| |
NWS,
Former President Carter Honor Weather Observers
|
| Former
President Jimmy Carter and officials from the National Weather
Service Southern Region presented the Honored Institution
Award to the University of Georgia’s Southwest Research
and Education Center in Plains, Ga. This prestigious award
recognizes the center for 50 years of weather observations
and cooperative service to the National Weather Service.
“I am pleased to be able to present this award to the
exceptional staff of the Southwest Research and Education
Center,” said Carter. “As a resident of Plains
and a farmer, I depend on the accurate reports collected by
this outstanding facility.”
|
|
|
Honoring
the university’s weather observers recently were
(left to right): Atlanta Cooperative Observer program
manager Nathan Mayes; southern region Cooperative Observer
program manager Mike Asmus; President Carter; Southwest
Research and Education Center superintendent Stan Jones;
Dr. Steve Brown, Assistant Dean, University of Georgia;
and Atlanta science and operations officer Gary Beeley.
|
|
CoastWatch
Opens East Coast Node
|
| NOAA's
CoastWatch program celebrated an important milestone last
month when it opened the East Coast node at the NOAA Chesapeake
Bay Office in Annapolis, Md. The new node, which is one of
six nodes nationwide, provides near real-time satellite data
including sea surface temperature, ocean surface winds and
chlorophyll-a levels and makes them available via the internet.
Scientists, resource managers and fishermen use the data to
forecast atmospheric events, predict harmful algal blooms
and study fish and marine mammal distribution along the eastern
seaboard of the United States.
|
|
Annapolis
Mayor Ellen Moyer assists NOAA Deputy Assistant Secretary
Tim Keeney, National Ocean Service chief Jack Dunnigan,
director of NOAA's Center for Satellite Applications
and Research Al Powell, CoastWatch program manager
Kent Hughes and NOAA Chesapeake Bay office director
Lowell Bahner in revealing the new East Coast Node
Web site.
|
|
Employee and Team Member of the Month
for June
|
| Employee of the Month
Marty
Welch
NOS
|
Team Member of the Month
Willow
Marr
PPI
|
NOAA’s
Employee and Team Member of the Month for June are
NOS’s Marty Welch
and PPI’s Willow Marr.
Marty manages CO-OPS' rapidly expanding
partnership effort in support of field operations.
He led the CO-OPS activity to establish a purchase
order/task contract with seven well qualified oceanographic
companies who now compete for CO-OPS field support
tasks. In less than a year, CO-OPS has executed 12
project tasks that support NOAA mission critical activities
that vary from the installation of new water level
stations in support of tsunami warning, investigation
of new measurement sites to meet NWS storm surge and
IOOS requirements, the acquisition of new current
measurements in southeastern Alaska and the Hudson
River to enhance NOAA's Tidal Current Prediction tables,
to the ongoing operation and maintenance of stations
included in the National Water Level Observation Network.
Marty ensures the effective use of the private industry
in supporting NOAA responsibilities. His skill and
perseverance allow CO-OPS to respond to rapidly expanding
customer requirements.
Willow
Marr was instrumental in managing the approval and
issuance of NOAA's Transition of Research to Application
Policy's implementation procedures. These procedures
establish NOAA's process for transitioning research
to application and/or operation and are used by line
office and goal teams. In addition, she documented
the major changes to NOAA's planning phase of the
Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Execution System,
updated NOAA's Business Operations Manual to reflect
the new procedures, and assisted in drafting a Program
Rating Assessment Tool handbook for use by OMB selected
programs. Her attention to detail and get-it-done
attitude has a positive effect on all of NOAA.
|
|
Northwest
Research Station Hosts Educational Workshops
|
|
What lives under
those rocks? How do you keep a dive mask from fogging up?
What do salmon eat? Why might scientists dissect a fish? Fifty
first and third graders from Lighthouse Elementary Cooperative
explored marine science at the NOAA Fisheries Northwest Fisheries
Science Center’s Mukilteo, Wash. research station recently.
Center staff led students though four stations of hands-on
activities including: learning about the operation of boats,
nets and dive gear; intertidal exploration; examining salmon
prey, parasites and otoliths under a microscope; and dissecting
fish. This field trip is one of the many outreach and education
activities and events that center scientists participate in
throughout the year.
|
|
|
A
student investigates parasites at the Mukilteo Research
Station. |
|
| The
entire staff of the Kodiak, Alaska NOAA Fisheries Office of
Law Enforcement participated in the 2006 5K Torch Run, a fund
raiser for Alaska Special Olympics sponsored by Alaska law
enforcement agencies. Assistant Special Agent in Charge Ken
Hansen carried the torch across the finish line.
| |
| Officer
Tim Gould, vessel monitoring system technician Sara
Sundsten, Special Agent Mike Killary, Assistant Special
Agent in Charge Ken Hansen, Special Agent Brent Pristas,
and Officer Amanda Crook participated in this year’s
5K Torch Run in Kodiak, Alaska recently. |
|
| At
AccessNOAA, we’re always looking for interesting stories
about NOAA people just like you. Whether your office has received
an award, or your collection of Elvis memorabilia is tops
in its class, if it makes a fellow NOAA reader take a second
look, it’s right for AccessNOAA. E-mail your stories
and photos to accessnoaa@noaa.gov,
and you may see it in an upcoming issue. (Digital photos embedded
in a Word Perfect or Word document cannot be used.)
|
|
|
|
