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Program Updates **Memorial for Steve RSVP

Director's Article

I am very excited to announce some significant changes in the Ocean Observing and Monitoring Division (OOMD). Pending final approvals (expected shortly) OOMD will separate from the Climate Program Office (CPO) to become an independent Program, i.e, Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing (GOMO), within OAR.
 
Over a year ago, OAR leadership assessed its organization of ocean activities. In light of the many years of OOMD success and growth, increased importance of ocean observing across multiple NOAA goals, program size, increased need to interact directly with OAR and NOAA leadership, and the desire to increase the visibility of our program, OAR directed this change. This "promotion" reflects the maturity of ocean observing as a research activity nurtured under the Climate Program Office (and before that other programs in OAR) for more than 20 years. The dedication and hard work of the many OOMD PIs led to this recognition.
 
We expect these changes to become official in early to mid-October 2018.
 
As part of this change, the Climate Monitoring program will become the responsibility of the Climate Program Office. The Arctic Research Program will remain as part of GOMO.
 
Our lines of reporting will now change; we will report directly to OAR leadership. We will also have significantly increased administrative responsibilities, currently provided by CPO. While most of these additional responsibilities have no direct impact on our PIs and our activities, they require appropriate staffing and changes to our organizational processes. Over the past several months we have been preparing transition plans to address these needs; however, manpower resources are not yet in place (we expect to announce soon the addition of a dedicated communications specialist as the first of several new hires). There will be impacts on our responsiveness as we work through the challenges. (Costs for additional staff are not expected to impact our level of support for observing. We are shifting responsibilities and costs from CPO to GOMO).
 
We recognize that our separation from CPO will present new challenges for engagement with NOAA's climate research community. Our engagement with the climate research community remains important for our future success. Wayne Higgins (current CPO Director) and I are working together to identify relevant opportunities and means of regular connections to ensure we maximize the value-added of continued close collaborations between the programs.
 
After many months of not being able to share the news of our "promotion", I am now very excited to embrace the future under our new Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing (GOMO) program and the many opportunities to expand and change our program to become even more responsive to NOAA and US needs.  

 David Legler, Director, Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing Program
Important Dates

Check out the full  OOMD Community Calendar on our website!
carbon
Upcoming Meetings and Webinars

IV International Conference on El Niño Southern Oscillation: ENSO in a warmer Climate
October 16-18, 2018 in  Guayaquil, Ecuador
Call for abstracts now open

Fall AGU Meeting
Dec. 10-14, Washington, D.C.
**Special Argo 2 millionth profile celebration Dec 10th at NOAA booth**

Ocean Obs '19 
Sept 16-20, 2019 Honolulu, HI
More info

jcommProgram Updates

The Future of Argo Symposium and Memorial for Stephen R. Piotrowicz will be on Friday Sept. 14, 2018 in Silver Spring, MD. Please see the invitation for more information and to RSVP.

Save the dates: Week of June 10--next Community Meeting in Silver Spring.

Requests for Progress Reports and Work Plans will be coming soon. We are changing our format to ask for both of these at the same time this year. We hope that will help you in both assessing last year's work and planning for the next year at the same time. ALL PIs (including Arctic) will be using the template that David will be sending out.
amsArctic Cruise a success!
On August 24, the NOAA-funded Arctic cruise on board USCGC Healy safely returned to Alaska's Port of Nome after 18-days at sea. The science conducted on its journey were featured in several  blog posts on NOAA Research News. Additionally, the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) also  highlighted key activities, see select items below:
  • An impressive count of 31 of moorings were successfully serviced over the course of the science cruise. This process entailed retrieving the hefty moorings that had been gathering observations during the year, washing them down, extracting their data, and deploying another mooring in its place to continue collecting information.
  • Evie Fachon representing WHOI's Anderson Lab was able to successfully set up the Imaging FlowCytoBot that captures high resolution images of phytoplankton in the underway seawater. This will supplement their CTD water samples to determine the origin and extent of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) in the Arctic.
  • Dr. Robert Pickart, chief scientist on board from WHOI, and his team of physical oceanographers completed 142 CTD casts on HLY1801. The high-resolution sampling of the outflow from Barrow Canyon will enable a better understanding of the fate of the Pacific water as it enters the deep Arctic Ocean. 
We are becoming an OAR program...what does that mean? program
As noted in David's article, the Ocean Observing and Monitoring Division is separating from the Climate Program Office to become an independent Program (Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing - GOMO) Program within OAR. What does that mean for our community?
 
  • The Climate Monitoring program will be managed by the Climate Program Office (more details to follow).
  • The Arctic Research Program will remain part of GOMO.
  • Current program managers in OOMD will continue to support the program. Additional support staff are anticipated.
  • Our new general email address will become [email protected]   (effective Oct 1 2018)
  • Our office location and contact information will remain the same. Only the name of the program will change.
  • The new OAR Org chart will look like this:


 
 
rbClimate Program Office FFO now open

The Climate Program Office (CPO) Fiscal Year 2019 Federal Funding Opportunity (FFO) announcement has just been published and is accessible via the CPO we bsite: cpo.noaa.gov/ffo

CPO supports competitive research through three major program areas: Earth System Science and Modeling (ESSM); Climate and Societal Interactions (CSI) and Communication, Education and Engagement (CEE). Through this Announcement, CPO's is seeking applications for 10 individual competitions in FY 2019.

