Bi-Weekly IOOS® Z-GRAM – 17 April 2015

04/17/2015

ZGram picThe Z-Gram is an informal way of keeping you up-to-date on US IOOS® activities. Pass it on! Please reply with an e-mail with additional addresses or if you no longer want to receive the Z-Gram. Previous Updates

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IOOS® - EYES ON THE OCEAN

From the IOOS Program Office:

  • First IOOS Certification Application Received: A major milestone of the ICOOS
    Legislation was met when PacIOOS submitted their Certification Application. NOAA has
    90 days to review and issue a decision. As this is a first application, the US IOOS Office
    and PacIOOS worked together to determine what material meets the requirements of the
    certification final rule, as well as is representative of best practices for an observing system.
    My sincere thanks to the team at PacIOOS and in the IOOS Office who have worked very
    hard to get to this point.
  • IOOS Federal Advisory Committee: This is a public meeting. It will be held April 29-30
    at the Consortium for Ocean Leadership in Washington, DC. VADM (Ret.) Brown, NOAA’s
    Assistant Secretary for Observation and Environmental Prediction; Russell Callender, NOS
    Assistant Administrator; Steve Stockton, Director of Civil Works, U.S. Army Corps of
    Engineers; Eric Lindstrom and Bob Houtman (IOOC Co-Chairs); and Josie Quintrell (IOOS
    Association) will talk with the committee. Draft Agenda posted: http://www.ioos.noaa.gov/advisorycommittee/welcome.html

  • The Ocean Enterprise: A study of US business activity in ocean measurement, observation and forecasting: IOOS, ERISS Corporation, and The Maritime Alliance have moved into the survey phase of the study now through May, 2015.  Companies are receiving invitations to take the survey and any company who is a provider or intermediary is welcome to join the study.  Opt in by going to the survey http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/oceanstudy

    Summary information is also available on the IOOS web page: http://www.ioos.noaa.gov/ioos_in_action/ocean_enterprise_study.htm

    • Those in the DC region: MARACOOS Annual Meeting will be held May 7-8 at the Sheraton Inner Harbor Hotel in Baltimore, MD.  Interested in attending? See the agenda and register here: http://maracoos.org/content/maracoos-2015-annual-meeting.
    • Those in the Southeast region: Please register today for the SECOORA 2015 Annual Meeting. The two-day meeting will be held May 19-20, 2015 at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront in Jacksonville, FL (225 E Coastline Dr., Jacksonville, FL 32202). Click here to register: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1SryZTSwsGDmZz2G5jdrrIolQmA0pYgpNHdpIhmt0Rs8/viewform.

    Observation Subsystem and Sensor Technologies:

    • Update on Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Jubilee in the Northern Gulf of Mexico, 13-17 July 2015: The University of Southern Mississippi-led CONCORDE, Consortium for River-Dominated Coastal Ecosystems, continues to plan its AUV Jubilee for the Northern Gulf in July. Many teachers nationwide are applying to participate and the Naval Oceanographic Office will now be adding a glider.  Read more about the GoMRI-funded CONCORDE at http://gcoos.org.

    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):

    • No update.

    Modeling and Analysis Subsystem:

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

    • 6th Annual Testbeds and Proving Grounds Meeting:  All of the NOAA testbeds and proving grounds provided annual updates and there was a theme session discussing NOAA’s advances in Environmental Intelligence.  The COMT had 5 posters and 1 oral presentation accepted.  The abstracts for all can be seen here. Becky’s Round up presentation can be found on the IOOS website.
    • 2014-2015 Pacific Anomalies Science and Technology Workshop: Unusual ocean weather and climate patterns have been observed throughout 2014 and early 2015 across the North Pacific basin. Areas of the North Pacific have been as much as 5⁰C warmer than average, earning the nickname ‘the blob’, and is affecting weather and climate patterns. Extreme conditions in physical and biogeochemical parameters are occurring in many locations, and appear to be impacting pelagic ecosystems, including fisheries. Plans are underway for a workshop on the North Pacific Ocean temperature anomaly and associated conditions. This is the first of a two part series, with the first workshop to be held in San Diego at Scripps on May 5-6, 2015 focusing on what is being observed, and the second will focus on causative factors. The May workshop is being developed by the five Pacific region ocean observing systems AOOS, NANOOS, CeNCOOS, SCCOOS, and PacIOOS), the IOOS office, IOOC, and the NOAA Climate Program Office. Visit http://sccoos.org/anomalies_workshop/ to register, submit an abstract, or to be included in future communications on this topic.

