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IOOS® - EYES ON THE OCEAN™

From the IOOS Program Office:

  • March Madness DC style: The week began with an ice storm and ended with record snow but did not stop the spring meeting of the IOOS Program Office, the IOOS Regional Associations, and ACT; the IOOS Association Board meeting; and visits to the hill. Thank you to my team and the IOOS RA and ACT Directors for a wonderful meeting. Shout out to Russell Calendar, NOS AA (acting) who met with the IOOS Association Board; and to Dave Holst, NOS DAA (acting), Jeff Payne, Director Office for Coastal Management (Acting), Libby Jewett, NOAA’s Ocean Acidification program Director and Allison Allen, NOAA’s Ecological Forecast Roadmap project manager for their participation; and thanks to the IOOS Regional Associations for their cooperation. It was a packed 1.5 days but we covered a myriad of topics and even introduced an Ignite style event to cap off the meeting. Thanks to all for their hard work to make this meeting successful.
  • Great Reading:
  • Planning for MTS/IEEE OCEANS’15 Washington DC: Once again, US IOOS will participate in this conference. We recently met with Doug Wilson, the Technical committee chair for the conference to explore how best IOOS can participate. The US IOOS Program Office has secured 2 booths in the exhibit hall and will be looking for community engagement. We are exploring options for IOOS focused session tracks and events such as Townhalls and an IGNITE style session.
    Abstract submissions are now open and I call on all of you to submit one: http://www.oceans15mtsieeewashington.org/index.php/program/abstract-submission Abstract submissions will close in late May. If you have additional ideas on session tracks, workshops, tutorials and non-traditional activities – Doug is looking for your help, please see the program so far – BUT ALSO consider being part of the organizing team: http://www.oceans15mtsieeewashington.org/index.php/program/topics.

    Contact Doug at: techprogchair@oceans15mtsieeewashington.org.

  • Planning for MTS/IEEE OCEANS’15 Washington DC: Once again, US IOOS will participate in this conference. We recently met with Doug Wilson, the Technical committee chair for the conference to explore how best IOOS can participate. The US IOOS Program Office has secured 2 booths in the exhibit hall and will be looking for community engagement. We are exploring options for IOOS focused session tracks and events such as Townhalls and an IGNITE style session.

    IOOS Federal Advisory Committee: Next meeting is scheduled for April 29-30 at COL in Washington, DC. The meeting will focus on new committee priorities, including discussions of:
    • ICOOS Act Reauthorization
    • Raising IOOS to a national-level program
    • Increasing engagement with industry

Observation Subsystem and Sensor Technologies:

  • High Frequency Radar/Radio (Lead Jack Harlan, Harlan@noaa.gov):
    • Colleagues of the GEO community in Latin America and the Caribbean, the start of the 2015 webinars (in Spanish) will be March 12 at 16:00 UTC "High Frequency RAdars (HF): an essential component of the Ocean observing systems", presented by Mr. Félix Bueno Quevedo (Qualitas Remos – Latinoamérica). Please use the following link for registration http://earthobservations.org/webinar_ch.shtml. Special thanks to the GEO-Secretariat for their technical support.
    • Partnership with Mexico – see Strengthening Collaboration on Ocean Observing in Mexico story below.
  • Buy a Beer – Support Ocean Observing: To support the Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology's Shark Research Program, Maui Brewing Company has created a special limited release beer: the Lorenzini Double IPA. The name is derived from the sharks "Ampullae of Lorenzini," the shark's electro sensory organ, used to detect changes in electric fields. This American Double IPA was brewed with blood orange, local citrus, and Maui cane sugar, and the hop profile lends grapefruit, mango and tropical aromas. There is only a limited amount of cans available! A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Shark Research Program.
  • Buoy for a Cause: The Onslow Bay, North Carolina marine community needs your help! January 2015, off the coast of North Carolina, buoy 41036 was decommissioned. UNC Wilmington’s Coastal Ocean Research and Monitoring Program (CORMP) is partnering with SECOORA and the Carteret County, NC boating and fishing community to raise the additional funds needed to deploy a buoy to replace 41036. The goal to raise $16,000 dollars. Please donate today. SECOORA is a 501(c)(3); therefore, your donation is tax deductible. For info and to donate: http://secoora.org/buoy
  • Your Gliders wanted!: Get your glider into the new IOOS glider DAC 2.0. Welcome to Fred Bahr who has completed his code transition and is sending glider data for an Oregon State University glider to the DAC and GTS this week.  See more here. Instructions on sharing your glider data here.
  • pH Sensor Verification Reports Released: The Alliance for Coastal Technology (ACT) has just released Verification Reports for seven individual in situ pH sensors evaluated in the laboratory and under diverse field conditions for accuracy, precision, stability and reliability.  Reports and test protocols can be downloaded at act-us.info/evaluations.php.
  • Catalina Sea Ranch – new asset for monitoring: Check out the new color scheme and IOOS and SCCOOS emblems on the Catalina Sea Ranch’s NOMAD buoy -https://www.facebook.com/Catalinasearanch. This platform will provide monitoring for the ranch but also as a platform for Marine Big Data™ in the Southern California Bight.

