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With Hurricanes Helene and Milton making landfall along Florida’s west coast just 13 days apart, our friends and colleagues there are dealing with varying levels of impacts. We’re pleased to share that all of our Board Members, principal investigators, staff and consultants based in Florida are safe, though their bases of operation may be a different story.
Mote Marine Laboratory, funded by GCOOS for glider operations and Harmful Algal Bloom detection, sustained severe damage to its Sarasota-based campus from both hurricanes. They are still assessing the extent of the impacts.
The Sanibel Island-based Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation (SCCF), which receives GCOOS funding for its coastal station and buoy network, RECON, escaped major impacts. It received no water inundation during Helene and minimal interior flooding at three properties during Milton.
The University of South Florida’s St. Petersburg Campus, where the Gulf hub of the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) is based and where glider operations funded by GCOOS are housed, sustained some damage to several buildings. The Knight Oceanographic Research Center sustained electrical damage and the Marine Science Laboratory had water under the building, so no classes were being held in either location.
Gliders, Saildrones and other autonomous vehicles continue to prove their value in helping to forecast storms, especially storm strength and intensity, throughout the Gulf, Caribbean and Atlantic.
As tropical systems become more frequent and intense, it’s clear that detecting and forecasting physical expressions of climate change must be a high-priority for the global ocean observing community. At GCOOS, we continue to build our capacity for Coastal Climate Services so we can provide meaningful information coastal communities can rely on to make decisions as they confront the challenges a changing climate brings.
We are also pleased to be partnering with SECOORA and CARICOOS on a pan-regional approach for optimizing observing strategies to better understand and predict broad-scale expressions of climate change in the Intra-Americas Seas. By joining forces, we will be able to maximize our investments in ocean observing technology, broaden the scale of our individual efforts, and further mitigate impacts on coastal communities. You can read more about this effort here.
Here's hoping that the tropics stay quiet for the rest of the season. Until next month,
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P.S. Don’t forget to register for our Fall Members’ Meeting, scheduled for Nov. 8. The registration link and details are below. | |
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The full meeting agenda for the GCOOS Fall Members’ Meeting is now available. The virtual meeting will feature updates from GCOOS, the U.S. IOOS program office, UGOS and marine life projects. It will also feature new projects taking place through Inflation Reduction Act funding, the Gulf HFR network status and challenges and lightning talks from members.
- When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, Nov. 8
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Click here for the full agenda
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Click here to register
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Oyster Farming Training Program Now Offered in Spanish | |
The Oyster Resource and Recovery Center (ORRC) at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi has launched a Spanish-language version of the program’s workforce development initiative, continuing ORRC’s commitment to expand oyster farming along Texas’ coast and help supply the workforce needed. The program includes three courses: Oyster Hatchery, Oyster Farming, and Business Development.
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Acidification and Estuaries: State of the Science | |
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The Interagency Working Group on Ocean Acidification focused on Acidification and Estuaries is hosting webinars on the state of the science of OA in estuarine environments. The series is designed to start a conversation about the most important research gaps in acidification and estuaries for the federal government to address. A second webinar will provide an overview of the state of the science on causes of acidification in estuaries, biological impacts, and how to assess trends.
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Storm Forecasting and Uncrewed Systems | |
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Uncrewed systems continued to prove their worth for storm prediction as Hurricanes Helene and Milton made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast in September and October.
“Gliders and other autonomous vehicles are not only the most cost-effective technology available to collect ocean condition data for months at a time, but we know they are also safer because we don’t need humans to be in the path of storm to gather the data,” said Dr. Jorge Brenner, GCOOS Executive Director. “And from a practical standpoint, it would be difficult for anyone to collect the complex tri-dimensional ocean data needed from throughout the water column that forecasters at the National Weather Service (NWS) need to develop their models.”
New data collected by gliders, Saildrones, buoys, satellite and radar are ingested each time new models are run to help forecasters better determine storm path and intensity. As the NWS continues to implement new operational models, data from these systems, along with AI and machine learning will become even more crucial to storm prediction, says Brian LaMarre, Program Manager for NWS Operations Model Implementation. “AI will be able to assimilate all of these data points even faster than ever before,” he said. “Having more data points will only help us improve our forecasts.”
| Glider Data and Hurricanes | |
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Dr. Uchenna Nwankwo, GCOOS Oceanographer and assistant research scientist in Texas A&M's Geochemical and Environmental Research Group (GERG), shares how his team is using Slocum buoyancy gliders in the Gulf of Mexico to enhance our ability to predict and respond to hurricanes in this TAMU-produced video.
