Week of 4/8: System status NORMAL. To check individual assets and information, visit ioos.us and/or the Environmental Sensor Map.

 

 

IOOS® - EYES ON THE OCEAN, COASTS, AND GREAT LAKES™

18 October 2017

The Eyes on the Ocean™ Bi-weekly is an informal way of keeping you up-to-date on U.S. IOOS® activities.  Pass it on!  Please reply with an e-mail with additional addresses or if you no longer want to receive the bi-weekly.

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From the Director:

Hello IOOS Community,

I’d like to draw your attention to calls for papers for two special editions of the Marine Technology Society Journal. The May/April 2018 issue will showcase US IOOS and coastal resilience. The May/June 2018 issue will be in tribute to Vembu Subramanian, who passed away earlier this year, and focus on lessons learned from ocean observing systems. Full information on both issues including how to submit a paper can be found in the Communications/Outreach/Education section below. I would love to see support for these two special issues from the whole IOOS community and whole heartedly encourage folks to submit a paper.

Best Regards,

Carl

From the U.S. IOOS Office:

  • The Fall IOOS Advisory Committee - October 24-26, 2017: The meeting will be held at the Stennis Space Center (10/24, 10/26) and Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (10/25) in Stennis and Ocean Springs, MS. This meeting is open to the public, but pre-registration is required. A Web-Ex conference will also be available for those who wish to participate virtually. For information on how to register, the agenda, and other meeting information, please visit our website at https://ioos.noaa.gov/community/u-s-ioos-advisory-committee/us-ioos-advisory-committee-meetings/.

  • IOOS to sponsor The Maritime Alliance BlueTech Week - November 6th-10th, 2017: IOOS is pleased to sponsor the 9th annual BlueTech Week (Nov 6-10, 2017) in San Diego, California. The Maritime Alliance anticipates 450+ people attending including 18+ BlueTech clusters from 10 countries and 9 U.S. states. The theme is “Smart Ocean, Smart Water” and includes several tracks including the Intersection of the Blue Economy and the Space Economy, Smart Ports, Smart Shipping, Smart Water, Marine Autonomous Systems, and Workforce Development.  IOOS Director Carl Gouldman will moderate a panel on “Gathering Data – from Air, Land, Sea and Space” on Wednesday, November 8th and several Department of Commerce and NOAA officials will also have roles, including Craig McLean, Acting Chief Scientist of NOAA.  There will be a live BlueTech demonstration on San Diego Bay on Thursday afternoon and a BlueTech PitchFest on Friday.  For additional detail and registration to any of the a-la-cart events, please visit www.bluetechweek.org.

  • New CeNCOOS Director: We are pleased to announce Henry Ruhl will be taking over as Director of the Central and Northern California Coastal Ocean Observing System (CeNCOOS) beginning January 8, 2018.  Prior to joining CeNCOOS he was the head of the Deep Seas Group and associate head of the Ocean Biogeochemistry and Ecosystems Group at the National Oceanographic Center, UK. We are excited to welcome him!

  • IOOS Strategic Plan Update: During the IOOS Association Fall Meeting in Seattle, WA, the IOOS Regional Associations reviewed and edited the second draft of the U.S. IOOS Enterprise Strategic Plan (V2.0). The comments we received were incorporated into the next iteration of the Plan (V2.1) and sent to our interagency partners with the Interagency Ocean Observing Committee (IOOC) for a two-week written review. Next, the draft strategic plan will be review by the IOOS Advisory Committee during their fall meeting on Oct 24-26. The draft plan is also under review by the IOOC. For more information, contact Alex Harper, Alex.Harper@noaa.gov
  • Suggestions for the IOOS Bi-weekly: Do you have suggestions for new things you would like to see in the Eyes on the Ocean IOOS Bi-Weekly? Please contact Laura Griesbauer, laura.griesbauer@noaa.gov.