    Interagency and International Collaboration/News:

    • IMOS Animal Tagging & Monitoring System AATAMS Visit with IOOS: Robert Harcourt – Facility leader and Clive McMahon visited US IOOS PO last week to meet with the IOOS Office and joined by Sam Simmons, MMC and Mike Weise, ONR.  Areas of potential collaboration include:
      • Biologging Data/metadata standardization
      • Marine Technology development for Animal Tagging such as O2 sensors, and miniaturization of CTD tags for deployment on fur seals, sea lions, sharks etc.
      • Collaborate on research papers to demonstrate the importance of Animal Telemetry Observation Data.
    • New Geoid Model “GEOID12B”: NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey (NGS) has produced a new geoid model, GEOID12B, to replace the previous GEOID12A model. GEOID12B is identical to GEOID12A everywhere except in Puerto Rico and the Virgin islands, and it supersedes models GEOID12 and GEOID12A. GEOID12B, available on NGS’ website, is implemented in GPS manufacturer software. By providing a means for more accurate and efficient elevation determination, GEOID12B greatly assists those involved in floodplain management, coastal and emergency response, port operations, and river/stream flow monitoring. In combination with GPS technology, more accurate heights are now obtainable anywhere in the United States. For more information, contact: Yan.Wang@noaa.gov

    Delivering Benefits:

    • NOAA Coastal Hazards Resilience Workshop on Rip Currents and Wave Run-Up: Rob Ragsdale represented the IOOS Program Office.   There were 2-days of presentations and discussions on rip currents and 1-day for wave run-up. Topics were approached from the forecasting/modeling and messaging/communication angles. The presentations, in the morning, set-up the afternoon group input gathering sessions. It was well attended by the NWS, the life-saving community, several people from Sea Grant, and rip current experts (from as far away as New South Wales, Australia).   Rob prepared a summary of IOOS RA relevant efforts and shared them with the meeting participants.
    • PacIOOS Governing Council Executive Committee in Majuro: Josie Quintrell and I attended the meeting in Majuro and it was a profound experience to understand how IOOS makes a difference.  The purpose of the meeting was for PacIOOS to discuss their next 5 year proposal, but the governing committee also had a chance to understand how important the work of PacIOOS truly is.  Huge thanks to Don Hess, College of Marshall Islands, and Karl Fellenius, PacIOOS and SeaGrant for all their efforts.  An area that previously saw inundation every couple of years is now experiencing it three to four times a year.  The wave buoy and inundation forecasts are used by the Embassy, NOAA’s Weather office and the public to plan for these life altering events.  The wave buoy, so critical to the effort, has gone missing, we are now working with the community to replace that buoy.
    • GCOOS-RA Working with the Gulf Marine Mammal Community: GCOOS-RA staff presented at, and participated on the Steering Committee for the Gulf of Mexico Marine Mammal Research and Monitoring meeting in New Orleans, LA. The objective of the meeting was to catalyze collaborations for long-term research planning, information sharing, and capacity building around Gulf marine mammals. Barb Kirkpatrick, GCOOS-RA Executive Director, presented on the GCOOS history with the Sperm Whale Seismic Study, the GCOOS Build-out Plan elements supporting marine mammal monitoring, the GCOOS Data Portal, the Integrated Tagging of Aquatic Animals (iTag) effort, the IOOS Animal Telemetry Network (ATN), and AOOS' work with the ATN and marine mammal projects and databases in Alaska. Stephanie Watson, GCOOS-RA Communications Manager, served on the meeting Steering Committee and facilitated the Habitat Use and Distribution breakout group with Chris Simoniello, GCOOS-RA Outreach and Education Lead. Presentations will be posted by the end of April on the workshop website: http://mmc.gov/gom/gom_meeting.shtml

    Congressional

    • IOOS Spring Visits:  The IOOS Program Office updates Congress several times a year on progress being made on the IOOS Enterprise and ICOOS legislation.  This past week Carl, IOOS Deputy, briefed Brandon Elsner Legislative Assistant to Senator Wicker. Jen Rhoades, IOOS Office met with Troy Phillips, Senior Legislative Assistant and Bryan Cole, Ocean Fellow to Representative Far.  Over the next two weeks, 7 more visits are planned.  Interested in hearing about IOOS? Please contact Jen Rhoades, jenifer.rhoades@noaa.gov

    Communications / Outreach / Education:

    Upcoming Meetings with IOOS Participation:

    • 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 modeling, 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, Halifax, Canada. Registration is open. Join the mailing list to 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.
    • Planning for MTS/IEEE OCEANS’15 Washington DC:  Once again US IOOS will participate in this conference.  The US IOOS Program Office has secured 2 booths and will be looking for community engagement.  We are committed to the ever popular IGNITE session – as we did in Norfolk and have discussed townhall topics – potentially in coordination with the Maritime Alliance based on the Ocean Enterprise study.  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.

    View the IOOS calendar: http://www.ioosassociation.org/calendar

    Contact

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