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):

  • QARTOD
    • Heads Up: Dissolved Oxygen updated QC manual will be sent to the IOOC, NOAA, and the International community for review this week.
    • QARTOD was presented at the 11th Currents, Waves, and Turbulence Measurements workshop (CWTM) in St. Petersburg, FL. Additional ocean optics manual reviewers were identified. Thank you to the volunteers for the dissolved nutrient committee.
  • DMAC Webinar stream: See the latest by visiting this link.  The options for encoding flags were narrowed down on the last Webinar.  The next Webinar on March 18 at 3 PM EST will examine an option from CF that resonated well with the DAC managers on the call.
  • Pacific Ocean Acidification Monitoring: PacIOOS has partnered with the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) to provide real-time data from thirteen buoys across the Pacific Ocean. The buoys measure atmospheric and oceanic carbon dioxide content, which serve as important indicators to monitor ocean acidification. Atmospheric carbon dioxide has significantly increased in the past decades, leading to an increase of carbon dioxide absorbed by the ocean. Many ocean processes are sensitive to this changing environment, including calcifying organisms (e.g., stony corals, shelled organisms). Check out the latest readings or view the carbon dioxide time series on thePacIOOS website.
  • GCOOS - Supporting Citizen Science in the Gulf of Mexico: GCOOS is developing new data portal for citizen-gathered information to help groups share information Gulf-wide. There are hundreds of groups Gulf-wide monitoring their local environments, collecting important data about how things are changing over time. But where is all that information going? Often the answer is that the information is gathered and archived locally, but isn't shared with other organizations or agencies that could make use of it. To discuss the possibilities of having GCOOS host your organization’s data, please contact Dr. Chris Simoniello at simoniello@gcoos.org.

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:

  • Australia’s IMOS – Outstanding set of presentations: IMOS held their annual meeting 16-18 February. I highly recommend you view these presentations – there is ALOT going on “down under.” Go to http://imos.org.au/apm2015.html to view the agenda and embedded talks.
  • Marine Biodiversity (MBON): The Sanctuaries BON project team met March 2-4 in Miami. Many thanks to OER Director Alan Leonardi for his keynote presentation about MBON and how it relates to NOAA Ocean Exploration priorities. Participants included strong representation from NOAA Fisheries, Sanctuaries, Florida state government, RSMAS, Stanford Hopkins Marine Lab, Woods Hole, GCOOS, CeNCOOS, Axiom, the U.S. IOOS Program Office and others. Frank Muller-Karger has taken the lead to ensure good progress across all three MBON projects on DMAC. For the Sanctuaries BON project, CeNCOOS (through Axiom and MBARI) and GCOOS (Matt Howard) are heavily engaged; Axiom is also engaged through AOOS on the Arctic Marine BON project.  During the meeting, Axiom demonstrated its research workspace emphasizing visualizations of available biological data -- this was extremely well-received as a new way to make biological data accessible for MBON and related efforts.  There was productive discussion about biodiversity observing needs in the National Marine Sanctuaries, remote sensing, and outreach/education, as well as use of eDNA techniques for species presence/absence - project partners are engaged to develop protocols for eDNA water sample collection, sequencing, applications in open water, etc., among other topics covered in the three-day meeting.