- Letters of Intent due by 5:00 p.m. ET on September 10, 2018
- Full Applications due by 5:00 p.m. ET on November 20, 2018


clivarCall for US CLIVAR Workshops
We are pleased to announce the call for US CLIVAR-sponsored workshops. The due date for requests is September 28, 2018 . Submissions should be sent to  [email protected] . 

Workshops
The US CLIVAR program annually sponsors open community workshops, conferences, and science meetings to coordinate, plan, and implement new or focused activities for the benefit of the scientific community and relevant to the goals of US CLIVAR. Workshops can serve as an initiation point in the planning process for future community activities. Funding is limited and not all submitted workshop requests may be supported. Please read the call for full details. 
goaOne-off funded projects
In FY18, we were able to offer some PIs one time funding to address critical needs, undertake innovative activities, and/or explore new collaborative activities. Many of these projects had very small costs. We are hoping to be able to continue offering similar opportunities in the future! Here are some of the projects that were funded in FY18:
  • Directional Wave Spectra Drifter (DWSD) pilot project for the Global Drifter Program
  • Enhanced Vertical Resolution in the Mixed Layer on RAMA Moorings
  • Origin and Fate of Harmful Algal Blooms in the Bering Strait Region
  • Expansion of PMEL's pCO2 laboratory to service moored pCO2 systems in partnership with PMEL and the Ocean Acidification Program.
  • Updated data communications or remote tide gauge stations
  • A high precision CO2 analyzer to improve the accuracy of regional air-sea CO2 flux estimates from ships of opportunity (SOOP-CO2).
  • Tracing the Economic Value of Oceanographic Research and Observations
  • Bounding dynamic errors in pressure sensors for Argo with CTD testing
  • Unexpected costs due to the KEO mooring break
  • East SAMBA Line continuation/partnership
ketoJob announcements
Positions in ocean modeling and data assimilation for improving ocean observation strategies

The Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies, within the University of Miami, invites applications for two positions to take part in the development of ocean modeling and forecasting systems, dedicated to improving ocean observation strategies for multiple processes ranging from extreme events, such as hurricanes, to climate indices.

The first position is for a Postdoctoral Associate. The successful candidate will contribute to the ongoing development of a regional to global observing system evaluation capability to improve ocean prediction for a broad range of applications. We seek applicants who have a PhD in oceanography, meteorology, or a related field, and who are capable of taking part in the design of complex ocean modeling and data assimilation systems.  

The second position is for a Senior Research Associate. The successful candidate will provide computer programming support for the implementation of numerical simulations and will take part in the analysis of the results. We seek candidates with a M.S. in computer science, oceanography, meteorology, mathematics, statistics, or a related field.  

For more details and to make application, please visit  www.miami.edu/careers then click on Staff Positions:
Postdoctoral Associate position number: P100039284
Senior Research Assistant position number: P100039249

If you have any question regarding these positions, please contact Matthieu  Le Hénaff ( [email protected])
arcticheatCLIVAR/CliC/SCAR Southern Ocean Region Panel (SORP)
The CLIVAR/CliC/SCAR Southern Ocean Region Panel (SORP) is seeking nominations for four new members (self-nominations are welcome). The panel is in particular need of nominees possessing expertise in: 
  •  global climate/Earth-system modelling; 
  •  open ocean measurements; 
  •  sea ice remote sensing; 
  •  sea-going chemical oceanography; 

 The inclusion of representation from across the nations and regions that participate in Southern Ocean climate science is a priority. At least one new member from Africa and from Asia are needed for this round of nominations. Please refer to SORP's terms of reference.


 

Please submit Nominations here (including self-nominations) 


 

The panel has in-person meetings every 18 months or so, the next one is due in 2020. SORP has video conferences about every 3-4 months, and members do a lot of their work by email. Current activities include contributing to OceanObs19 papers, as well as regular reporting to CLIVAR, CliC and SCAR on ocean and climate research for the Southern Ocean. The process of nominations is that they are collated by CLIVAR and then passed to the co-chairs to short-list. CLIVAR, CliC, and SCAR then make the final decisions on the members, taking into account balance issues such as geographic location, gender, and range of disciplinary expertise. For more information about panel activities and the expectations for panel members, please contact one of the panel co-chairs, Inga Smith ([email protected]) and Riccardo Farneti ([email protected]).

 

 
pubsRecent Publications

El Nino-Southern Oscillation complexity by Axel Timmerman et al. in Nature.
As always, for the OOMD community, by the OOMD community,

Emily A. Smith
  [301-427-2463 ]