Observation Subsystem and Sensor Technologies:

  • Observing Systems and Hurricane Irma: One of many success stories coming out of the major hurricanes that have impacted the US this Fall include observing systems being in the water. SECOORA PI Catherine Edwards from SkIO had a glider deployed during Irma. When she knew her university’s power would go down, she tried to implement her backup plan using Chad Lembke at USF.  However, they were also in the path of Irma. With almost no notice, she was able to “evacuate” dockserver operations to TAMU a couple days before the storm hit. GCOOS PI Steve DiMarco ensured they had the tools needed to fly their glider through the storm. They learned some lessons but most importantly maintained operations through the hurricane.
  • HF Radar/Radio: (IOOS national coordinator, Jack Harlan; Jack.Harlan@noaa.gov):

    • SCCOOS-CeNCOOS Joint Science Advisory Committee Meeting and UCSB Visit: Jack Harlan, IOOS PO attended the annual JSAC meeting on October 4th. The meeting gathered stakeholders from both California IOOS regional associations and focused on topics oncluding HF Radar, Water Quality, and Climate/OAH. Jack also had a chance to  visit the UCSB HFR group.
    • Significant Wave Height (SWH) Project: CODAR has rolled out the software update to the operators. Assessment continues this month until data begins being collected. The 3 WFOs are on board for using the NWS graduate student program to provide some assistance on the SWH project.
    • GEO/GOOS/JCOMM Global HFR/Mexico/Canada: JCOMM/OCG has requested that a Network Specification Sheet update occur by 16 Oct.  The GEO HFR steering committee made modifications and also held a quarterly telecon on 11 Oct.  The group will organize into 3 regions conforming to the Int’l Telecommunications Union regions.  Simone Cosoli will talk with Korea, Thailand and Taiwan to see if anyone wants to become part of the Steering Committee. In addition, an abstract to the Blue Planet special issue on Ocean Observing for Societal Benefit was submitted by Scripps withjack Harlan as a co-author. http://geoblueplanet.com/2017/08/04/supplemental-issue-ocean-observing-societal-benefit/
    • SECOORA, GCOOS & CARICOOS HF Radars and Hurricane Damage: The IOOS PO continues to support NOAA updates on Hurricanes Maria, Harvey & Irma regarding radar assets. We Continue to communicate and coordinate with SECOORA, GCOOS and CARICOOS HFR folks regarding damage assessment. Puerto Rico’s situation has, so far, precluded damage assessment although at least 4 of the 5 radars were removed prior to Maria. Hurricane Nate passed within 20 miles of the Singing River, MS CODAR.  Although the electronics at Singing River and 3 other sites were removed prior to the storm, there has been no damage assessment yet for the antennas or infrastructure at those 4 USM sites.  The fifth CODAR, in the Florida panhandle, remained operating through the storm and is still operating normally.

  • Gliders:
    • No update.

  • ATN (National Coordinator Bill Woodward, Bill.Woodward@noaa.gov):

    • Live Whale Tracks on ATN DAC: Live tracks from Robin Baird’s (Cascadia Research Collective) 5 Cuviers Beaked Whales and 1 Pilot Whale, plus 2 Melon-Headed Whales from earlier this year are now being displayed on the ATN DAC site:   oceanview.pfeg.noaa.gov/ATN/
    • Shark Tracks on ATN DAC:  Tracks from Kim Holland’s (U. of Hawaii) 5 tigers sharks from 2017 around the Hawaiian Islands are now being displayed on the ATN DAC site.
    • ATN and Science on a Sphere: The ATN has connected with Stephen Zepecki the NOAA Educational Outreach Coordinator for NOAA’s “Science on a Sphere” (SOS) for initial discussions on displaying marine animal telemetry tracks on the SOS.  This will be a terrific outreach activity for the ATN. We’re now working on the technical steps to format and make the data accessible.