Delivering Benefits:

  • United Nations Recognizes Importance of Globally Coordinated Approach to Geodesy: Greater cooperation on geodesy, the sharing of geospatial data, creation of international standards, and capacity building among nations became a reality on February 26, when the United Nations General Assembly passed the resolution “A Global Geodetic Reference Frame for Sustainable Development,” which recognizes the importance of a globally coordinated approach to geodesy. National Geodetic Survey Deputy Director Neil D. Weston is a technical delegate for the United States on Global Geospatial Information Management efforts, and is a member of the Working Group for Global Geodetic Reference Frames.
  • Strengthening Collaboration on Ocean Observing in Mexico: The Eighth Ordinary Session of Consortium of Institutions for Marine Research in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean (CIIMAR-GoMC) was held in Mexico City on 25-27 February 2015. The focus of the CIIMAR-GoMC was discussion of scientific topics aimed at strengthening observation systems and monitoring of oceans and coasts. The United States had a strong contingent in attendance with Zdenka and Jack Harlan, IOOS Program Office; Barb Kirkpatrick and Nancy Rabalais, GCOOS; Tony Knap, Texas A&M; Steve Ashby, Northern Gulf Institute; Dr. Rebecca Green, Bureau of Ocean Energy and Management (BOEM); LeighAnne Olsen, Gulf Research Program of the U.S. National Academies of Science; and Laura Pederson and Chad Whalen CODAR OceanSonde LLC. GCOOS joined CIIMAR at this meeting. Jack and my presentations are located: http://www.ioos.noaa.gov/communications/presentations/welcome.html Read the full story here: http://www.ioos.noaa.gov/ioos_in_action/stories/ocean_observing_mexico.html
  • Ocean Acidification networks advance around the United States: Following the success of CCAN and NECAN, please join Southeast Ocean and Coastal Acidification Network (SOCAN) for their first webinar Tuesday March 10, 12pm ET. It is titled "A Far-field View of Ocean Acidification in the South Atlantic Bight" by Rik Wanninkhof, NOAA/AOML, Miami. Click here to register. In the continued partnership between US IOOS - SECOORA  and NOAA's Ocean Acidification Program, SOCAN was organized to support and encourage discussions on ocean and coastal acidification in the Southeast region.  This is the first in a webinar series on ocean acidification. The webinar series are intended to create a dialogue among key stakeholder groups to identify what is known, what isn't, and what research in other locales can be applied to better understand ocean acidification and its impacts in the Southeast US. Click here to sign up for SOCAN's listserv!
  • SCCOOS and CeNCOOS Present at an OSPR-Chevron Response Technology Workshop: Julie Thomas and David Anderson, Directors of SCOOOS and CeNCOOS presented during the workshop. The focus of this workshop was field data technology, data displays and management during oil spill responses. Julie’s talk expanded on how surface currents and wave information can assist with oil spill response and David’s talk informed the audience about observations and forecasts of surface currents on the California Coast. Important meetings such as these allow for interagency collaboration that results in improving our oil spill response and recovery.
  • NERACOOS supports Blizzard forecast: The February 2015 blizzard was a historic storm that brought hurricane force winds and over three feet of snow to parts of the Northeast. Along the coast, winds, waves and flooding resulted in evacuations, coastal erosion and damage to coastal properties. Out at sea, NERACOOS buoy N reported significant wave heights of 30 feet and wind gusts of 70 mph. Despite these imposing conditions, NERACOOS buoys and ocean forecast systems continued to deliver important information to National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters throughout the storm. NWS forecasters used NERACOOS information to develop and verify their critical forecasts and warnings as the storm developed and impacted our region. John Cannon, Senior Meteorologist from Gray, ME, said “wave forecasts and real-time buoy observations provided by NERACOOS were very helpful in providing information for splash-over and erosion forecasts and hindcasts during the blizzard.” The ocean and weather observations collected by NERACOOS buoys will also play an important role in the post storm analysis conducted by the NWS.

