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IOOS® - EYES ON THE OCEAN™

From the U.S. IOOS Office:

  • My Position EXTENDED, closes 19 September: Those of you considering my position but just did not get around to it while on vacation – you are in luck:  https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/446758800/.  Please distribute widely.  If you are thinking about applying you must provide both ECQs and PTQs.  ECQs can be difficult to write – for guidance: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/senior-executive-service/executive-core-qualifications/. 
  • Hail and Farewell – A good day when Hails outweigh Farewells!
    • Farewell: Goodbye to George Jungbluth who will take the IOOS message to the National Weather Service as their new Chief of Staff.  Thank you George and we will miss you.  He said it best in his farewell message: “Thank you all for your friendship, support, and dedication over the last two years. This is an amazing program thanks to the high-functioning team that supports it. I leave IOOS with warm memories of this team and hope that I will be able to continue to share in the IOOSian camaraderie even though I will no longer be with the program.”
    • Hail: Dr. Terence Lynch joined IOOS on a detail assignment as the Regions, Budget, and Policy Division Chief though early December. Terence serves as a Management & Program Analyst for the NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey. Prior to NOAA, Terrence spent 6 years at the US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service and Risk Management Agency.  
    • Hail: Welcome to Debby Esty supporting the business office functions of our office including Grants Administration, Budget Execution, Contracts, and others. Debby has over twenty-four years of experience in a variety of healthcare and grant management positions in the Department of Defense. Debby served our nation as a Hospital Corpsman Chief Petty Officer of the United States Navy.
  • Congrats and Farewell:  Congrats to Rear Admiral Shep Smith who was promoted to Flag and took over as Director of NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey. We say CONGRATS and well done shipmate to retiring Rear Admiral Gerd Glang for his 27 years of service.    

Observation Subsystem and Sensor Technologies:

  • HF Radar/Radio: (IOOS national coordinator, Jack Harlan; Jack.Harlan@noaa.gov):
    • No update.
  • Announcing ACT evaluation: The Alliance for Coastal Technologies (ACT) is accepting preliminary applications from developers and manufacturers of commercially-available field-deployable and/or portable fluorescence-based instruments designed to characterize phytoplankton abundance and taxonomic composition to participate in independent performance testing.  Over the past 10 years, there have been significant advancements in this class of instrumentation and their ability to estimate biomass and classes of phytoplankton, including marine species and cyanobacteria.  Like all ACT Technology Evaluations, participation in this effort will be free of charge for qualifying applicants, and results will be made available to the public in individual summary reports.  For more information and to download application forms visit www.act-us.info, or contact Dr. Mario Tamburri (tamburri@umces.edu) or Dr. Tom Johengen (johengen@umich.edu)
  • PacIOOS and more wave buoys: PacIOOS deployed a second wave buoy in Kāneʻohe Bay, Oʻahu as part of Hawaiʻi Natural Energy Institute's (HNEI - https://www.hnei.hawaii.edu/ efforts to test in-water wave energy conversion devices at the U.S. Navy Wave Energy Test Site (WETS - http://www.hnei.hawaii.edu/projects/wave-energy-test-site-wets) in Kāneʻohe Bay. Significant wave height and energy period derived from the wave buoys are essential parameters to evaluate the power performance of wave energy conversion devices. All data is available on the PacIOOS website. Data are managed by the Coastal Data Information Program (CDIP - https://cdip.ucsd.edu/) at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Long-term partnerships with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and CDIP enable data streaming.

Data Management and Communications (DMAC) Subsystem and Tools Built on IOOS data (DMAC list serve – contact Derrick or Rob - Derrick.Snowden@noaa.gov, Rob.Ragsdale@noaa.gov):

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

  • COMT Annual Meeting: Thanks for inviting me to attend and provide some welcome remarks. I stressed the successes and importance of COMT and the recognition it has received.  My key points:
    • Great to catch up on progress and recalibrate between our non-Federal and Federal partners.
    • Success stories are always great: Continued engagement with NOAA Testbed and Proving Ground Group; continued coordination of WCOFS project across NOAA and inclusive of data assimilation; additional $50K for Gulf Hypoxia team for FY16, thanks to NCCOS contribution; and CI developments with COMT viewer see the tutorial on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqc1C1HeemQ
    • Thanks to Steve Thur and Matt Biddle for addressing COMT.  Steve, Deputy Director of NCCOS and Line Office Transition Manager for NOS talked about successful transitions.  Matt, NCEI, spoke about our efforts to archive the IOOS RA data and how we extend this to COMT.

