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Greetings!
June is National Ocean Month — a time to appreciate our oceans and the countless ways they impact our lives. One of the biggest — and one GCOOS and many of our partners focus on at this time every year — are ocean temperatures and how they impact the annual hurricane season forecast and storm patterns.
NOAA dropped their forecast at the end of May, calling for record storms (details below) on the heels of record-breaking sea surface temperatures (May 2024 was warmer globally than any previous May in the data record, according to the EU's Copernicus).
With more than 14 million Gulf Coast residents facing potential storm impacts, we decided to add a new seasonal section in our enewsletter this month focused on hurricane news. Be sure to check out details for upcoming hurricane-related webinars and other Gulf-related hurricane news and, if you have items of interest, please be sure to share them with us.
This month, the White House also announced three new federal strategies that advance the President’s commitment to conserving and protecting our ocean, harnessing its power to strengthen our economy and addressing the climate and nature crises. Learn more in the National Strategy for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, the National Ocean Biodiversity Strategy and the National Aquatic Environmental DNA Strategy.
We appreciate the focus on sustainability and know that the ocean observing community will continue to play a critically important role in providing data to help mitigate negative impacts in a changing climate and give resource managers the information they need to protect resources for the benefit of us all.
Until next month,
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P.S. Speaking of oceans, did you know that the Gulf Stream transports more water than all of the Earth’s rivers combined? | |
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Did you know that the Howard Scholarship Fund supports GCOOS Fellowships for undergraduate students interested in the intersection of oceanography and data to attend a professional conference and learn from GCOOS staff and Board mentors? In 2024, donations to the fund are supporting two fellows and will allow us to continue the program into the future!
We recently updated our donation portal and now, supporting the fund named in honor of GCOOS pioneer Matt Howard is easier than ever!
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Did you miss the most recent webinar in the joint GCOOS-SECOORA series aimed at building stronger connections between ocean acidification programs like GCAN and SOCAN and the U.S. Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON)? If so, the webinar “Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary: Identifying areas of data gaps, data needs and collaborations” —and others in the series — are archived on our website.
This webinar series is focused on the intersections between ocean acidification (OA) and MBON to advance science in support of resource management and the Blue Economy. Speakers during the May 30 webinar were Dr. Xingping Hu, Texas A&M University Corpus-Christi/ Harte Research Institute for OA and Dr. Marissa Nuttall, Research Specialist, Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary for MBON.
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Save the Date: The next webinar on “Ecosystem Services and the Blue Economy” will take place from noon to 1 p.m. ET on Thursday, July 25. Check back here for details and registration.
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Teams of developers, academic researchers and data community members worked on projects addressing pressing data and information challenges during the 2024 U.S. IOOS Code Sprint, a three-day hackathon sponsored by MARACOOS in coordination with their 20th Anniversary at the end of May. Projects were related to the IOOS mission to produce, integrate and communicate high-quality ocean, coastal and Great Lakes information to meet the safety, economic and stewardship needs of the nation.
GCOOSian hacker (aka Systems Architect and Co-Data Manager) Felimon Gayanilo led Topic 1: “Visualization of ADCP Data in ERDDAP,” with GCOOS Software Developer Sandeep Jilla as a primary contributor to the effort on the topic. GCOOS Scientific Computing Specialist Tuomo Saari joined as a coder for Topic 3: “ERDDAP web log analysis.” Given his familiarity with the ESIP AI-Ready Checklist and IOOS Metadata Profile, Gayanilo also contributed to the discussions related to Topic 7: “AI Ready Data Checker.”
Were they sprinting here or what?!
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New: Hurricane Season Enewsletter Section | |
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This month we’re adding a seasonal feature to the GCOOS enewsletter: A special section focused on hurricane-related news. In this space, we’ll provide updates from GANDALF, our glider-piloting dashboard, information on hurricane-related webinars and other hurricane-season items of interest.
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NOAA 2024 Hurricane Forecast | |
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NOAA’s National Weather Service released its hurricane forecast for 2024, predicting an 85% chance of an above-normal season, a 10% chance of a near-normal season and a 5% chance of a below-normal season. NOAA is forecasting a range of 17 to 25 total named storms (winds 39 mph or higher), with eight to 13 storms forecast to become hurricanes (74 mph or higher), including four to seven category 3, 4, or 5 hurricanes (111 mph or higher).
