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IOOS^® - EYES ON THE OCEAN^™

From the IOOS Program Office:

• IOOS has a new LOGO!  We officially unveiled our new logo at the opening of the exhibit hall at the MTS/IEEE Oceans '15 conference in Washington, DC.  The logo was thoughtfully designed to represent the inclusive mission of our program and to be flexible in its application, whether in print or digital media.  Creation of the design included feedback from a team of contributors including IOOS Regional Directors, IOOC agencies, and IOOS program office staff in coordination with design firm Brand Architecture. The design is simple and streamlined, interweaving the letters I-O-O-S. The blues are the dark blue of the deep ocean and Great Lakes and the bright, clear blue of the coasts and shallows. The shape represents a signal moving out, and the "S" is two open arms embracing the world.  For downloadable files, style-guide, and more: http://www.ioos.noaa.gov/communications/emblem/
• IOOS Federal Advisory Committee new Members: Dr. Sullivan appointed 5 new members to the U.S. IOOS Advisory Committee. With an excellent pool of applicants, as well as current members, we had to make hard decisions largely based on required Committee balance factors such as subject matter expertise and geography of the new applications we received. Thank you to our outgoing Committee members: CJ Beegle-Krause, Terry Browne, Lynn Leonard, Emily Pidgeon, and Eric Terrill. Your work as inaugural members was invaluable to its initial success and no doubt on-going success as well.
  • New members of the panel are:
    • Dr. Thomas Curtin, Senior Principal Research Scientist, University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory
    • Ms. Jennifer Hagen, Marine Biologist, Washington Department of Natural Resources with the Quileute Tribe
    • Dr. Tony Koslow, Oceanographer, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
    • Mr. Casey Moore, President, Sea-Bird Scientific
    • Dr. Douglas Vandemark, Associate Professor, Institute for the Study of Earth Observations and Space, University of New Hampshire
  • Reappointed members:
    • VADM (ret) Conrad Launtenbacher (Chair), Chief Executive Officer, GeoOptics
    • Mr. Tom Gulbransen (Vice-Chair), Senior Sciencist, Battelle Memorial Institute
    • Dr. Ann Jochens, Regional Coordinator, Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System
    • Dr. Val Klump, Director, Great Lakes WATER Institute, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
    • Mr. Tony MacDonald, Director, Urban Coast Institute, Monmouth University
    • Mr. Justin Manley, CEO Just Innovation
    • Mr. Chris Ostrander, Assistant Dean, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii
    • Dr. LaVerne Ragster, President Emerita, University of the Virgin Islands
• BOEM Invites Ideas for FY17 Environmental Studies Program: To help inform management decisions affecting the Outer Continental Shelf, BOEM develops, oversees, and funds the collection of environmental information as directed by the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act through its Environmental Studies Program (ESP). BOEM invites your input in identifying potential study ideas for consideration on Alaska, Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Pacific OCS areas. Please provide your suggestions in short paragraph form for your geographic or program area of interest by emailing the identified point of contact by November 20, 2015.
• IOOS Federal Advisory Meeting:  The meeting will be held November 3-4, 2014 in St. Thomas, USVI. There will be a webex capability to join. For more information and the final agenda, click here.

Observation Subsystem and Sensor Technologies:

• Coastal Inundation Landmarks (CILM) established: NOAA’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services and the Morehead City, NY and the Wakefield, VA Weather Forecast Offices established CILMs at the Maritime Museum and the Big Rock Statue in Beaufort, NC and at the Chrysler Museum and Norfolk Zoo in Norfolk, VA. A prototype product for the Battery tide gauge CILM in New York City has also been completed.  

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

(Contact Derrick or Rob to get on the list serve for changes - Derrick.Snowden@noaa.gov, Rob.Ragsdale@noaa.gov):

• OceanSITES metadata services from NDBC are registered in the IOOS service registry for discovery in the catalog next week. NDBC is an OceanSITES Global Data Assembly Center, and OceanSITES is a global network of monitoring stations collecting time-series data on dozens of variables from the deep ocean to the surface.  

Modeling and Analysis Subsystem:

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

• No update.