Interagency and International Collaboration/News:

  • MBON Updates:
    • The Santa Barbara Channel Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (SBC MBON) is partnering with Northwest Fisheries Science Center and BOEM to survey fish and invertebrate communities on 12-mile reef, a.k.a. Calafia, using an imaging AUV.  The cruise will take place Sept 7-11, 2016.  SBC MBON is developing methods for automated identification of marine organisms using Deep Learning techniques that should have wide application to marine science. Interested users should contact Robert Miller (miller@msi.ucsb.edu).
    • Arctic MBON (AMBON) data were collected in summer 2016 on two partner cruises.  The first cruise sampled along the Distributed Biological Observatory transects (http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/dbo/; AMBON PIs Jackie Grebmeier and Lee Cooper, UMCES/Chesapeake Biological Laboratory). The second was a NOAA OER-funded cruise to the Chukchi Borderlands (http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/16arctic/welcome.html; AMBON PIs Katrin Iken, Russ Hopcroft and Eric Collins, University of Alaska Fairbanks; and Kate Stafford, University of Washington, Applied Physics Lab). Data collected during these field efforts will be linked to the AMBON and the MBON Portal through data management partners AOOS and Axiom Data Science.
    • Monterey MBON meeting results:  The team demonstrated broad progress through a series of presentations to open the meeting. The primary products of this progress include; 1) advanced methods for biodiversity measurements and interpretation; 2) four scientific papers in various stages of preparation; 3) the first draft of a revised DMAC plan; 4) preparation of datasets for use by MBNMS and ingestion into DMAC systems; 5) a portal for the visualization of biodiversity information; and 6) a krill case study around which the MB team is integrating.
  • NGS Collects Flooding Images of Louisiana for Damage Assessment: NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey (NGS) has collected 2,000 images that are available here: http://geodesy.noaa.gov/storm_archive/storms/aug2016_lafloods/index.htm
  • New VDatum Online Tool Released: In an effort to make the VDatum software tool available without having to download software and install it on a computer, the NOS VDatum Team has released an initial online version of this popular software tool at http://vdatum.noaa.gov/vdatumweb/. The online version provides a similar user interface and functionality as the standalone application, but has reduced input/output format capabilities since it is web based. This tool and its associated models are jointly developed by NGS, Office of Coast Survey (OCS), and the Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS).
  • BOEM's Environmental Studies Program (ESP) posts studies: Eight studies posted online to the Environmental Studies Program Information System (ESPIS) from April-June 2016. Two relate to the Renewable Energy Program, five are from the Gulf of Mexico, and one is from Alaska. The reports and associated technical summaries can be accessed through the enhanced ESPIS, which displays reports with new geo-referencing tools, animation and other new features.

Delivering the Benefits:

  • Oceans in Action: I had the pleasure to participate in the Marine Technology Society/Mississippi Enterprise for Technology - Oceans in Action Event.  Two days of talks and panels, along with an exhibit.  For the full story and my presentation see: https://ioos.noaa.gov/news/oceans-action-stennis-space-center/. I participated on the importance of Ocean Observing panel. My favorite quote of the meeting: “Expanding the Gulf coast participation in GCOOS and IOOS overall is very important as the coast grows in population. As the coast changes, populations and infrastructure will grow in vulnerability and the need for more comprehensive coastal observations.  The need for collaborative efforts in coastal and offshore observations, new stations and the improvement and expansion of models for the Gulf is a very big priority.” -Tim Osborn, NOAA
  • New tools at NANOOS: Global, hindcast WaveWatch III monthly mean, climatology and anomaly wave fields for the period Jan 1979 - May 2016 are now available via the NANOOS Visualization System Climatology app.  These monthly views are derived from fields originally generated via the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research (CAWCR), a collaboration between Australia's CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology.  See www.nanoos.org for more details.
  • Customers Value PacIOOS buoys: PacIOOS received a thank you from American Samoa – see the buoy’s role in the forecast: “This is the second consecutive day the wave watch solutions have downplayed the strength of the south swell that is impacting coastal waters of the islands.  Aunuu buoy observations show heights far exceeding what the models have depicted for today.”
  • SCCOOS Has a New Project Page: Coastal Modeling Jim McWilliams is a Principle Investigator that specializes in coastal modeling, and works at the Department of Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences at UC Los Angeles. SCCOOS funds a portion of his coastal modeling efforts to gain insights on a wide range of issues that impact our coastal zone. Jim uses a coupled Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS)/biogeochemical system. You can learn more about this project on his SCCOOS project page.

Congressional:

  • No update.

Communications/Outreach/Education:

  • PacIOOS new website:  Check it out at  www.pacioos.org!  The goal of the new website is to further PacIOOS' mission to empower ocean users, decision-makers, and stakeholders across the Pacific Islands with accurate and reliable coastal and ocean information, data, and services.  The new website provides user-friendly tools and easy access to PacIOOS' observations of waves, sea surface currents, and water quality.  
  • Successful Internship: Congratulations to Desmond Ho for successfully completing his summer internship with CeNCOOS and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).  Desmond worked on a number of science communication projects, including an ESRI story map on ocean acidification monitoring partnerships in the CeNCOOS region.  You can view Desmond’s story on the CeNCOOS website.  The internship was jointly funded by CeNCOOS and MBARI.

Upcoming Meetings with IOOS Participation:

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