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

  • IOOS DMAC Team Assists with Canadian IOOS Development: Members of the Operations Division DMAC team, Micah, Kathy, Tiffany, and Becky, along with Jessica of RB&P, met with Brad Covey and Shayla Fitzsimmons of Dalhousie University to offer guidance from the perspective of IOOS’ DMAC implementation in their effort to draft a preliminary plan for development of a comparable DMAC system for the Canadian IOOS, or CIOOS.  The two groups met for about three hours and discussed all aspects of IOOS’ DMAC system, as well as more general governance and international engagement topics.   
  • QARTOD (National Coordinator Mark Bushnell, mark.bushnell@noaa.gov):

    • QARTOD Manuals Featured in Ocean Best Practices Repository: The Ocean Best Practices repository at http://www.oceanbestpractices.net/ is a permanent collection of methods and techniques shown to provide superior results. While identifying the most commonly viewed documents as candidates for standardized formatting to enable interoperability, it was found that four of the top ten are QARTOD manuals! Many thanks to the hundreds of volunteers who have helped to create the manuals. Please consider sharing your proven processes through the OBP repository, and enjoy viewing the use statistics provided by OBP.


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

  • COMT Chesapeake Bay Hypoxic Report: The COMT’s Chesapeake Bay Team has produced its first annual “Chesapeake Bay Hypoxic Volume Report” and it was picked up in the Daily Press Newspaper!


Interagency and International Collaboration/News:

  • MBON at Essential Marine Biological Data Products Workshop: Gabrielle Canonico, IOOS PO spoke about IOOS Biology and MBON at the Essential Marine Biological Data Products Workshop, October 10 in London. The workshop intended to inform the development of core data products from EMODnet Biology to support management, policy, planning and education. Organized by EMODnet Biology, the workshop brought together key partners from the Regional Sea coordination bodies, ICES, transatlantic collaborative projects, MBON, OBIS and GOOS BioEco, and relevant EU Research Infrastructures along with industry and others, to ensure the data product and service outputs of EMODnet Biology are targeted and appropriate to the challenges of managing the marine environment, and can be integrated and used to help address the relevant UNSustainable Development Goals, among other things.  
  • The Deep Ocean Observing Strategy: Developing a Network for Sustained Physical, Chemical, and Biological Observation in the Deep Sea: Over the past few years, Deep Ocean Observing Strategy (DOOS), in close cooperation with Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), has been galvanizing experts to develop a strategy for sustained, global deep ocean observations. DOOS considers essential ocean variables (EOVs), key geographic regions, readiness for implementation, and emerging technologies that will provide a blueprint for deep-sea observing over the coming decades. DOOS leadership hosted an exploratory workshop at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in December 2016 to develop a coordinated plan and to outline steps required to turn the deep ocean observing strategy into a global observing network. Workshop delegates outlined the following objectives for DOOS over the next decade:
    • Build an understanding of what is most important to observe
    • Provide a hub for integration opportunities
    • Coordinate observations to improve efficiency, standards, and best practices
    • Develop deep observing requirements
    • Build readiness in observing technology and techniques
    • Foster availability, discoverability, and usability of deep ocean data
    • Create a community science implementation plan

Two weeks ago, the newly inducted DOOS Steering Committee (SC) gathered in Washington, D.C. to debrief on the progress made by DOOS since their workshop in December 2016 and to guide efforts designed to support the objectives above. The SC discussed their targets for the next two years, the strategy to incorporate deep sea EOVs into the current GOOS EOVs, concept pilot projects, Science and Implementation Guide development, capacity building, and scientific community outreach. For more information on DOOS activities, please click here.

