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Note from the Chief
Surprising snowfall here in DC this week is waking everyone up to the change in seasons. With an El Nino predicted for this winter, climate and weather prognosticators are already factoring El Nino into their analyses and forecasts (my neighbors are considering these products and asking me if they should buy a snowblower). These climate forecasts are another opportunity to spread the word and share the news about the importance of the ocean in our daily lives and decisions we make. We will focus on the TPOS-2020 Project in a future issue of the newsletter.
After much negotiating and waiting, I am very excited to announce that Jessica Snowden has joined our team short-term as our first (acting) Deputy Director (see full story below). Jessica will be responsible for our execution and planning activities. She is very eager to learn more about our program and help us work more effectively, building support for the program. I'm expecting to make more announcements of new/additional staff in the coming months - we are growing!
Kudos to Emily Smith/OOMD for organizing a women's leadership workshop in Boulder (see separate article). Developing and supporting our future leaders is an important responsibility for all of us.
The clock keeps ticking: the proposed organizational change described in the previous newsletter is still awaiting final approval. We will remain OOMD until that approval is granted. We will advertise our name change when it becomes effective.
David Legler, Chief - Ocean Observing and Monitoring Division
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Upcoming Meetings & Important Dates
Fall AGU Meeting
Dec. 10-14, Washington, D.C.
Dec. 13, Washington, D.C.
OceanPredict '19
May 6-10, 2019 in Halifax, Canada
Abstract submissions open in October!
OceanObs '19
Sept 16-20, 2019 Honolulu, HI
For more check out the
GOMO Community Calendar on our website!
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Program Updates
We are excited to welcome Jessica Snowden, who will be acting as our Deputy Director for four months, filling this new role for OOMD.
Jessica has spent the past 10 years working as a physical scientist with the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) office in the National Ocean Service (NOS). She is a recent graduate of NOAA's Leadership Competencies Development Program, during which she spent the summer of 2017 in Ottawa, Ontario working with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and the following six months working with OAR's International Activities office. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biology with a minor in chemistry from the University of Delaware and a Master of Science degree in marine biology from the University of Maine. Jessica lives in Takoma Park with her husband, six-year-old daughter, and two ungrateful cats. She welcomes your OAR insights and any "strong willed child" parenting tips. We are very excited to be able to enlist Jessica's experience and leadership skills into our office.
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WHOTS-15 Successfully Deployed From the
Hi'ialakai
Cruise Extended to Rescue Researchers from Hurricane Walaka
NOAA Ship Hi'ialakai departed shore on September 21st to deploy
WHOTS-15 off of Station ALOHA, about 100 kilometers north of Oahu, Hawaii. Program Manager, Jim Todd was aboard the cruise and captured footage of the deployment (to be shared soon). The cruise was successful in removing the WHOTS-14 buoy, deploying WHOTS-15, comparing and ensuring data accuracy, and was able to take several CTD cast measurements. WHOTS moored buoys measure
air-sea exchange conditions such as air temperature, wind, solar and infrared radiation, humidity, and precipitation, as well as sea surface temperature and oceanic carbon levels.
The WHOTS mooring has served as an Ocean Reference Station within NOAA's Ocean Observing and Monitoring Program since 2004. Together NOAA, WHOI, and the University of Hawaii maintain this site in order to collect long-term, high quality air-sea flux data. WHOTS data are particularly valuable when viewed in context with the Mauna Loa carbon dioxide measurements.
This cruise was unexpectedly extended by 3 days in order to help evacuate scientists from Tern Island, French Frigate Shoals, in anticipation of Hurricane Walaka. You may have read of the
devastation this hurricane caused to the Shoals Islands, and we thank the crew for the safe evacuation of these scientists.
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PMEL Updates on PIRATA and RAMA Cruises
Brazilian PIRATA Mooring Cruise
In collaboration with PMEL, Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) scientists are underway on the first leg of the Brazilian PIRATA cruise aboard
VITAL DE OLIVEIRA
. The cruise has so far replaced two PIRATA moorings along 38W and plans to replace two more on cruise leg 1 (Oct. 16 - Nov. 10). They will replace an additional four PIRATA moorings on leg 2 of the cruise (Nov. 15 - Dec. 5). The Brazilians maintain eight PIRATA moorings near Brazil. Although there are no PMEL participants on the cruise, PMEL supports the moorings with instrumentation and hardware as well as data monitoring and analysis. PIRATA, Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Atlantic, was designed to study ocean-atmosphere interactions in the tropical Atlantic that affect regional weather and climate variability on seasonal, interannual and longer time scales. Ocean-atmosphere interactions in this region influence the development of droughts, floods, severe tropical storms and hurricanes, with impacts felt by millions of people in the Americas and Africa. PIRATA is supported by France (IRD, Meteo-France, CNRS and IFREMER), Brazil (INPE and DHN) and the USA (NOAA).
