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Summer 2008
Welcome to the summer edition of the GoMOOS Observer. We are excited to bring you the latest news and updates on coastal and ocean observations, information products and activities that we’ve been working on. We would appreciate hearing your thoughts and suggestions on any of the topics below, so please send us an email at info@gomoos.org. View this newsletter online: http://www.gomoos.org/aboutgomoos/GM_report_SUM08.html |
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Member Institutions Bedford Institute of Oceanography Users share their
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CEO's MessageGoMOOS 2.0 – The Continuing Evolution of GoMOOS GoMOOS is evolving. The change is big for us, but we hope you won’t notice. Or, better yet, we hope you’ll notice only improvements. GoMOOS was created in 1999 to provide an ongoing stream of up-to-date ocean conditions and weather data in the Gulf of Maine, and to assure that the data would stimulate a broad array of practical applications, high-tech development activities and use-inspired research. Today, untold thousands view data via GoMOOS.org, hear it over the NOAA weather radio, see it on the evening news, or access it from various other places on the Web. Our goal is to keep this version of GoMOOS around in perpetuity, with guaranteed access to the ocean data from the observing system that gave us our start. Still, GoMOOS is restructuring to sharpen our focus, to leverage our experience and reputation, and to develop a community approach to information technology (IT). This focus on IT is critical to achieving national priorities and policy directives, which state: Integrate first and augment second. This focus on integration enables the fullest and best use of existing ocean observing infrastructure before making large investments in new capacity, which is especially necessary at a time of strained federal resources. The evolving GoMOOS will continue to provide services that many thousands have come to rely on, yet with a focus on three core functions: (1) end-user representation to assure that we support many applications, (2) premier visualizer turning complex data streams into accessible and understandable information products and services, and (3) integration specialist providing technical skills to connect existing environmental data systems to each other. With time, the new GoMOOS will add new types of real-time and retrospective environmental information services developed through a growing number of data sources and partnerships. Already, we’ve diversified in order to realize this vision. GoMOOS now has funding from several other federal agencies, including NOAA, EPA, and NSF. Additionally, we’ve seen success working with states and businesses. For example, GoMOOS received $600K of funds from private industry in Massachusetts, which will support visualization of data from the Gulf and will keep Buoy A afloat. Daryl Symonds, business manager at Teledyne Technologies – a GoMOOS member organization that sells environmental sensors – supports our strategy: "We applaud your efforts to develop creative revenue sources that by their very nature further serve the needs of the user community. We look forward to supporting you in these efforts as GoMOOS continues its role of leading the way and setting the example for operational ocean observatories.” We’re proud to be part of a variety of initiatives that are being led by some of the most visionary multi-institutional, community-based organizations in the country, including the Gulf of Maine Ocean Data Partnership (www.GoMODP.org) and the Southeastern Universities Research Association (www.SURA.org). And we will continue to partner with University of Maine to maintain the GoMOOS buoy array on into the future. The rest of our newsletter demonstrates the power of community by describing some our partnering successes. --Philip Bogden, CEO, GoMOOS
Buoy UpdateUMaine Reports on Buoy Array Status The University of Maine Physical Oceanography Group reports that buoys A, B, C, E, F, I, and N were serviced by the R/V DELWARE II in April 2008. Buoy J was serviced in December 2007 with the help of the Heritage Salmon company in Eastport; buoys M and L were serviced by the R/V Argo Maine earlier this past winter. Buoy D (New Meadows) buoy will be recovered in May 2008 for refurbishment. Ocean current measurements throughout most of the water column were added to buoy C this spring. All buoys have dual wind sensors for added reliability and performance. NOAA funding, which is now distributed through NERACOOS (Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems) is presently supporting buoys E, I, M, and N. The University of New Hampshire is supporting buoy B, and Massachusetts LNG and MWRA are providing funds through GoMOOS for buoy A. Buoys C, F, J, and L are presently being supported by the University of Maine and GoMOOS. Due to federal funding shortfalls and uncertainties, the operational staff of the