And don’t forget: Beginning on or around Aug. 15, the National Hurricane Center will begin issuing an experimental version of the cone graphic that includes inland tropical storm and hurricane watches and warnings in effect for the continental U.S.
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Webinar: Hurricanes, the NWS and GCOOS | |
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Join GCOOS and the National Weather Service (NWS) as we talk about the hurricane season outlook and preparedness measures, as well as changes to “the cone” and how data gained by gliders and shared via GCOOS helps to improve hurricane activity forecasts. The webinar will also cover GANDALF, the GCOOS glider piloting dashboard.
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Speakers:
- Brian LaMarre is NWS NOAA Gulf regional team lead and the meteorologist-in-charge of the NWS office for the Tampa Bay Area/Ruskin, Florida. Brian’s early career included a permanent meteorologist position with the NWS office in Corpus Christi and later served as the national marine and coastal weather services program manager at NWS Headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. He was the warning coordination meteorologist at NWS Lubbock, Texas, before becoming lead for the Tampa Bay office in 2007. Brian earned a bachelor's degree in meteorology in 1994 and a master's degree in management specializing in leadership and organizational change in 2014. Brian has been the NOAA Gulf regional team lead since 2015.
- Bob Currier is a Research Specialist in the Department of Oceanography, Texas A&M University and Product Developer and Co-Data Manager at GCOOS. His primary area of expertise is ocean observation data management and visualization using a variety of developmental tools, including Python, Flask, Keras and TensorFlow. His current research involves automated classification of phytoplankton using deep learning (AI). Currier spent nine years with Mote Marine Laboratory as a Senior Data Engineer and 20 years with Duke University where he served as Director of Data and Telecommunications. Currier was the chief architect of a two-time national award-winning 30,000 node network, served as Duke’s Technical Representative to the Internet2 consortium and was a Senior Technical Staff Member of the North Carolina Networking Initiative. He holds a patent relating to the IT infrastructure of the Beach Conditions Reporting System and has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed journal publications.
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Webinar: Hurricane Hunters | |
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Join NOAA and the National Hurricane Center (NHC) for a special webinar: “From Observation to Operations: A behind-the-scenes tour of how hurricane hunters improve tropical cyclone forecasts.”
Featured speakers will be:
- Dr. Wallace Hogsett, NHC Science & Operations Officer, who serves as Co-Director of the Hurricane and Ocean Testbed (HOT), which aims to transition new research innovations into operations. Such innovations broadly include observations, models, software and risk communication methodologies.
- Dr. Jason Sippel, Meteorologist in the Hurricane Research Division of NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory (AOML), who also serves as co-lead of the Hurricane and Ocean Testbed and Science Director for the 2024 NOAA Hurricane Field Program. His research focuses on improving operational hurricane forecasts through better use of data gathered by the reconnaissance aircraft, including how aircraft are used to develop more advanced techniques to ingest reconnaissance data into operational hurricane models.
They will share the end-to-end use of data gathered by hurricane hunter aircraft reconnaissance missions conducted by the U.S. Air Force reserve 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron as part of NOAA's Hurricane Field Program (HFP). NOAA and Air Force flights provide real-time observations for situational awareness at the NHC and are ingested by numerical models that predict tropical cyclones.
- When: 10 a.m. ET Friday, June 28
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Registration Link
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During hurricane season, operators throughout the Gulf of Mexico work together to launch autonomous vehicles to collect data important to forecasting hurricane intensity and trajectories. GCOOS tracks these vehicles on GANDALF, our autonomous vehicle piloting dashboard, which provides real-time vehicle positioning information via a maps-based interface with a dashboard display, plots of flight and science sensors, NOAA model comparisons, Google Earth KMZ file generation and access to processed data files.
Right now, GANDALF is tracking two gliders launched by Texas A&M University’s Geochemical and Environmental Research Group (TAMU-GERG). GERG launched these gliders early in the season in order to capture prevailing conditions before the most intense activity starts in August.