RAMA Mooring Cruise aboard Tethys Supporter along 55E
November 7 -
14: PMEL technicians will depart on a RAMA cruise out of the Seychelles aboard the charter vessel
Tethys Supporter
to recover and deploy two moorings along 55E.
RAMA, The Research Moored Array for African-Asian-Australian Monsoon Analysis and Prediction
was designed to study the Indian Ocean's role in the monsoons. One third of the world population depends on monsoon driven rainfall for agricultural production, so improving our understanding and ability to predict the monsoons has been a longstanding objective of the international scientific community.
Thanks to Adi Hanein at PMEL for reporting on these cruises.
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The Arctic Council Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) released the second
Arctic Ocean Acidification Assessment
on October 10th at the Arctic Council Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF)
Arctic Biodiversity Congress Meeting
in Rovaniemi, Finland. This is the five year update to the 2013 Assessment, and includes both chemical and biological impacts as well as case studies from five different Arctic regions.
Overall findings are that Arctic ocean acidification continues to progress at a greater rate than the rest of
the globe, and that the Arctic is losing its capacity to buffer against acidification. T
he importance of continued research was highlighted, especially multi-stressor studies, regionally focused, and species-specific studies since currently there are very few that have been conducted in the Arctic.
NOAA's Dr. Emily Osborne (Arctic Research Program) chaired the session featuring the first reported results from the assessment "Arctic Ocean Acidification: Pan-Arctic Processes and Regional Ecosystem Impacts." NOAA lead authors include Dr. Emily Osborne and Dr. Jeremy Mathis. NOAA's Dr. Jessica Cross (PMEL) was also a contributing author.
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Women's Leadership Workshop Success
was attended by 53 participants and all were highly energized and thankful for the opportunity. This workshop was sponsored by NOAA, CIRES, UCAR, and the Earth Science Women's Network. The workshop ranged from learning about DISC profiles and how individual strengths could be used for better management to emotional intelligence and active listening. All of the participants plan on taking back this information to their institutions (academia, non-profits and federal agencies).
The Women's Leadership Workshop was born from a need for women in the sciences to have professional leadership and management training, especially at a time when women are still a minority in scientific leadership roles. Science is rarely done in isolation; in almost any position, leadership and management skills are an important contributor to success.
The workshop leaders (Emily Smith, OOMD) hope to make this an annual event to be able to provide these highly in-demand benefits to all applicants; this year there were over 100 applicants and only capacity for 53.
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Upcoming Training Course on Biogeochemical Sensors
The International Ocean Carbon Coordination Project (IOCCP) and EU BONUS INTEGRAL Project (Integrated carboN and TracE Gas monitoRing for the bALtic sea) are organizing a 10-day international training course on "Instrumenting our ocean for better observation: a training course on a suite of biogeochemical sensors." The course will be held on June 10-21, 2019 at the Sven Lovén Center for Marine Sciences, in Kristineberg, Sweden. Application process will open in mid-December 2018. Save the dates and stay tuned for updates on the course.
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Call for US CLIVAR Panel Members
The US CLIVAR Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) seeks qualified individuals to serve on its three subsidiary Panels:
Nominations are due January 7, 2019.
Read details and the submission form.
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The External Review Committee is inviting participants to survey the US GO-SHIP program. US GO-SHIP is an affiliate of international GO-SHIP, which performs global ship-based decadal surveys to collect, document, and store high precision and full depth hydrographic and biogeochemical data from the global ocean. The US CLIVAR and OCB programs are coordinating an external community review of US GO-SHIP to assess and provide feedback on program planning, progress, and opportunities to advance the scientific research of US CLIVAR and OCB. Whether a casual observer and consumer of GO-SHIP data or science, a student who has gone on a cruise, a member of the Executive Committee, or anywhere in between, your participation is requested!
The survey will take 10-15 minutes to complete. Please submit your survey by December 7th.
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Recent Publications
Guideline for Ocean Observations edited and published by The Oceanographic Society of Japan (JOS).
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As always, for the OOMD community, by the OOMD community,
Jessica Mkitarian
[301-427-2472
]
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