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Hurricane Helene made landfall in the Big Bend area of the Florida Gulf Coast as a Category 4 storm late on Sept. 26. Helene's largest impacts were across the southern Appalachians where widespread severe and unprecedented flooding occurred with hundreds of fatalities and billions in property damage. Strong wind gusts damaged property and blew trees and power lines down in a swath from the Gulf Coast to the North Carolina mountains. At least 230 people died in the storm, with the death toll likely to rise.
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CDIP Station Summary for Helene | |
Coastal Data Information Program (CDIP) stations off Florida measured historically powerful waves during Hurricane Helene. New records were set for height, while peak periods were several seconds longer than normally measured off West FL during tropical storms in the Gulf of Mexico. This bulletin summarizes the complete data set available at cdip.ucsd.edu. | |
USF Slocum Glider in Helene’s Path | |
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Positioned at the edge of the west Florida Shelf, the University of South Florida Slocum glider nicknamed Jai Alai was directly in Hurricane Helene’s path. In the days before the storm’s landfall, the glider detected a deep reservoir of warm water in the storm’s projected path, giving it an abundance of fuel to intensify rapidly. Supercharged by this warm water, Helene grew from a tropical storm to a major Category 4 hurricane in just two days.
Operator Chad Lembke instructed the glider to work around the middle of the water column, safe from Helene’s massive waves at the surface and the powerful forces of circulation near the seafloor. The glider was also instructed to minimize its time communicating while the storm passed. The glider resurfaced and transmitted a signal around 10 p.m. Sept. 26 and it remains at sea.
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Hurricane Helene Impacts NCEI Operations | |
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NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina, was severely impacted by Hurricane Helene. NCEI employees and staff have been accounted for, and its data holdings — including paper and film records — are safe.
NCEI maintains one of the most significant archives on Earth, with comprehensive oceanic, atmospheric and geophysical data dating back to the 1700s. NCEI archives over 229 terabytes of data each month from over 130 observing platforms, and the majority of these data stewardship services were unavailable due to the impacts of Helene.
While archived data was inaccessible, and limited new data was being ingested, NCEI was working to limit the loss of data. NCEI also reported that its monthly State of the Climate reports and data will be delayed.
NCEI is currently reporting that its products and services are now available, though many data products continue to be updated as a result of the outage caused by Hurricane Helene.
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Milton formed as a tropical depression on Oct. 5, in the Southwest Gulf of Mexico and shortly developed into Tropical Storm Milton. In 24 hours, the storm intensified to hurricane strength and by Oct. 7 had undergone more rapid intensification to a storm with winds of 180 mph.
Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm on Oct. 9, near Siesta Key, just south of Sarasota, Florida. Some 126 tornado warnings were issued and, so far, the NWS has confirmed the storm spawned at least 41, though surveys are ongoing. At least 14 people died.
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CDIP Station Summary for Milton | |
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CDIP stations in Florida measured historic waves last week during Hurricane Milton, similar in intensity to those from Hurricane Helene last month, and Hurricane Ian in 2022. This bulletin is a summary of the complete data set available at cdip.ucsd.edu.
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Saildrone Footage from Inside Milton | |
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Saildrone and NOAA captured video from inside Hurricane Milton on Oct. 9, 2024 at 1801 UTC (2:01pm EDT) from Saildrone SD-1083. The saildrone reported maximum significant wave height of 28.12 feet (8.57m), and wind gusts as strong as 75.95 mph (66kts) while 40 nautical miles from the center of the storm. This vital research represents a collaborative endeavor between Saildrone and NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory and Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory to better understand the role of the ocean in hurricanes.
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The Saildrone was also being tracked on our uncrewed systems dashboard, GANDALF. Check out the here now
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Watch now
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New GOES-19 Lightning Mapper | |
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The Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) instrument, onboard NOAA’s GOES-19 satellite, is now continuously observing lightning over the Western Hemisphere. GOES-19 launched on June 25, allowing the GLM to detect and map total lightning — in-cloud, cloud-to-cloud, and cloud-to-ground — continuously over the Americas and adjacent ocean regions. The insights reveal the spatial and temporal extent of lightning flashes. On Thursday, Oct. 17, NOAA released imagery of the lightening imagery collected during Hurricanes Helene and Milton. GLM can help identify the most intense thunderstorms most likely to produce tornadoes and help the aviation industry avoid storms.