  • OOI ERDDAP Server Now Online: The Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) Environmental Research Division’s Data Access Program (ERDDAP) server is now online hosting uncabled, telemetered data from OOI moorings and gliders.  ERDDAP is a free and open-source platform that provides a simple, consistent way to download subsets of OOI datasets in common file formats and make profile plots and maps. The OOI joins many other organizations that are utilizing ERDDAP servers to broadly share their data, including NOAA, NASA, and USGS. The first OOI ERDDAP server to come online contains uncabled, telemetered data from moorings and gliders. The cabled, streaming data server is coming soon. For more information, user guides, instruction videos, code examples, and to access the data, check out the OOI website.
  • $100,000 Big Ocean Button Challenge: Voting is Open!: There are 20 submissions competing for $100,000 in prizes that are up for grabs in the Big Ocean Button Challenge sponsored by XPRIZE! Now it is up to you to help us decide the winners. Cast your vote today for the mobile app that best unlocks ocean data for public or private benefit, ideally while supporting responsible use and protection of our ocean. Voting will remain open until 5pm PST on October 19th and the winners will be announced early in 2018. Visit the Big Ocean Button Challenge page to view the apps and vote for your favorite: https://herox.com/bigoceanbutton
  • National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP) 2018 Broad Agency Announcement: The National Ocean Partnership Program (NOPP) has a Broad Agency Announcement for 2018 advertised. This BAA provides research opportunities for the following three topics:
    • Topic 1. CubeSat Sensors for Investigating Littoral Ocean & Atmospheric Dynamics
    • Topic 2. Improved & Routine Production, Stewardship and Application of the Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) Data
    • Topic 3. In-situ Ocean Sensor Research & Technology Development
    • For more information on how to apply, see http://www.nopp.org/2017/fy-18-nopp-funding-announcement/

Proposals responding to Topic 1 or Topic 2 are due October 16, 2017. Letters of Intent responding to Topic 3 are due October 16, 2017 and full proposals are due January 29, 2018

  • Marine Biodiversity Observation Network - Upcoming Meetings: The MBON SDG 14 side event, “Practical demonstration of a Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) product to support Sustainable Development Goals” was accepted for Plenary and is scheduled for October 24 from 2:30pm-4:30pm. (NEW TIME!)


Delivering the Benefits:

  • NOAA Ship Rainier surveys Channel Islands to support safe navigation and habitat mapping: NOAA Ship Rainier recently arrived off the Santa Barbara coast to complete hydrographic surveys at NOAA’s Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary (CINMS) as part of the Southern California Seafloor Mapping Initiative. Over the next month, the ship will use their new multibeam echo sounders to support safe navigation and update nautical charts for the sanctuary. In addition to providing data for crucial nautical chart updates, the surveys will also generate backscatter imagery, which the sanctuary uses for habitat mapping. Read more here: https://noaacoastsurvey.wordpress.com/2017/10/11/noaa-ship-rainier-surveys-channel-islands-to-support-safe-navigation-and-habitat-mapping/
  • Coast Survey concludes Hurricane Maria response in Puerto Rico and USVI: NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson spent the last three weeks in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands surveying ports and bays in response to Hurricane Maria. Over the three week period, the crew surveyed 13 areas and no fewer than 18 individual port facilities, as well as conducted emergency repairs to three tide and weather stations. PS Doug Wood from Coast Survey’s Hydrographic Surveys Division and Cmdr. Chris van Westendorp, commanding officer of NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson, compiled a poster highlighting all of the areas surveyed. Read more here: https://noaacoastsurvey.wordpress.com/2017/10/12/coast-survey-concludes-hurricane-maria-response-in-puerto-rico-and-usvi/