On June 7, Dr. Sakib Mahmud, glider operations lead, Postdoc Dr. Xiao Ge, and Program Aide Connor Wood deployed the Slocum gliders in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. The field team was assisted on shore by Dr. Uchenna Nwankwo, GCOOS Oceanographer and Assistant Research Scientist with TAMU-GERG, who helps to coordinate mission planning for all Gulf gliders. On-shore support also included Andrew Dancer, logistics and operations lead, intern Matthew Smith and Director Dr. Steve Dimarco.
The gliders should be deployed for about 90 days, depending on weather, vessel availability and vehicle mechanical stability.
“GERG has been proud to be part of the GCOOS Hurricane Glider initiative since 2016,” DiMarco said. “The initiative and observations have been used to protect the Gulf's coastal communities by improving hurricane intensification predictions. It is very satisfying to participate in an activity that directly impacts people’s lives.”
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Interested in tracking what’s happening in the Gulf? Visit GANDALF https://gandalf.gcoos.org to follow along on this summer’s missions. GANDALF is equipped with numerous layers that can be individually displayed on the base map, and each layer’s transparency can be individually adjusted allowing for multiple layer overlays.
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Clean Gulf Conference Set for November | |
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The Clean Gulf conference and exposition serves the spill response industry in prevention, preparedness and response by hosting a forum that facilitates an open exchange of ideas, case studies and best practices for stakeholders from government, environmental, emergency planning and response industries throughout maritime, facilities, rail and pipeline. Early (discounted) registration is open now through Aug. 23.
- When: Nov. 18-20, 2024
- Where: George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, Texas
- Details
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Learning from the Deepwater Horizon | |
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The Smithsonian’s Ocean Portal has published an animated video exploring some discoveries that came from research funded through the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative. After taking viewers back to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the animation describes oil spill research that helped uncover information about how the ocean’s currents move floating oil, sea creatures seen for the first time and how a marsh bird’s DNA defends itself from oil.
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Registration/Abstract Submission Deadline: UG2 Workshop | |
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Don’t forget to register now and submit your abstracts for the Underwater Glider User Group (UG2) workshop before the June 30 deadline!
The workshop, scheduled for Sept. 10-12 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, will include plenaries, break-out sessions, town halls, two networking happy hours, poster sessions and vendor booths. Registration for the workshop is free and breakfast, lunch and coffee will be provided throughout the workshop.
Financial assistance is also available for attendees but you must register before June 30. Students, early career professionals and individuals from developing states are encouraged to apply and to submit abstracts as well.
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Radiowave Operator Meeting a Success | |
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In May, the University of Southern Mississippi hosted the 13th Radiowave Operators Working Group (ROWG) meeting. The meeting, sponsored by GCOOS and IOOS, took place May 21-23 and, because it was a hybrid in-person/virtual meeting, international members of the community were able to attend. Nearly 60 attendees discussed topics of interest, including hardware and infrastructure, best practices and software, drone antenna pattern measurement, quality assurance/quality control and data reprocessing/archiving. The meeting also included equipment demonstrations.
- Mark your calendar: the next ROWG meeting will be in November 2025 in Seattle.
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The next webinar in the UGOS webinar series led by early career researchers Dr. Luna Hiron (Florida State University), Dr. Sakib Mahmud (Texas A&M University) and Dr. Aryan Safaie (University of Rhode Island) is scheduled for 11 a.m. ET Monday, June 24.
Speakers will be José Gerardo Quintanilla, Ph.D. Student at the Ensenada Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education (CICESE), who will discuss "Deoxygenation of the Gulf of Mexico thermocline linked to a decrease in the detachment frequency of Loop Current Eddies" and Dr. Steven DiMarco, Director of the Geochemical and Environmental Research Group (GERG) and Professor of Oceanography at Texas A&M University (TAMU) whose topic is "Results of the Mini-Adaptive Sampling Test Run (MASTR) Experiment: Autonomous Vehicles, Drifters, Floats, ROCIS, and HF-Radar, to Improve Loop Current System Dynamics and Forecasts in the Deepwater Gulf of Mexico."
