Ocean and coastal observing technology efforts awarded $27.2 million

N.O.A.A. is awarding $27.2 million to sustain current critical ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes observing efforts and to support innovative marine sensor technologies, with a goal of helping us better understand our coastal and marine environment. The backing is provided through the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS®), other federal agencies, and N.O.A.A. programs.

"IOOS brings federal and regional ocean observations together to give decision-makers the critical data they need to save lives and build their communities," said Zdenka Willis, U.S. IOOS plan director. "These awards will sustain those observations, and speed the transition of new promising technologies into the ocean, where they can serve our coastal communities day in and day out."

Highlights of the awards

This year's awards include $2.9 million for marine sensor innovation plans to enhance our understanding of the coastal and marine environment.

• $1 million to the Southeastern Universities Research Association to make operational the U.S. IOOS Coastal and Ocean Modeling Testbed, an infrastructure for the testing and improvement of non-federal and federal models and prediction tools;

• $1 million to the Alliance for Coastal Technologies for technology transfer and accelerating development of promising new marine observing technologies;

• $340,000 provided through the Northeast IOOS Regional Association in support of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and McLane Industries efforts to transition cutting-edge observing platforms monitoring the emergence of harmful algal blooms and enhance harmful algal bloom forecasts in the Gulf of Maine;

• $574,000 to fund plans in 5 IOOS Western regional associations. These plans will develop ocean acidification sensor technology to support West Coast and Alaska shellfish industry monitoring needs, enhance measurements of the state of ocean acidification in the Pacific Islands, and develop workforce capacity to work with ocean acidification sensors.

In addition to the marine sensor innovation plans introduced this year, the U.S. IOOS awarded $24.3 million to sustain critical coastal, ocean, and Great Lakes efforts. As part of this effort, the U.S. IOOS Plan and N.A.S.A. will continue to jointly fund, at $250,000 each per year, plans to enhance satellite sea surface temperature data from existing and new sensors, produce a blended output of sea surface temperature data from U.S. and international datasets, and target these products for coastal applications and regional IOOS usage.

The total breakdown of the $27.2 million is:

• Alaska Ocean Observing System ($2.2 million)

• Alliance for Coastal Technologies ($1 million)

• Caribbean Regional Association ($1.6 million)

• Central and Northern California Ocean Observing System ($2.3 million)

• Gulf of Mexico Coastal Observing System ($1.5 million)

• Great Lakes Observing System ($1.6 million)

• Mid-Atlantic Regional Association for Coastal Ocean Observing Systems ($3 million)

• Multi-sensor Improved Sea Surface Temperature ($500,000)

• Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems ($3.1 million)

• Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems ($2.4 million)

• Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System ($2.2 million)

• Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System ($2.3 million)

• Southeastern Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association ($2.5 million)

• Southeastern Universities Research Association ($1 million)
  

Backing supports NOAA's efforts to develop a national IOOS for tracking, predicting, managing and adapting to changes in the marine environment. IOOS delivers data and information needed to increase understanding of the Nation's waters to enhance safety, enhance the economy, and protect our environment.

NOAA's mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and our other social media channels.

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