Congressional

  • IOOS Briefing on the Hill: On February 26, 2015, The IOOS Association, in cooperation with the House Ocean Caucus, sponsored an informational briefing in the Rayburn House Office Building entitled “Making a Difference: The Integrated Ocean Observing System (US IOOS).” Moderated by NOS Acting Assistant Administrator Russell Callender, the event provided an overview of the IOOS system, as well as briefings from user perspectives. Over 50 people attended the brief. Presentations included:
    • An overview of IOOS by Ru Morrison, Director of the Northeast Regional Association of Coastal and Ocean Observing Systems (NERACOOS);
    • High Frequency Radar Applications for Search and Rescue and Homeland Security by Dr. Scott Glenn of Rutgers University;
    • Maritime Commerce, by Captain David Gelinas of the Penobscot Bay and River Pilots;
    • Managing Harmful Algal Blooms, by Dr. Andrew  Reich, Florida Department of Health;
    • Public-Private partnerships in Ocean Observing by Kris Lynch of Shell Exploration and Production Company.
    • View pictures from the briefing on our Twitter page and Facebook page, and on http://www.ioos.noaa.gov/

Communications / Outreach / Education:

  • Antarctic Edge: 70° South: The film will launch in theaters beginning on April 17, 2015. The film festival premiere will be at the Princeton Environmental Film Festival on March 24th and the theatrical release will be at the Quad Cinemas in NYC on April 17th. http://www.examiner.com/article/first-run-features-teams-with-the-rutgers-center-for-digital-filmmaking-bravo Congrats to Dr. Dena Seidel, Director – Rutgers Center for Digital Filmaking, Rutgers Film Bureau and Mason Gross School of Art – Rutgers University and to National Science Foundation for their funding of this effort. It features some of the same stars from Scarlet Knight.

Upcoming Meetings with IOOS Participation:

  • 2nd GEO_CIEHLYC Water-Cycle Capacity Building Workshop: Colleagues of the GEO community in the Americas, this meeting will take place in Cartagena, Colombia in May 2015. Detailed information can be found here: http://www.earthobservations.org/article.php?id=71. Registration is now open! Register here!
  • OTN-hosted International Conference on Fish Telemetry (13-17 July): Registration closes in May. Taking place for the first time in North America, the 3rd ICFT will present the latest aquatic-animal telemetry research under emerging topics like transboundary issues, visualization and modelling, and intelligent open-access data. This year’s conference is hosted by the Ocean Tracking Network and will be held at the World Trade and Convention Centre, with accommodations in the connecting Delta Halifax Hotel, in the Halifax downtown-core. Registration is now open. Join the mailing listto track ICFT news.
  • Gordon Research Conference 2015: IOOS partners – Drs John Wilkin and Ruoying He are the Chair and Vice Chair respectively for the conference “Modeling Coastal Marine Circulation and Physics and the Environmental Processes that They Influence” The conference will take place June 7-12, 2015 at the University of New England, Biddeford, ME. The program is linked at https://www.grc.org/programs.aspx?id=12785. Applications for this meeting must be submitted by May 10, 2015. Please apply early, as some meetings become oversubscribed (full) before this deadline. The Coastal Ocean Modeling Gordon Research Conference will be held in conjunction with the Coastal Ocean Modeling Gordon-Kenan Research Seminar. Those interested in attending both meetings must submit an application for the GKRS in addition to an application for the GRC.

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