The Understanding Gulf Ocean Systems (UGOS) initiative is designed to advance understanding and prediction of Loop Current dynamics to reduce risks to offshore energy exploration and production, improve hurricane intensity forecasting, support fisheries management and deal with other challenges such as sea-level rise. The webinar series is focused on UGOS-funded work and related research.
Additional information: Email webinar series organizers Luna Hiron lhiron@fsu.edu, Sakib Mahmud sakib@tamu.edu or Aryan Safaie aryansafaie@uri.edu.
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Delivering Tide Predictions in the Face of Climate Change | |
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Thanks to a NOAA climate and equity pilot project, tidal predictions are now available for the for Pointe Au Chien/Cut Off Canal in support of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe (PACIT), whose ancestral lands spanning Louisiana’s Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes are experiencing erosion, subsidence, sea level rise and saltwater intrusion. For the Tribe members, the impacts of these combined climate-related hazards and extreme weather events are affecting their ability to continue traditional ways of life including farming, fishing and trapping. These impacts are also threatening their cultural resources and homes.
The new tidal predictions, available here on the CO-OPS Tides and Currents website is a help to the community, said Cherie Matherne, the PACIT’s Cultural Heritage & Resiliency Coordinator. “The Pointe-au-Chien community is a fishing community,” she said. “This added feature to our community bridges our traditional knowledge of fishing these waters with the advanced technology to determine the best or more favorable fishing conditions. Before this was available, fishermen would have to do some math on tide predictions based on what the tide was ranging in Grand Isle. Due to the location and distance of the PACIT community from Grand Isle, this tide gauge allows the information on the tide to be more readily available.”
In addition to PACIT, project team members included the CO-OPS Field Operations Division, National Ocean Service leadership and the NOAA Gulf of Mexico Regional Collaboration Team (GMRCT), including GCOOS members Jennifer Vreeland-Dawson, Program Coordinator, and Dr. Chris Simoniello, Outreach and Education Manager.
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Abstract Submissions Open: Bays & Bayous 2024 | |
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The call for abstracts for the 2024 Bays and Bayous Symposium, scheduled for Nov. 19-20 at the Mississippi Coast Convention Center, is now open. Tracks include:
- Building Resilience to Challenges and Disruptions
- Conserving and Restoring Critical Habitats
- Enhancing Stewardship and Sustainability
- The Oyster is Your World
- Understanding and Managing Living Resources
- Understanding the Ways of the Water
Presenters are encouraged to discuss current research results, engagement programing, education efforts, partnerships and more. Abstracts can be submitted for oral or poster presentations.
Abstracts are limited to 300 words and submissions are due no later than 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 30
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Healthy Ecosystems & Living Resources | |
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The CETACEAN (Compilation of Environmental, Threats, and Animal Data for Cetacean Population Health Analyses) is focused on developing an integrated database that can help track population restoration efforts and impacts for Gulf of Mexico open-ocean cetacean populations impacted by the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.
The team, led by GCOOS Program Coordinator Grant Craig and GCOOS Marine Mammal Biologist and Data Scientist Megan Howson, has been seeking and compiling population and human-induced threat data for the initial development of the database. Eventually, the product will include tools to analyze stressors affecting open-ocean whales and dolphins over space and time.
The team has identified key data sources and has collected data from groups that include NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), and the Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (SEAMAP). The focus has been predominantly on collecting the best population density and occurrence datasets for cetacean species in the Gulf of Mexico, but the CETACEAN team has also been reaching out to research partners to acquire tagging data. GCOOS would like to thank Dr. Randy Wells, Director of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program and Vice President of Marine Mammal Conservation at Brookfield Zoo Chicago for sharing historic Risso’s dolphin tagging data.
The team is also seeking a full time Wordpress web developer who has data visualization expertise to support the project. The position funded by AOML and housed in the University of Miami’s Cooperative Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS) will create web-enabled data visualization tools in an ecosystem context for a variety of resource management related projects, including CETACEAN.
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Click here for position details
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MBON at Capitol Hill Oceans Week 2024 | |
The National Marine Sanctuary Foundation's Capitol Hill Ocean Week (CHOW) 2024 was held June 4-6 in Washington, D.C., and online.
