JULY 2020 ISSUE
Director's Article
Upcoming Events & Program Updates
NOAA’s Efforts to Improve Hurricane Forecasts Tested on Isaias
Drifting KEO Mooring Successfully Recovered
SOCAT Version 2020 Released
NOAA Releases 2020-2029 Ocean, Coastal and Great Lakes Acidification Research Plan
FY2021 Notice of Funding Opportunity
News from Around NOAA
ICYMI: David Legler Interviewed about COVID Impacts to Ocean Observing
New Publications
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Director's Article
The heat has returned! After a record-setting hot July here in the DC region, we find ourselves watching the tropics where the prospects for La Niña are on the rise (NOAA issued a La Niña watch on July. Look for an update this week). GOMO support (in partnership with multiple institutions) of additional observing in this region in response to the TPOS 2020 project are contributing additional knowledge towards understanding the predicting weather and climate
in this important region.
Moreover, the Atlantic hurricane season is off to a very active start (we saw heavy rains and wind damage along the eastern seaboard last week!). The warm waters and other factors are so favorable to hurricane development, that NOAA issued an update to its hurricane outlook, warning of an “extremely active” hurricane season this year. As noted elsewhere in our newsletter, GOMO is actively supporting research and operational activities as part of NOAA’s overall effort towards helping people prepare.
Thanks for your continued support.
Happy Summer! Stay safe!
-David Legler
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Upcoming Events & Program Updates |
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2020 NOAA Environmental Data Management Workshop: Aug. 17-21. This NOAA Workshop will be entirely online this year! Find all the latest schedule info is on the workshop website.
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AGU Fall Meeting: Dec. 7-11, 2020. AGU will be virtual this year.
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Intern Amanda O'Shaughnessy Presents Sea Level Rise Research |
Amanda O'Shaughnessy completed her Hollings Scholar experience at the end of July. Her research project focused on sea level rise and how communities are planning to adapt or mitigate its effects. Focusing on county level plans, she analyzed all counties and parishes from Texas to North Carolina. Looking at these plans she was able to use her engineering background to categorize them by the way communities were planning to adapt and/or mitigate sea level rise. Some plans did not mention the words "sea level", but they were using mitigation methods that are typically used for sea level. The most frequently used category was land use and zoning which limits where populations can live and setbacks. Conservation techniques was the second most used category and includes preserving wetlands and dune areas to help mitigate changing sea level. Amanda presented her research findings virtually in OAR's Climate Portfolio meeting and in a GOMO-hosted meeting. Overall, her work was very well received and she is now planning to publish her work! GOMO Program Manager Emily Smith and Deputy Jessica Snowden served as Amanda's mentors with Emily guiding her research and publication.
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Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing News |
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NOAA’s Extreme Events-Ocean Observations (EE-OO) Task Team supports the coordination of targeted and sustained ocean observing efforts to improve the understanding of air-sea interaction during high wind events, with the goal of improving the accuracy of hurricane intensity forecasts. The task team coordinated observations in front of and along the track of Hurricane Isaias with air deployed drifters and already in place Argo floats and gliders, and are now conducting analysis of data and potential ocean impacts.
This effort is made possible with a team of scientists and researchers from AOML, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Rutgers University, WHOI, University of Miami, and support from GOMO, US IOOS, and NWS. This team worked safely during the COVID-19 pandemic, following CDC and NOAA guidelines, to deploy for the third year an enhanced Hurricane Glider Picket Line to conduct ocean observations that are used in hurricane forecast models with the ultimate goal of protecting life and property in U.S. coastal areas. Read highlights and a full report.
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On July 21, 2020 the surface mooring at the Kuroshio Extension Observatory (KEO), which broke away from its anchor on May 19, was recovered by the Japanese charter ship, Kaiyo. Despite being caught in eddies and an ocean jet, the drifting KEO buoy, its sensor suite and nearly 8 kilometers of mooring line was brought onboard. This mission relied on a large contingent for its success, including funding from GOMO, NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), partners at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), and the Kaiyo Captain and crew. Read more about this surface mooring rescue and the KEO station on PMEL's website.
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The Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (SOCAT) version 2020 was released on July 16, 2020. SOCAT documents the increase in surface ocean CO2 (carbon dioxide), a critical measure as the oceans are taking up one quarter of the global CO2 emissions from human activity. SOCAT version 2020 contains 28.2 million in situ surface ocean fCO2 (fugacity of CO2) measurements from more than 10 countries collected between 1957 to 2020 for the global oceans and coastal seas. The SOCAT community led synthesis product provides policy makers with essential information on ocean CO2 uptake and its variation. SOCAT is a synthesis activity for quality-controlled, surface ocean fCO2 observations by the international marine carbon research community (more than 100 contributors, including scientists funded by NOAA’s Global Observing and Monitoring Division). SOCAT data is publicly available, discoverable and citable. SOCAT enables quantification of the ocean carbon sink and ocean acidification and evaluation of ocean biogeochemical models. SOCAT is a core Global Ocean Observing System data product for biogeochemistry endorsed by the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS). SOCAT, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2017, represents a milestone in biogeochemical and climate research and in informing policy. For more info visit: socat.info.
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On July 29, 2020 NOAA released the 2020-2029 Ocean, Coastal and Great Lakes Acidification Research Plan that builds upon acidification science accomplishments made in the last decade and responds to newly emerging requirements in this field. In coordination with international, interagency, and external academic and industry research partners, the NOAA Acidification Research Plan aims to support science that produces well-integrated and relevant research results, tools, and products for stakeholders. GOMO is a contributor to this plan in addition to NOAA's Ocean Acidification Program, Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Lab, Climate Program Office, and Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab.
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On July 21st, NOAA's Climate Program Office announced that its Fiscal Year 2021 grant competitions are open. This year, the Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing Program is co-funding a competition with the Climate Program Office focused on innovative ocean dataset/product analysis and development for support of the NOAA observing and climate modeling communities.
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GOMO Director Dr. David Legler was interviewed by E&E's Climatewire, Inside Climate News and KQED on COVID's impact on ocean observing. In the Climatewire article he is quoted stating "In NOAA, we're working very hard and very creatively with our partners to try to maximize our opportunities to utilize ships and to keep going on the missions that are very important to us... but we're also prioritizing the safety of our employees and partners." Read more here.
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As part of a campaign reintroducing all OAR labs and programs this summer, GOMO was featured on NOAA Research's social media accounts yesterday, August 10, 2020! Be sure to check out, like, and share the Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram posts. Follow @NOAAResearch on all three social media sites for news, updates, and beautiful pictures from OAR programs and labs.
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Kersalé, M., Meinen, C. S., Perez, R. C., Le Hénaff, M., Valla, D., Lamont, T., Sato, O. T., Dong, S., Terre, T., van Caspel, M., Chidichimo, M. P., van den Berg, M., Speich, S., Piola, A. R., Campos, E. J. D., Ansorge, I., Volkov, D. L., Lumpkin, R., Garzoli, S., Highly Variable Upper and Abyssal Overturning Cells in the South Atlantic, Science Advances, Vol. 6, no. 32, eaba7573, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aba7573
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As always, for the GOMO Community, by the GOMO Community.
Do you have news to share with the GOMO Community, or beyond?
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NOAA Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing Program | 1315 East-West Highway
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