nowCOAST Honored with GIS Award
NOAA’s “nowCOAST,” a map-based online gateway to ocean and weather observations and forecasts, received a Special Achievement in GIS “for its vision, leadership and innovative use of ESRI's geographic information system (GIS) technology” last month at the ESRI International User Conference in San Diego. [more]

10 Years Later: A Look Back at the Historic Search for JFK Jr.’s Plane
It’s hard to believe that it was 10 years ago this July that a small plane piloted by John F. Kennedy Jr. crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in an accident that drew world-wide attention and a media frenzy. For Office of Coast Survey scientists, professionals, and NOAA Corps officers who were on the scene of the crash or involved with search and recovery efforts, it was a day they’d never forget. [more]

Mid-Atlantic Ridge Survey Finds Potential New Species
An international scientific team headed by NOAA’s Mike Vecchione of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center recently surveyed the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, halfway between Iceland and the Azores, and may have found new life forms, as well as more clues to understanding deep-sea food webs. [more]

With PORTS^®, Ship Clears Bridge with Two Feet to Spare
When a new Navy ship, the USS New York, required safe passage from the Avondale Shipyard on the west bank of the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico for a month of sea trials at the end of June, it relied on new NOAA technology at one critical juncture. [more]

NOAA Hydrographic Leadership Delivers Historic Ratification
People have been charting the seas for centuries, primarily for the benefit of navigation. Over the last few decades, modern day charters or hydrographers — many from NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey — have made tremendous advances in the charting process. NOAA and its colleagues in U.S. defense agencies have joined forces to help advance modern hydrography. [more]

NOAA Glider Expected To Be First to Cross Atlantic
A bright-yellow submarine glider, launched into the cold waters off the New Jersey shore this spring, is on a 3,834-mile mission to assess exactly what lies beneath. The 7-foot-long “Scarlet Knight” glider — named for the popular Rutgers University mascot — is expected to be the first underwater vehicle to cross the Atlantic Ocean. [more]

New Ultralight Dropsondes Could See Unmanned Missions
New ultra-light dropsondes — test-launched from the 950-foot Boulder Atmospheric Observatory tower — are actually atmospheric data collectors dropped from aircraft that measure air temperature, pressure, relative humidity, and wind speed/direction. Wafer-thin circuit boards inside the devices send the data back to a ground station via radio transmission. [more]

NOAA Dedicates New Chesapeake Bay Research Vessel
Mary Glackin, deputy under secretary for oceans and atmosphere, helped dedicate NOAA’s new state-of-the-art research vessel, the R/V Bay Hydro II, by breaking a champagne bottle over its bow during an April 15 ceremony in Baltimore, Md.’s Inner Harbor. [more]

Flying Pole to Pole to Capture Global Picture of Atmosphere
NOAA scientists are going to new highs to measure greenhouse gases and other known atmospheric pollutants. Two Earth System Research Laboratory scientists armed with five high-tech instruments took a roller-coaster tour of the planet in January, in a modified Gulfstream V jet known as HIAPER. [more]