November 2014
In This Issue
Call for HFR Funding
New Climatology Tool
St. Pete Science Festival
Track Hurricane Intensification
Plastic Marine Debris Research
Gliderpalooza 2014
New IOOS Catalog
IOOS Report Released
 
Save the Date: SECOORA's 9th Annual Meeting 

We invite you to join us for our 9th Annual Meeting, May 19* and 20, 2015, in Jacksonville, FL.

*Board and Members Business Meetings (voting in PM)
Explore Marine Weather Portal

The Marine Weather Portal provides marine observations, forecasts and short and long-fuse warnings for the coastal waters of North Carolina, South Carolina and northern Georgia and the Atlantic and Gulf Coast areas of the Southern Region.
SECOORA at the 
Restore America's Estuaries Conference


Debra Hernandez, SECOORA
Executive Director, represented SECOORA at the Ignite session at the Restore America's Estuaries Conference last week. Debra spoke about how riding the IOOS wave protects you and your community!
Congratulations USF CMS on GoMRI Funding Award


The University of South Florida's College of Marine Science has been awarded a $20.2 million grant by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative to continue leading studies of the impact of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, one of the nation's largest environmental disasters. Read more >
SECOORA Member Highlight


Richard Dodge, Ph.D. Nova Southeastern University SECOORA member representative and Board member, presenting at the Understanding Dispersants in Oil Spill Response Technical Forum on Nov 12. 
Become a SECOORA
Member Today!
 
Contact Debra Hernandez [email protected], or visit our  website to find out more!
Job and Funding Opportunities

Meeting and Workshop Announcements 

Stay Connected


  
 

News Notes

High-Frequency Radar Stations Could Save Lives, Track Spills in Gulf and Atlantic


Image Credit: SECOORA, GCOOS-RA, and UM
SECOORA and Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association (GCOOS-RA) call for funding for a network of high frequency radar monitoring stations along the U.S. Gulf and Southeastern Atlantic coasts to address the gaps in coverage.  Information gained by HFR is vital to protecting coastlines from man-made disasters such as oil spills, forecasting and mitigating natural disasters such as harmful algal blooms and hurricanes and providing information needed to develop and monitor restoration projects; it can also provide timely information for boater navigation and help improve weather forecasts.

Why Did Red Tide Not Reach the West Florida Continental Shelf in 2010?

Image Credit: FWC
Robert Weisberg, SECOORA Principal Investigator, and his colleagues were recently published in the journal 
Harmful Algae, Volume 38. The paper , "Why no red tide was observed on the West Florida Continental Shelf in 2010," analyzes why Karenia brevis, Florida red tide organism, did not reach the Florida coastline in 2010.

They concluded that the lack of red tide along the west coast of Florida in 2010 was due to anomalously large and protracted upwelling of nutrient-rich waters of deep ocean origin caused by Loop Current and eddy interactions with the shelf slope. Both the physics of the circulation and the biology of the organism are necessary conditions for a K. brevis bloom to occur near shore; neither alone, however, is a sufficient condition. This paper reinforced the growing recognition that we need an interdisciplinary and integrated ocean observing system.

Explore NEW Climatology Tool

SECOORA's new Climatology Tool allows you to view and download historical temperature and salinity data from SECOORA buoys as well as model results. We ask you to be a part of the development process and help us refine the tool by sending us your comments, questions and feedback. Contact us at [email protected].

http://secoora.org/data/secooraclimatologyproduct

Graphed above is historical salinity data taken from the C10 buoy, part of University of South Florida's Coastal Ocean Monitoring and Prediction System (COMPS) network. C10 is located off the West Florida Shelf.

SECOORA Inspires Future Ocean Experts at St. Petersburg Science Festival

Image Credit: SECOORA

On October 18, SECOORA participated in the St. Petersburg Science Festival. Since 2011, the festival hosted on Bayboro Harbor in St. Petersburg, FL has been inspiring children to be excited about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) activities. It is estimated the two-day event attracts over 25,000 visitors.

SECOORA, Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association (GCOOS-RA) and the University of South Florida (USF) teamed together to help cultivate the future generation of ocean observers. The joint exhibit included a USF buoy and glider, "Murphy", for visitors to explore. The exhibit highlighted how to bring real-time ocean and coastal data to the classroom and household and drew high media traffic. See the local WTSP, Channel 10 news story!


UM, NOAA Track Hurricane Edouard Intensification by Aircraft

Image Credit: Benjamin Jaimes, Ph.D.

In September during tropical storm Edouard, SECOORA member Nick Shay from University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science and other researchers deployed, by aircraft, a series of ocean probes along Edouard's predicted track. The probes measure currents, temperature and salinity. The goal was to collect the valuable data necessary to help forecast where and when a newly developed tropical storm would intensify into a category hurricane.

Canterbury School of Florida Oceanography Class Assists in Researching Plastic Marine Debris
 

Image Credit: SECOORA
On October 13, SECOORA joined Kara Lavender Law (a research professor for Sea Education Association), University of South Florida Coastal Ocean Monitoring and Prediction Systems (USF COMPS) and Canterbury School of Florida Marine Studies Program oceanography class as they deployed plastic samples in a tidal creek on their campus. The class is helping research the deterioration process, primarily UV degradation, of various plastics when exposed to the ocean environment.

Gliderpalooza 2014

Image Credit: UGA SKIO

SECOORA Members, Dr. Catherine Edwards, University of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, and Dr. Ruoying He, North Carolina State University are participating in the second annual Gliderpalooza.

Gliderpalooza 2014 is running from August to November 2014. Over the months, there will be more than 30 deployments of autonomous underwater gliders, including UGA SKIO's glider "Modena", surveying the Western Atlantic Coastal Ocean from Newfoundland to Georgia. "Modena" was deployed on September 19 to survey Georgia's waters and was retrieved on October 10.

Read more >

IOOS and Related News

New IOOS Catalog 

U.S. IOOS� released their Catalog at catalog.ioos.us. Please explore the catalog and provide feedback to help IOOS better address your needs and the needs of NOS, NOAA, and interagency stakeholders.

Phase 1 Report for the U.S. IOOS Ocean Enterprise Released
 

The Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Conservation and Management, announced the release of the Phase 1 Report for the U.S. IOOS Ocean Enterprise: A study of US business activity in ocean  measurement, observation and forecasting. The first phase of the study identified nearly 600 private companies who are either providers of or users of Blue Technology.  


 

Read report >

Want to Influence the Future Direction of IOOS?

The IOOS Program is soliciting nominations to the IOOS Advisory Committee (IOOS AC) for Fall 2015. NOAA is seeking individuals with expertise in oceanographic data, products, and services; coastal management; fisheries management; coastal and marine spatial planning; geodesy; water levels; and other science-related fields. Applications will be accepted through November 24, 2014.  Please refer to the Federal Register notice for more information.