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June 2014 
News Notes

 SECOORA 2014 Annual Meeting 

 

Image Credit: SECOORA

SECOORA 2014 Annual Meeting was a great success! SECOORA staff would like to thank everyone who participated, sponsored and attended our meeting. We could not have done this without you!

 

Thank you to U.S. IOOS Program Office and participants who contributed to this feed. We showed everyone that SECOORA works. Here is  the 2014 Board Member election results, congratulations everyone!

Industry/ Private Sector
Peter Hamilton - Leidos Corporation

Academic/Research/Education Sector
Lynn Leonard - UNC Wilmington

Public Agencies/ Non-Profit/ Other Sector
Tim Short - SRI International

Florida At Large Seat
Bill Hogarth - FIO
Kathleen O'Keife - FWRI

iTag Workshop
 
Image Credit: FWRI
The Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System Regional Association (GCOOS-RA) and the Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association (SECOORA) co-sponsored an Integrated Tracking of Aquatic Animals in the Gulf of Mexico (iTAG) workshop held May 29-30, 2014. It was hosted and organized by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI) in St. Petersburg, FL.

  

 

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SECOORA HF Radar Waves Project Update 

Image Credit: Jodie Brewster
On April 22, 2014, Dr. Nick Shay, SECOORA PI from the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science, his graduate student Matthew Archer and the crew onboard the R/V Walton Smith deployed a subsurface mooring in the Straits of Florida.

The mooring is equipped with a NortekUSA acoustic wave and current profiler (AWAC) instrument. AWAC profiler is located at 25.93N and 79.88W in the UM maintained High Frequency (HF) radar footprint (between Dania Beach and Virginia Keys stations) in the Straits of Florida.  

 

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Water Quality Monitoring Station at Clam Bayou, St. Petersburg

Image Credit: SECOORA
On March 5, 2014 USF COMPS Systems Engineer, Jeffrey Scudder, and YSI Senior Applications Specialist, Mike Lizotte, upgraded the water quality instrumentation at the USF COMPS Clam Bayou Station. With the instillation of this new sensor, this site will become a part of the already existing USF COMPS coastal stations that are funded by SECOORA. Mark Luther, Director of Ocean Monitoring and Prediction Lab, is the Principal Investigator for the SECOORA funded USF COMPS Coastal Stations project. 

 

 

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IOOS and Related News
Manual for Real-Time Quality Control of Water Level Data

Image Credit: U.S. IOOS
U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) recently published a new U.S. IOOS quality control procedures manual: Real-Time Quality Control of Water Level Data. This is the the fifth publication from the U.S. IOOS Quality Assurance/Quality Control of Real-Time Oceanographic Data (QARTOD) program.

 

QARTOD publications establish written, authoritative procedures for the quality control (QC) and quality assurance (QA) of real-time data. Written directly by experts from the ocean fields, these publications are a major step forward for U.S. IOOS. A manual for Wind Speed and Direction will be published later this year. Please keep an eye on their website!

 

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Final Rule to Certify RICE Published

Image Credit: IOOS Association
The final rule to certify Regional Information Coordination Entities (RICE) has been published in the Federal Register. This is the last step in a long process that began with the development and approval of the Interagency Ocean Observing System Committee (IOOC) Certification Criteria, and opens the opportunity for Regional Associations to become certified entities of the U.S. IOOSŪ. 
Senate Releases NOAA Budget Numbers, $29.5M for U.S. IOOS

Image Credit: U.S. IOOS
On June 5, the Senate released the budget numbers for the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies spending bill for FY15, which includes funding for NOAA and Regional IOOS. The IOOS Regional mark was $29.5M, which is the same as the House mark and $1M over FY 14. This is positive news for IOOS, and will most likely translate into level funding for the RA cooperative agreements.
2014 Atlantic Hurricane Season

Image Credit: NOAA
June 1 was the official start of Atlantic hurricane season. The National Weather Service (NWS) National Hurricane Center offers a plethora of resources to ensure your safety. SECOORA has a Marine Weather Portal for you to follow the predicted storm track when there is a watch/warning in effect.  

 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently released its 2014 Atlantic Hurricane season outlook and it is calling for a 50 percent chance of a below-normal season, a 40 percent chance of a near-normal season, and only a 10 percent chance of an above-normal season. NOAA's predictions are based on the anticipated El Nino development this summer.

 

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