Bi-Weekly IOOS® Z-GRAM – 17 December, 2012
The Z-Gram is an informal way of keeping you up-to-date on US IOOS® activities. Please advise of additional addressees, or if you are receiving and no longer want to receive. If you think others could benefit from the Z-Gram please pass it on.
IOOS® - A Partnership Supporting Lives and Livelihoods
Another year has “swam” by and once again Ioosians have made a difference. From all of us at the US IOOS Program Office our sincere thanks for the passion you bring each day to making a positive impact for our oceans, along our coasts and the Great Lakes. From me personally BZ to the folks within the US IOOS Program Office and the staff of the IOOC who work very hard every day at the no so fun program duties so US IOOS WORKS! To get a sense of how far we have come in the last 10 years take a look at the IOOS Summit - Then and Now slides
3 highlights from last week and then as has been our tradition we wish you a wonderful Holiday Season with an IOOS Holiday Tune
- Ocean Tracking Network (OTN): I was asked to be a part of the OTN international council for both the Canadian animal tagging program and its growth into a global network. It was great being introduced to a wonderful team that has been working hard to set the strategic path forward for the confluence of the Canadian program with the global program, visit http://oceantrackingnetwork.org/ for more information.
- Christening the Challenger Glider and Student Engagement: Navy has a tradition of christening ships and in keeping with that tradition we christened Scarlet Knight before her successful Atlantic crossing. Not wanting to tempt fate, I was invited back by MARACOOS Partner Rutgers University to christen the first US IOOS/Rutgers glider for the Challenger mission. As breaking a bottle of champagne on the glider would be damaging, I poured sea water over RU29 and declared, “In the name of the United States, I christen thee CHALLENGER.” Ship christening is the ceremony that officially marks the beginning of a ship’s life. The ritual of christening a new ship, or in this case a glider, has a storied tradition in history. The earliest recording of a christening dates back to the third millennium B.C. and can be found in Babylonian narrative. The first US Navy ship that was commissioned and christened was the Constitution, famous "Old Ironsides," at Boston, 21 October 1797. Even though the actual ceremony has changed over time, the tradition, meaning, and spiritual overtones remain constant. The vast size, power, and unpredictability of the sea must certainly have awed the first sailors to venture far from shore. Instinctively, they would seek divine protection for themselves and their craft from the capricious nature of wind and water (John C. Reilly’s, Naval History Center, (http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq108.htm.) From there we challenged the students to help us design the next 10 years of IOOS and has a great time interacting with the student groups’ posters which represented the semester’s work. For the full story see www.ioos.gov.
- The Economic Value of Ocean Observing, NERACOOS Annual Meeting 2012. NERACOOS is headquartered at the Seacoast Science Center in Rye, New Hampshire where NERACOOS. Wendy Lull, President of the Seacoast Science Center, enthusiastically supports the partnership stating that she is so lucky to have access to the brain trust of NERACOOS to support the informal learning center. NERACOOS 2012 Stats: data return for the year in excess of 90; during Hurricane Sandy, web traffic was up 800% proving once again that the Regions are a trusted source of information; expansion of inundation modeling in Hampton, New Hampshire and with the National Weather Service will deliver nearly street level inundation forecasts; launching of a climatology product and at the recent New England Ocean Literacy Biannual Summit 2012, NERACOOS came in second to Bob Ballard for ocean data in the classroom! WELL DONE. Congrats to Dr. Frank Bohlen, Dr. James O'Donnell, and the Long Island Sound Integrated Observing System at the University of Connecticut year for receiving the NERACOOS annual award for outstanding work in ocean observing in the last ten years. For the full story see The Economic Value of Ocean Observing, NERACOOS Annual Meeting 2012 , and for presentations: http://neracoos.org/presentations and http://www.ioos.gov/communications/
Sensing in an IOOS Wonderland
(to the tune of Walking in a Winter Wonderland)
On the coast, wind is blowing
In the sea plankton’s glowing
A beautiful sight, we’re observing tonight
Sensing in an IOOS wonderland.
HF Radar measures currents
Gliders steered by the students
And animals tagged, as they zig and they zag
Sensing in an IOOS wonderland.
In the regions there is lots of action
Like helping boaters in the Great Lakes
Mapping in the Arctic gaining traction
Predicting West Coast HAB outbreaks.
Storm Sandy causing trouble
IOOS acts on the double
With data and forecasts, we respond to it fast
Sensing in an IOOS wonderland.
Ten years later we have had a Summit
Created a Committee for advice
Shouting “IOOS Works!”, we will drum it
And estimated cost with the ICE.
Gauges, buoys and Argo floats
Observing oceans from a boat
From far and from near, it’s been a great year
Sensing in an IOOS wonderland.
Sensing in an IOOS wonderland!
Many thanks to the creative IOOS elves who composed our song this year. The IOOS Zgram will take a holiday break. I wish you happiness and joy with family and friends and looking forward to another wonderful year in 2013.
Cheers,
Zdenka
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Zdenka Willis
Director, US IOOS Program Office
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