This year’s event had the theme of "Leadership” and called upon leaders from all walks of life to come together to drive attention and innovation to protect our ocean and put people at the center of ocean solutions.
The event, which GCOOS contributed to via the Southeast Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) exhibit hosted by NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS) Science Coordinator Dr. Steve Gittings explored international, national and local communities and the traditional and new ways they are adapting to a changing climate, saving and protecting species and sustaining relationships with the ocean for a brighter, sustainable future.
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Celebrating World Ocean Day with Vision | |
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As we celebrated World Oceans Day on June 8, the marine biodiversity community shared the official publication of the Ocean Decade Vision 2030 White Papers. The papers, which consist of a series of 10 themes, include Challenge 2: “Protect and Restore Ecosystems Biodiversity.” Dr. Frank Muller-Karger, Professor of Biological Oceanography and Remote Sensing at the University of South Florida, and Dr. Aileen Tan, Director, Centre for Marine and Coastal Studies (CEMACS), University Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia, led the Challenge 2 working group that focused on MBON and Marine Life 2030 activities.
The strategic vision they outlined is “to enable ecosystem-based management approaches using timely and accurate information to promote sustainable development. This includes, but is not limited to, the effective conservation and restoration of ecosystems and biodiversity.” The Challenge 2 and other white papers in the Ocean Vision 2030 series are now available from the UNESCO Digital Library.
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Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GOMA)
All Hands 2025
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Save the date for the 2025 GOMA all hands meeting: May 5-8, 2025, at the Golden Nugget in Biloxi, Mississippi. More than 500 partners from state and federal government, academia, nonprofit and the private sectors will come together to plan future projects that implement Governors' Action Plan IV. The meeting will also include the latest in coastal science and management with a special focus on the Blue Economy. The opening plenary, hosted by the University of Southern Mississippi, will highlight local success stories of collaboration between oceanographic research, marine technology and business innovation.
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Meeting schedule
- Registration and hotel room block reservations will open in September.
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For sponsorship opportunities: Contact Becky Ginn at 228-547-4808 or becky.ginn@gomxa.org.
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Marine Technology Society (MTS)
TechSurge 2024
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Save the date for the next MTS-sponsored TechSurge: “Implementing the US Ocean Biodiversity Strategy and Related Global Efforts Towards a Sustainable Ocean Economy.” Framed in a global context and building off the momentum of the U.S. National Ocean Biodiversity Strategy, the conference will focus on technologies to address the challenge of biodiversity loss and the market drivers to aggregate supply.
- When: Oct. 1-2
- Where: Baltimore, Maryland
- Registration, call for abstracts, sponsorship opportunities to come
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- IOOS: Program Analyst, Physical Scientist, IT Specialist
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The University of Southern Mississippi: Associate Marine Instrumentation Specialist
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The University of Miami (RSMAS): Tenure or Tenure-Track Professor
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GOOS Biology: Data Manager
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 Award
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Mississippi State University: Postdoctoral Associate
Fellowships:
- Susan L. Williams National Coral Reef Management Fellowship
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National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration - Coastal Management Fellowship
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National Academies of Science, Engineering and Mathematics: Early Career Fellowships
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Department of Defense: Visualization of Coastal Data, Coastal Vulnerability Assessment Fellow
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- National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine - Workforce Development for the Energy Transition
- National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine - Gulf Research Program
- The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine – Early Career Research Fellowship
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Long Term Trends in the Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – Sea Grant
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA Planet Stewards
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National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - FY 2024 National Aquaculture Initiative Initiative
- US Department of Agriculture - Special Research Grants Program Aquaculture Research
- Gulf of Mexico Alliance
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1-2: Marine Technology Society, Tech Surge 2024, Baltimore, Maryland | |
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. | |
Dr. Jorge Brenner, Executive Director • Dr. Barbara Kirkpatrick, Senior Advisor • Dr. Uchenna Nwankwo, Oceanographer • Dr. Chris Simoniello, Outreach & Education Manager • 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 • Grant Craig, Project Manager and HABscope Volunteer Coordinator • Nadine Slimak, Public Relations & Content Marketing, Vetted Communications, LLC • Laura Caldwell, Program Assistant | |
In Memoriam: Matt Howard, 1952-2018
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