Interagency and International Collaboration/News:

• Department of Homeland Security Arctic Domain Awareness Center (ADAC) ribbon cutting:  AOOS data portal was a key component in prototype decision support tools displayed at the official launching October 21 of the US Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) ADAC at the University of Alaska Anchorage. The tools were developed by the AOOS data team at Axiom Data Science building upon the AOOS Ocean Data Explorer, funded over the past decade through NOAA led U.S. IOOS.  Axiom developed the draft intelligence system as a prototype situational awareness picture for use by DHS and especially the Coast Guard. It leverages and enhances the AOOS data visualization and storage portal and harnesses the data streams acquired by AOOS through our network of partnerships with academia, industry, community stakeholders and government agencies.

Delivering Benefits:

• IOOS Pacific Region Ocean Acidification data portal webinar:  NANOOS Director Jan Newton provides an overview of the "IPACOA" in this YouTube video: View the Webinar. This portal is a joint effort between NANOOS, AOOS, CeNCOOS, SCCOOS and PacIOOS and serves NOAA OAP, shellfish growers, and other data streams spanning U.S. Pacific basin waters.

Congressional

• Join us for Congressional Briefing: 2015 West Coast Harmful Algal Blooms:  Toxic, Extensive, and Persistent: Friday, November 6, 2015, 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m., Cannon House Office Building, Room 121. A massive toxic bloom of the marine diatom Pseudo-nitzschia, stretching from central California to the Alaska Peninsula, has resulted in fisheries closures and sea lion seizures, with some of the highest toxin levels reported in association with a bloom. The briefing is sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Integrated Ocean Observing System Association.   Welcome: The Honorable Suzanne Bonamici, United States Representative, 1st District, State of Oregon and Mary Erickson, Director, NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science.  Featured Speakers:  Dr. Dan Ayres, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife; Dr. Raphael Kudela, University of California, Santa Cruz; and Dr. Vera Trainer, NOAA-Northwest Fisheries Science Center.
• Join us for Congressional Briefing: Lake Erie Harmful Algal Bloom: Nov 10th, time and location TBD.  Harmful Algal Bloom outbreaks in the last 2 years have shut down drinking water in Ohio.  Congressional sponsorship is by Senator Rob Portman, Ohio and Representative Marcy Kaptur, 9th District, Ohio.  Speakers include: Rick Stumpf, NOAA; Jeff Reutter, Ohio Sea Grant; Paul Chopski (invited), charter boat captain; Dave Spegal (invited) charter boat captain; and Kelly Fry, Ottawa County Water Treatment.
• Fall Congressional Visits: Jen and Carl kicked off the IOOS Congressional visits on Wednesday, October 28 with the Senate Commerce Committee and Senator Wicker’s staff. Scheduled staff meetings over the next two weeks include:  Representatives Honda, Capps, and Graves; and the House Natural Resources Committee. Contact Jennifer.Rhodes@noaa.gov if you desire a briefing.
• Meeting with Senate Commerce Committee: Jen joined Josie Quintrell, IOOS Association, at this meeting.  The committee was informed about the recent certification of PacIOOS and the GLOS’ recent application for certification.  The remainder of the meeting focused on the status of the bill to reauthorize the ICOOS Act.

Communications / Outreach / Education:

• PacIOOS teaming Up with Marine Educators: The Waikiki Aquarium (WAQ) hosted its annual Marine Educator's Night in early October. Over one-hundred enthusiastic and dedicated K-12 teachers from across the islands attended the event to learn about new education resources, and to discover new teaching ideas. PacIOOS proudly participated and explained to teachers how PacIOOS Voyager provides a platform for in-class assignments and activities for high school students. PacIOOS Voyager allows students to easily visualize complex data sets. In addition, the wide array of data available on PacIOOS Voyager enables students to see interactions between more than one environmental condition.
• NANOOS Featured in The Seattle Times: NANOOS is pleased to be included in a recently published supplement to the The Seattle Times. "Seafood 101"explores the science of seafood sustainability, the surrounding ecosystem, careers within the fishing industry, the value of eating wild-caught seafood, and the role of NOAA in managing healthy fisheries. The potential impact of the warm water "Blob" on West Coast fisheries and tracking it via NANOOS' Climatology App are featured on page 4.
• Blue Voice featured in the Marine Technology Reporter:   http://digitalmagazines.marinelink.com/nwm/MarineTechnology/201510/

Upcoming Meetings with IOOS Participation:

• 7th BlueTech & Blue Economy Summit: The Maritime Alliance will host the 7th BlueTech & Blue Economy meeting in San Diego.  US IOOS and NOAA are a sponsor of this conference - "Big Data,BlueTechClusters & the Ocean of Tomorrow" Nov. 9-10, 2015 See full agenda and register here.

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