relevant model products within each model entry! The page serves as a one stop shop for users to quickly identify and locate relevant IOOS models and products.

  • The Wave-Driven Flooding with Sea Level Rise (SLR) viewer for East Babeldaob, Palau is now available as a beta version on the PacIOOS website. Developed at the request of the National Weather Service Office Palau, this interactive tool enables users to assess projected coastal flooding along the eastern coastline of Babeldaob under different combinations of SLR, wave conditions, and mangrove coverage. The viewer remains under active development, and content and features may continue to evolve.

  • AOOS, through the Alaska Water Level Watch (AWLW), partnered with JOA Surveys to develop a new ArcGIS Online Historic Tidal Benchmark Map for Alaska. This publicly accessible tool provides users with an interactive map of historic tidal benchmark locations and direct access to associated benchmark sheets that are not currently available through NOAA Tides & Currents. Read more.

  • Last December, NERACOOS Buoys E and F in Maine were removed from the water for necessary repairs. Both buoys have now returned to their stations with support from UConn’s R/V Connecticut, and are once again transmitting weather and ocean observations.

  • Five new spotter buoys have joined the NERACOOS network! Working with Hurricane Island Center for Science and Leadership, the University of Maine, the University of New England, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Sea Grant Program, NERACOOS integrated wave height, period, direction; sea surface temperature; and air pressure data from the new buoys into the Mariners’ Dashboard. The new buoys are in Chatham, Massachusetts and Biddeford Pool, Camp Ellis, Rockland, and Lincolnville, Maine.

IOOS Enterprise

  • Backyard Buoys webinar! Join Robbie Greene of Pacific Coastal Research & Planning on June 17 to learn how his team deployed Spotter buoys from traditional Chamorro Proas and Carolinian canoes, captured the passage of Super Typhoon Sinlaku at 922 mb, and what that data means for coastal resilience.

  • PacIOOS partnered with the Ocean Discovery League, Blue Robotics, and the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology for the Deep Ocean Research and Imaging System (DORIS) workshop on Moku o Loʻe from April 11-15. Read a participant's summary of his workshop experience here.

  • Want to catch up on the GCOOS Spring Members’ Meeting and 20th Anniversary? GCOOS now has a meeting archive on their website, allowing people to check out all the updates from around the Gulf and beyond.

  • Cameras in Charleston, South Carolina are helping communities better understand and respond to coastal conditions from daily weather impacts to flooding events. Learn more here.

  • Anna Simpson, Ph.D. and Tom Shyka of NERACOOS collaborated on a paper that delved into the importance of coastal flood forecasting in Maine. Expanding the water level network in the northeast is a priority for NERACOOS, and the water level stations Anna and NERACOOS partners have been installing along the New England coast are a key resource for augmenting forecasting capabilities.

Partners

New Papers and Reports

Click here to subscribe or manage your subscription.

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