Physical Oceanography Group has been reduced by three staff members in 2007. Additional personnel cuts are expected unless the funding shortfalls are reduced. NOAA Funding Woes Threaten GoMOOS Buoys GoMOOS, working with the University of Maine, is launching a communications campaign to garner public support for the buoy system during a time of decreased federal funding. Five of the 11 buoys will be removed this fall if the region doesn’t secure the necessary funding. Recognizing that the loss of these buoys will be an immediate threat to safety at sea, climate change research, fisheries management, and much more, GoMOOS and the university are reaching out to foundations, businesses, and individuals to secure donations or to find creative ways of meeting financial needs. With support from throughout the region, we hope to save the buoys from coming out of the water. Individuals and businesses can contribute supplies needed by the buoys, such as batteries, buoy cables, shackles, sensors, etc. Monetary contributions from companies or charitable foundations will support ship time for buoy deployment, staff time for buoy maintenance, and other important hardware needs. Community groups and individuals can help by getting the word out to decision makers that this is a capacity you value. Massachusetts to Support GoMOOS Buoy A Northeast Gateway awarded GoMOOS $600,000 as part of the State of Massachusetts Mitigation Package to "provide buoys and/or meteorological, hydrodynamic and/or other instrumentation to significantly enhance the Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System (GoMOOS)." The GoMOOS board designated a committee to develop a spending recommendation for these funds. To assist the Committee in making a recommendation, GoMOOS staff solicited ideas from committee members and others, including researchers at the University of Maine, University of New Hampshire, WHOI, and Cornell, as well as staff at the National Weather Service, Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, and more. Based on this input, the committee recommended to fund Buoy A in Massachusetts Bay for a period of three years. The committee also recommended using funds for product development that will aid decision makers in Massachusetts, and exploring adding meteorological sensors to other areas of Massachusetts Bay to benefit mariners, researchers, and others. Recent Happenings in the Environmental WebOpen Geospatial Consortium Acknowledges GoMOOS GoMOOS' work is strengthened by involvement with the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), an international organization that leads the development of standards for geospatial and location based services on the Web. OGC members include Google™, Microsoft®, Yahoo! ®, the Environmental Protection Agency, and NASA. Recently, OGC President Mark Reichardt acknowledged GoMOOS' role in advancing coordinated solutions among researchers, government agencies, NGOs, businesses, and citizens. “Not surprisingly, the oceans research community is aggressively implementing and using OGC standards to improve organizational, regional and global capabilities to access, process, integrate and apply ocean information, including real time sensor data.” he said. In addition, Reichardt recognized the Integrated Ocean Observing System (OpenIOOS) and OOSTethys projects, information technology efforts pioneered by GoMOOS that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is currently adopting. NOAA IOOS Endorses GoMOOS Data Standards Work Over the past four years, GoMOOS, with partners in the ocean observing data management community, has been advancing the use of Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards. These standards will significantly improve automated sharing of environmental data. With funding from the Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA), GoMOOS led the first IOOS implementation of an OGC standard with the launch of OpenIOOS. The NOAA Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) Program Office recently announced that it is implementing a number of OGC standards, including OGC's Sensor Observation Service (SOS) pioneered and advanced by GoMOOS and SURA, Geography Markup Language (GML), and Observations and Measurements (O&M) specifications to provide data on temperature, salinity, water level, currents, winds and waves. For several years GoMOOS has been heavily involved in all these efforts developing XML schemas, reference implementations, cookbooks and best practices through the OGC Oceans Interoperability Experiment (Oceans IE) and the OOSTethys project. For more information, visit:
Data Partnership Advances Environmental Web 2.0 The Gulf of Maine Ocean Data Partnership (GoMODP), which GoMOOS hosts and staffs, continues its work enabling data discovery and sharing, while expanding its focus and directing more attention to data interoperability. The annual meeting in December welcomed presentations from Andy Sherin with COIN Atlantic and Captain Christopher Moore with the NOAA IOOS Office. Rich Signell made a strong case for the GoMODP involving model output in its work, which resulted in a new committee focused on model interoperability. The GoMODP has also had great success in securing funding from EPA for a National Environmental Information Exchange Network project (see below), and conducted a Web Services Workshop in May (see below). The 2008 Work Plan includes the GoMODP Interoperability Experiment, which will define data integration products that will motivate data interoperability efforts. Partners are encouraged to continue to ensure their authority for the data sets they will serve through the Partnership, to continue registering their data sets in accordance with the technical guidance provided by the Partnership, and to serve their data sets using one of the recommended data sharing protocols. In addition, the Partnership will continue to recruit new members with data relevant to coastal and ocean observing, and update the Partnership guide for new and existing partners. These efforts will be focused on integrating data through the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS), the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards, and the EPA Exchange Network. For more information, visit www.gomodp.org. EPA Awards $450k Environmental Exchange Network Grant GoMOOS will be the technical lead on a National Environmental Information Exchange Network (NEIEN) grant that was recently awarded the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. The grant provides over $450,000 to further data interoperability among the GoMODP. Several GoMODP organizations are participating, including the Coastal Ocean Observing Center at the University of New Hampshire, Tuft's University Seabird Ecological Assessment Network, NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center, NOAA's National Estuary Research Reserve System, the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment, the USEPA Atlantic Ecology Division, and the Center for Marine Biodiversity. This grant will allow the partnership to implement and test the EPA's NEIEN technologies for sharing regional environmental data. Additionally, this effort will allow regional partners to assess how the NEIEN could support the developing IOOS Data Management and Communications efforts. This is an exciting opportunity to advance data interoperability in the region and to showcase the GoMODP's collaborative approach to advancing data sharing. We will be keeping all partners apprised of this effort and provide opportunities to participate as we move ahead. For more information, visit the web at http://www.gomodp.org/pilot-projects/exchange-network-project.
In May, GoMOOS, as the host of the GoMODP, hosted a Web Services Workshop at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland. The intent of this workshop was to inform partners about existing projects and technologies, and to inform future training needed to overcome the complexities of web services. Topics included an overview of OGC, OOSTethys, MMI, OBIS, Exchange Network, and GoMODP Technical Committee work, as well as introductions to WMS, WFS, SOS, GEORSS, WCS, THREDDS, OPeNDAP, and GeoServer. For more information, including a glossary explaining what these acronyms mean and the agenda with full presentations, visit the web at http://www.gomodp.org/workshops/web-services-workshop. Special thanks to the 40 participants and presenters who made the workshop possible. This workshop was a kick off to a series of webinars, which will provide more in-depth instruction on implementation. Stay tuned for details on these upcoming training opportunities.
New Products and CapabilitiesNEW! Web Application Available on GoMOOS.org – The ESIP Indicator Reporting Tool In March 2008, a new product was released on the GoMOOS website: the ESIP Indicator Reporting Tool (www.gomoos.org/esip). This tool was developed in collaboration with the Gulf of Maine Council Ecosystem Indicator Partnership (ESIP), and DM Solutions Group. The primary goal of this project was to deliver an innovative geospatial application to the coastal management and decision-making communities in the Gulf of Maine, which will help them understand the status and trends of important ecosystem data as well as assess the efficacy of their management efforts regarding coastal pollution. This tool is a great step forward for presenting data on six key issues to a diverse pool of users in the region. Key issues include: coastal development, contaminants and pathogens, eutrophication, aquatic habitat, fisheries and aquaculture, and climate change Another major goal was to integrate disparate datasets using OGC standards-based web services. This effort resulted in an application that will continuously be updated with the latest data from the various data providers. The first release of this application is available now and will continue to be enhanced with modifications to the user interface and through the addition of more data sets as they become available via web services.