  • NGS Releases 'Gravity for Geodesy II' Lesson in Collaboration with COMET®: NGS just released a new online lesson in partnership with The COMET® Program, a worldwide leader in education and training materials for the environmental sciences. Titled "Gravity for Geodesy II: Applications," this second lesson in a two-part series discusses gravity's relevance to geodesy, as well as the implications gravity has on height measurements and other applications. It is now available on the NGS website and the COMET MetEd site, which is a free collection of hundreds of training resources for the geoscience community. For more information, contact: Christine Gallagher, Christine.Gallagher@noaa.gov
  • NANOOS Participates in NOAA West Watch: NOAA's Western Regional Environmental Conditions and Impacts Coordination project brought back its popular webinar series again and will present every other month. The August 2017 webinar summarized coastal environmental conditions and impacts in the Western Region. The webinar included contributed slides from the NANOOS, CeNCOOS and SCCOOS regions, who regularly report on their local coastal ocean conditions.The next webinar will be 24 October 2017 at 1 pm. Contact NANOOS if you want to participate.
  • New PacIOOS Voyager Area Statistics Tool: Voyager now provides a utility for computing statistics over a user-selected area for gridded datasets, including satellite data, forecasts (weather, surf, tide, ocean), bathymetry, and land elevation. This tool computes the mean (average), median, minimum, maximum, and/or standard deviation for the displayed data overlay within a given bounding box on the map. While Voyager already provided the ability to query data at a particular pixel, this new tool is useful for gathering information over larger areas. Read more here: http://www.pacioos.hawaii.edu/voyager-news/voyager-area-stats-tool/
  • New Wave Buoy in Cape Cod: A new wave buoy was deployed in Cape Cod Bay today by the Woods Hole Group with support from the USGS Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center. The new buoy is replacing one loaned to NERACOOS by USGS. The new buoy is part of the NERACOOS system and funded by MassDEP. Check out the data from this buoy and others at www.nercoos.org


Congressional:

  • No update.


Communications/Outreach/Education:

  • Call for Papers - Marine Technology Society Journal March/April 2018 - An Intergovernmental Blueprint for Community Resiliency: The Hampton Roads Sea Level Rise Preparedness and Resilience Intergovernmental Pilot Project: This special issue of the Marine Technology Society Journal will highlight an intergovernmental planning process to effectively address changing sea levels and nuisance flooding through coordinated preparedness across multiple federal, state, and local government agencies as well as the private and nonprofit sectors, while taking into account perspectives and concerns of the region’s citizens.Papers will address the need for improved science and the fundamental role of integrated ocean observing and prediction in developing information and tools for decision makers and providing high-quality data to product developers in government and the private sector. MARACOOS Executive Director Gerhard F. Kuska is a guest editor for this publication. Manuscript submission deadline November 17th, 2017. More information here.
  • Call for Papers - Marine Technology Society Journal May/June 2018 Special Issue: Lessons Learned From Ocean Observing Systems, Volume II: A Tribute to Vembu Subramanian: This special issue of the MTS Journal is designed to be a forum for users and operators of ocean observing systems to share what they have learned in a broader context than would be covered by papers in a science journal. We are particularly looking for examples of “best practices” that have been developed to overcome obstacles resulting in systemic practices that the wider ocean observing community can adopt. Descriptions of data quality assurance and instrument upkeep and performance are valuable discussion topics. From the users’ perspective, we are looking for examples where ocean observing data has solved problems in the broader community; i.e., the ocean observing system is generating a return on society’s investment. We will consider a broad interpretation of this rubric, inclusive of outreach and education. This issue is dedicated in honor of Vembu Subramanian, who passed away in early 2017. Vembu was Deputy Director, RCOOS and DMAC Operations of SECOORA, and Chair of the MTS Ocean Observing Systems Committee, as well as an avid MTS member. The issue’s release comes at the 2-year anniversary of the MTSJ special issue, Data Impacts and Lessons Learned from Ocean Observing Systems Worldwide, Volume I, for which Subramanian was lead Guest Editor. Manuscript submission deadline December 20, 2017. More information here.
  • GCOOS at St. Petersburg (Florida) Science Festival: The annual event includes a student day on Friday, Oct. 20, and a public day on Saturday, Oct. 21. On student day, GCOOS will use coral reefs to introduce students to one method scientists use to measure the health of ecosystems. Students will learn about biodiversity and how measuring biodiversity can be an indicator of ecosystem health. The activity is based on a lesson developed by GCOOS educators and available for free on our website. They will also use the coral reef assessment during the public day on Saturday and adding it to a catch/release fishing activity designed to focus on the "M" (mathematics) in STEM education. Capitalizing on the popularity of Marvel superheroes, the GCOOS activity is called the IOOS Super SySTEM and their fearless superhero-dressed team will highlight IOOS, MBON (the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network) and Animal Telemetry Network projects.  