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Detecting Climate Signals | |
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GCOOS Executive Director Dr. Jorge Brenner recently returned from a workshop hosted by the Climate Variability and Predictability Program (CLIVAR) . The Optimizing Ocean Observing Networks for Detecting the Coastal Climate Signal Workshop brought together coastal ocean observing system operators and users to identify the key science issues that need to be resolved to detect and respond to coastal climate change in the coming decades. The workshop:
- Identified opportunities to accelerate the co-design and optimization of observing systems for detecting the coastal climate signals by integrating knowledge, data, and approaches;
- Fostered collaborations among the climate science, operational oceanographic, research and resource management communities to inform first-responder agencies in the management and mitigation of coastal vulnerability to both event-scale and long-term climate changes and
- Bridged gaps between global climate research and regional operational oceanography at the coasts.
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During the meeting, Brenner presented “GCOOS’ Framework for Coastal Climate Services (FCCS) in the Gulf of Mexico,” a poster developed with intern Solomon Nyamekye from Rice University. GCOOS climate services ambitions align with the organization’s mission and Build-Out Plan to empower individuals, communities and businesses to enhance decision-making processes. The FCCS is designed as a living document that will help identify challenges and opportunities to address climate change, bolster resilience and foster socio-economic growth in the Gulf of Mexico region while evolving to reflect changes over time.
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Brenner, SECOORA Executive Director Debra Hernandez and CARICOOS Executive Director Dr. Julio M. Morell also presented “Observing for Climate Signals in the Intra-America Seas: A Pan-Regional Approach” outlining the initial collaborative products developed by the three regional associations and setting the stage for future long-term collaborations.
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Learn more here about the new “Intra-American Seas (IAS) Pan-Regional Initiative” among GCOOS, SECOORA and CARICOOS
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HFR Stolen from Surfside Beach | |
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When Hurricane Beryl hit Texas in July, its path of destruction included areas in Brazoria County, where a IOOS/NOAA-funded high-frequency radar unit was deployed by Texas A&M University at Surfside Beach. While the unit itself was undamaged in the storm, the utility pole that the unit drew power from was damaged and left the unit dark.
The HFR unit produced surface current velocity observations from the beach to about 100 nautical miles offshore, with data used to keep coastal communities safe during severe weather, oil spills and other environmental threats. The data were also used by recreational and commercial fisheries and recreational boaters and swimmers.
It is believed that thieves drove up to the unit, cut all the cabling between the stand-alone trailer and the two 30-feet antennae and drove off with the trailer, which housed the radar electronics, communications and computer, along with much of the cabling and antennae. The computer, which has a unique IP address, has not yet connected to the Internet.
The theft, which occurred sometime after the unit’s last sighting in early August, has been reported to the police and, when funds are available, a new unit will be deployed in the same vicinity with increased security measures.
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Healthy Ecosystems & Living Resources
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Technology of Science Fiction Now Realized for Ecosystem Health | |
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Tools and technologies once only envisioned in science fiction have become reality now helping to answer pressing questions about the state and fate of biodiversity and its impact on people around the world, said Southeast U.S. MBON researcher Dr. Enrique Montes, a scientist at NOAA AOML’s Ocean Chemistry and Ecosystems Division, in a recent interview.
Some science fiction ideas of the past that are now being implemented: sensors on satellites that enable unprecedented spectral resolution; particle imaging for zooplankton that greatly accelerates capacity compared to traditional microscopy; analysis of biodiversity from DNA extracted from water samples in the environment; and large data bases like EcoTaxa that make more than 455 million plankton-related data points readily available to researchers.
This is the stuff of the “science and science fiction dance” that the U.S. MBON team is tackling by co-evolving the science and technology of tomorrow but it’s not a new dance. The marriage between science fiction and new scientific technology was an idea that Carl Sagan once summed up this way: “The scientists make a finding, it inspires science fiction writers to write about it, and a host of young people read the science fiction and are excited and inspired to become scientists… which then feeds again into another generation of science fiction and science.”
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The University of Alabama’s Global Water Security Center will receive $11.5 million in funding over the next two years from the U.S. Department of Defense to enhance the center’s analysis of global environmental factors affecting politics and security to inform key DOD decision makers. The center provides detailed analysis of water data, translating the raw numbers and then putting it into a local or regional context. Analysis products might focus on the impact of an El Niño season, for example, or the political instability of a region due to extended drought.
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HABs and Satellites: Webinar Recording | |
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The recording of the last National Harmful Algal Bloom Observing Network (NHABON) webinar “The Role of Satellite Observations in NHABON and Exciting Advances in Space-Based HAB Detection” is now available on YouTube.
Please also mark your calendar for the next webinar, which will focus on the West Coast paralytic shellfish poisoning event that occurred in May and made 31 people in Oregon sick.
- Next Webinar Date/Time: 3 p.m. ET Jan. 15, 2025
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Watch the last webinar
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Did you miss the UG2 meeting in Michigan last month?
