Russ Beard, Chair GCOOS Products and Services Committee
Director, National Coastal Data Development Center
16 November 2007
SUBJECT:
MEETINGS OF GCOOS-RA DMAC, PRODUCTS AND
SERVICES, AND OPERATING SYSTEMS COMMITTEES, NEW ORLEANS,
LA, 27-29 NOVEMBER 2007 OBJECTIVES, AGENDA, AND PREPARATIONS
BACKGROUND:
The objectives for the November meeting include: Objective 1.
Revision of the Action Plans for each of the committees; Objective 2. To agree on a
prioritized set of actions to be carried out during the following year; Objective 3. To
agree on high priority projects to be proposed in response to the next NOAA call for
competitive proposals for IOOS activities
DISCUSSION:
There are several ongoing ecosystem and IOOS related
observational efforts within the Gulf of Mexico led by NOAA and other federal agencies,
e.g., the Northern Gulf Institute, EPA Gulf of Mexico Program, USGS, USACOE, and
the Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GOMA). Additionally, NOAA has established Regional
Teams (including GOM) that can help identify ecosystem stressors and through
observational data streams. The NOAA IOOS Program has identified four short-term
data-integration projects for completion in 2008 (March timeframe). The objective is to
focus on a limited set of five core data variables – SST, salinity, ocean color, surface
currents, and sea level. These data sets will be used in four management priorities: 1)
hurricane intensity models; 2) coastal inundation models; 3) harmful algal bloom models;
and, 4) Integrated Ecosystem Assessments (IEA). The integration of these five core
variables will expedite product development and improve model accuracy.
The NOAA Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) effort in the GOM will include
additional core data variables to assess baseline conditions of the ecosystem and provide
an assessment of stressors on the ecosystem. These core variables include bathymetry,
surface waves, contaminants, dissolved nutrients, fish species and abundance,
zooplankton species, optical properties, heat flux, bottom character, pathogens, and
dissolved O2. Many of these parameters are now being collected by GCOOS platforms
and sensors. Lastly, NOAA hosted a multiagency workshop in early 2007 to address the
issue of long-term monitoring of Gulf hypoxia. This meeting addressed existing
monitoring and observing needs for optimizing management capabilities and supporting
ongoing and planned ecosystem modeling efforts; programmatic opportunities to achieve
the required level of monitoring through integration of new or existing
monitoring/observing efforts with Gulf networks (e.g., GCOOS); and developing an
implementation plan for achieving a comprehensive, integrative, sustainable monitoring
program for Gulf-wide hypoxia events.
Data integration is the key to developing new and improved products and services. To
that effect the 08 Senate Mark identifies $10M for a National IOOS Data Management
and Communications Center at Stennis Space Center, MS with NOAA and the Naval
Oceanographic Office as the lead activities. To summarize, there are numerous drivers
requiring a new and improved suite of data products and services that GCOOS is in a
unique position to provide.
STATUS:
The GCOOS organization is actively involved in the collection, validation,
analysis, and transport of observational data streams that can, and do, meet IOOS, IEA,
hypoxia, NOAA Regional Team, and GOMA data requirements for monitoring and
assessing the Gulf of Mexico as a regional ecosystem and its smaller sub-regions, e.g.,
the Mobile Bay Estuary. GCOOS activities include the monitoring of harmful algal
blooms, measuring dissolved oxygen, measurement of physical parameters, carbon
dioxide, biologics, et al. Initial efforts have been conducted to further coordinate
GCOOS with GOMA, Hypoxic Zone Task Force, and IEA development.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
(1) Draft an action plan through the GCOOS Products and
Services Committee that will best serve the organization and the Gulf as a whole by
aligning GCOOS observation programs to support the requirements being established by
the following activities:
Gulf of Mexico Alliance
NOAA Integrated Ecosystem Assessment activities
NOAA Regional Team Priorities
NOAA Northern Gulf Institute
Hypoxia Task Force Coastal Goal
NOAA IOOS Program Office goals
Proposed NOAA National IOOS DMAC Center
(2). Perform a “gap analysis” to clearly identify any gaps in the data needed to support
GCOOS identified user communities in the Gulf of Mexico and the data needed to
support the above program requirements; (3) The GCOOS Products and Services
Committee action plan will outline a prioritized list of actions and/or activities that align
product development with constituent need through initiating and coordinating
collaborative agreements with the above-mentioned entities. Through these agreements,
GCOOS Products and Services will focus on assisting coastal zone resource managers in
the decision-making process, providing services for industry, and meeting criteria
established by the NOAA Integrated Ecosystem Assessment Team; (4) The GCOOS
Products and Services Committee will meet product and service requirements established
by the IOOS Program Office for 08 and beyond, e.g., expediting product development,
and integrated variable ingest for the four models cited in the discussion section; and, (5)
The GCOOS Products and Services Committee will prepare an action plan by 1 February,
2008 and finalize and forward the plan to the GCOOS Board of Directors.