Upcoming Meetings with IOOS Participation:

  • GEO Week 2017 in Washington, DC 23-27 October 2017: The GEO-XIV Plenary Session, Exhibition, and associated side events will be held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center 23-27 October, 2017. The Plenary Session is closed to official delegates, but the exhibition and the side events are open to the public. Learn more https://www.earthobservations.org/geo14.php 

  • 2017 Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation Conference: The CERF conference is scheduled this coming November 5-9 in Providence, RI. More info on the conference and registration is available: http://www.erf.org/cerf-2017-biennial-conference

    • The IOOS-NERRS partnership has a session titled:.  "Collaborating across geographic scales: integrating estuarine and coastal ocean information".  This session will bring together those who are conducting real-time monitoring of estuarine/coastal ecosystems, interpreting and analyzing monitoring data, and/or applying these data to ecosystem-based management. Outcomes of this session will be an improved understanding of large spatial/temporal-scale changes in coastal ecosystems and the emergence of collaborations and applications of these observing networks across broader geographic and temporal scales.
    • MBON at CERF: MBON partner Smithsonian/MarineGEO is organizing a session at the 2017 CERF meeting on the development of a regional to global Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON).  MBON promotes robust, comparative, collaborative research across habitats, latitudes, basins, and time.  Using standardized measurements and coordinated experiments, the collective tackles issues of global change along environmental and anthropogenic gradients and puts local observations in regional and global contexts. MBON welcomes new partnerships - please consider submitting an abstract for your work with a relevant collaborative network to ensure a robust discussion during the session. The session will overview MBON advances, discuss their role in ocean observing systems, highlight implications for understanding changes in coastal ecosystems and the consequences, and envision the long-term impact of MBON.
  • Environmental Information Processing Technologies (EIPT) conference at AMS Annual Meeting, January 7-11, 2018, Austin, TX:

    • The "Quasi-Operational Products you can use now" session within the EIPT aims to bring attention to those applications, technologies, or techniques that are well advanced with respect to the Technology Readiness Level continuum. These applications, technologies, or techniques have not yet been made officially operational by operational organizations such as the National Weather Service, but are being produced by regularly in an "operational like" manner and made available for general use. Historical examples are the HRRR forecast model, the MRMS precipitation and severe weather analysis/nowcasting system, and the MADIS repository for surface observations and other observations.  The session is also interested in similar quasi-operational marine products such as storm surge predictions or other types of models.
    • For additional information please contact one of the session co-chairs (Tiffany Vance (tiffany.c.vance@noaa.gov), Kevin Kelleher (kevin.kelleher@noaa.gov), or Jennifer Mahoney (jennifer.mahoney@noaa.gov).
  • 2018 Ocean Sciences Meeting: Biennially, American Geophysical Union (AGU), the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) and The Oceanography Society (TOS) co-sponsor a meeting allowing members galvanize and share their scientific and technological breakthroughs and discoveries and discuss the current state of ocean science research. The 2018 Ocean Sciences Meeting will be held in Portland, OR from February 11-16. Please visit the OSM18 event page for more info.

  • GOA-ON session at the 2018 Ocean Sciences Meeting:

    • Abstracts are due 6 September! The link to the session, with its description and abstract submission button, is: https://agu.confex.com/agu/os18/preliminaryview.cgi/Session27997
    • Session information - OC010:
      • The Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network, GOA-ON: linking local information globally
      • This meeting will have many ocean change sessions and will be a great opportunity to showcase the regional hubs and products of GOA-ON, as well as a chance for GOA-ON members to connect in person.
      • Co-chairs: Richard Bellerby, Jan Newton, and Maciej Telszewski
      • Contact: Jan Newton (janewton@uw.edu)

View the IOOS calendar: https://ioosassociation.org/.

Contact

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(240) 533-9444

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