If so, then you won’t want to miss the next UG2 webinar, which will include meeting highlights!
Speakers will include Dr. Jay Austin, University of Minnesota Duluth, Dr. Katherine Gallagher, Stony Brook University and Hank Statscewich, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
- When: 2-3:30 p.m. ET Nov. 7
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Meeting link
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IOOS Association
Now Hiring
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The IOOS Association is seeking to fill two new positions before January 2025: Program Specialist, Pan-Regional Collaborations and Program Specialist, Equitable Service Delivery.
The Pan-Regional Collaborations Program Specialist will manage, monitor, track and provide convening and collaboration support for an unprecedented collaboration across all 11 IOOS Regional Associations to build capacity for equitably delivering coastal observations and information services to support ecosystem change monitoring and place-based planning for inundation and coastal hazards, primarily in support of two multi-faceted, pan-regional projects: ecosystem change and water levels and waves and webcams.
The Equitable Service Delivery Program Specialist will manage, monitor, track, and provide convening and collaboration support for an unprecedented collaboration across all 11 IOOS Regional Associations to build capacity for equitably delivering coastal observations and information services to support decision making related to public health, safety, and resilience.
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Gulf of Mexico Alliance
GOMA Accepting Tools Café Submissions
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GOMA is now accepting submissions for the next Tools Café scheduled for the All Hands Meeting May 5-8, 2025. Submissions for the Tools Café, one of the most popular highlights of the four-day event, will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.
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Submit your tool here
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Register for the meeting here
GCOOS is a proud sponsor of the All Hands Meeting.
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Gulf Research Program (GRP)
Webinar: Impacts of Compounding Disasters on Housing
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Disaster planning and recovery have historically centered on single events, but climate change is driving more frequent and higher-intensity events in the same regions over time. These compounding disasters introduce new, interconnected, and complex risk scenarios that will require comprehensive new strategies for emergency planning and response. The GRP is hosting a webinar focused on housing resilience and access in the context of compounding disasters and how to rethink our disaster framework to adapt to this new reality.
Christopher Flavelle (The New York Times) will moderate a conversation between Carlos Martín (Harvard University) and Tracy Kijewski-Correa (University of Notre Dame).
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National Science Foundation - Program Director
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Hello.gov - Sr. Cloud and Data Engineer
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National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine; Gulf Research Program - Executive Director
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National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine; Gulf Research Program - Program Officer - Environmental Protection and Stewardship Board
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University of Miami - Assistant Professor in Physical Oceanography
- Mote Marine Laboratory
Postdoctoral Positions:
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National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration: National Centers for Coastal Ocean Sciences, NRC Research Programs
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Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute: Postdoctoral Fellowship
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National Research Council: Research Associateship Programs Postdoctoral and Senior Research Awards
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Mississippi State University: Postdoctoral Associate
Fellowships:
- Susan L. Williams National Coral Reef Management Fellowship
- National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration - Coastal Management Fellowship
- National Academies of Science, Engineering and Mathematics: Early Career Fellowships
- Department of Defense: Visualization of Coastal Data, Coastal Vulnerability Assessment Fellow
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National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Red Snapper Recovery
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National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Translating Coastal Research into Application
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Gulf of Mexico Alliance - Increasing Participation in Clean and Resiient Marine Programs
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Seagrant - Addressing Priority Research, Extenision and Education Needs
- The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine – Early Career Research Fellowship
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GCOOS is the Gulf of Mexico regional component of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) and the only certified system dedicated solely to the Gulf of Mexico. Our mission is to provide on-demand information about the Gulf’s coastal and open ocean waters that is accurate, reliable and benefits people, ecosystems and the economy. | |
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Dr. Jorge Brenner, Executive Director • Dr. Barbara Kirkpatrick, Senior Advisor • Dr. Uchenna Nwankwo, Oceanographer • Dr. Chris Simoniello, Outreach & Education Manager • Dr. Renata Poulton Kamakura, Science Policy Fellow • Felimon Gayanilo, Systems Architect, Co-Data Manager • Bob Currier, Product Developer, Co-Data Manager • Tuomo Saari, Scientific Computing Specialist • Xiao Qi, Scientific Computing Specialist • Jennifer Vreeland-Dawson, Program Coordinator • Megan Howson, Marine Mammal Biologist and Data Scientist • Jerad King, GIS Developer • Grant Craig, Project Manager and HABscope Volunteer Coordinator • Nadine Slimak, Public Relations & Content Marketing, Vetted Communications, LLC • Laura Caldwell, Program Assistant
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In Memoriam: Matt Howard, 1952-2018
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