NEW! System Forecasts Coastal Flooding and Erosion In 2007, in partnership with the National Weather Service and NERACOOS, GoMOOS produced a Coastal Flooding and Erosion Forecast System tool to forecast potential damage from coastal storms due to the interaction of water level and waves. The initial prototype was designed for Saco, Maine and proved valuable during the 2007 Patriot's Day Storm. Since then, GoMOOS has been working to improve the usability of the application by gathering input from users and additional storm data in order to make an additional tool for Scituate, Mass, another coastal community susceptible to damage from coastal storms. On June 27th, GoMOOS, NWS and NOAA CSC will meet with emergency and coastal managers from Saco and Scitutate to present this tool and continue to gather input for future improvements. The new and improved Coastal Flooding and Erosion tool can be found on the GoMOOS website: www.gomoos.org/coastalflooding. This capacity is extremely important to coastal property owners and emergency responders, resulting in dollars and lives saved.
Snowe and Allen Pioneer IOOS Legislation Thanks to the unyielding efforts of Representative Tom Allen (D-Maine), the IOOS legislation has passed the House. The Act would create an Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) that will monitor and forecast coastal conditions, and make observations accessible and understandable by the people who depend on that information for their livelihoods and enjoyment. Similar efforts are underway on the Senate side as well in large part to the leadership of Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine). “Allen and Snowe have both been stalwart supporters of IOOS and we are indebted to their leadership on improving access to ocean data,” said Josie Quintrell, director of the National Federation of Regional Associations. “Both introduced the legislation in their respective chambers and have stayed with it through the long haul.” Regional Association Achieves Steady Progress The Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems, which GoMOOS currently staffs, continues to make progress on its development. The New England Sea Grant Directors, the Northeast Academic Consortium, and the Northeast Regional Ocean Council have been working hard to make appointments to the board of directors as called for in the draft by-laws. To date, 18 appointments have been made and the board plans to meet in Narragansett, Rhode Island in mid-August. At this meeting, the board will be tasked with finalizing the organization's by-laws, developing a business plan, and determining how it will conduct the work of the association. In April, Evan Richert – the lead PI on NERACOOS development grant, Jen Levin – staff to the developing RA, and John Trowbridge – the lead PI on NERACOOS proposals to NOAA met at Rutgers University with Zdenka Willis, director of the NOAA IOOS office, and representatives from the Mid-Atlantic region. The group discussed progress in regional association development, coordination between regions, and the federal funding scenario. Zdenka requested that regions provide her with as much information as possible on the benefits of ocean observing so that she can more effectively communicate the critical need for funding at the federal level.
UPCOMING! Oceans Innovation Summit, Newfoundland
Delegation from France Meets With GoMOOS Last September, GoMOOS met with ocean observing representatives from France, including the French Institute for Exploitation of the Sea, who came to the United States and Canada to share experiences in maintaining operational oceanography services. One of the goals of this meeting was to analyze and discuss the economic models on which these activities rely. In addition, the French delegation was particularly interested in learning about the users of GoMOOS data, and how GoMOOS identifies end user needs, develops products and services to meet those needs, and enables data exchange. GoMOOS staff presented on the GoMOOS organizational structure, the Alliance for Coastal Technologies, and the Gulf of Maine Ocean Data Partnership. Similarly, French representatives provided an overview of their operational oceanography capacity in France and data processing and diffusion. GoMOOS Outreach and Communications GoMOOS staff has participated in several meetings in recent months. Staff coordinated a big presence at the Estuarine Research Federation conference in Rhode Island in November, presenting on NERACOOS user needs assessments work, hosting GoMOOS and Alliance for Coastal Technologies booths, and representing NERACOOS at meetings and a poster session. Staff connected with fishermen at the Massachusetts Lobstermen's annual weekend in early February, and again in late March at the Maine Fishermen's Forum where staff hosted a booth and conducted a user needs workshop. Also in March, GoMOOS participated in a national Open Geospatial Consortium meeting in St. Louis. In April, staff connected with partners at the Environmental Information Exchange Network meeting in Nashville, and at the Fish Expo Atlantic Convention in Providence. Please send comments and suggestions to: GoMOOS Phone (207) 773-0423 |
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Experts from across the globe will assemble in Newfoundland this October for the Ocean Innovation 2008 World Summit – Ocean Observing Systems (