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NOAA Economic/Environmental Success Story
Florida
Keys Achieve Historic Protection!
There are just four designated PSSAs, or Particularly Sensitive Sea
Areas, that exist in the world: the Great Barrier Reef in Australia,
the Sabana-Camaguey Archipelago in Cuba, Malpelo Island in Colombia
– and now the marine area around the Florida Keys. This newest designation,
on May 28 by the International Maritime Organization, is an eonomic/environmental
success story recognized by an international protocol of which NOAA
can be especially proud.
The historic designation helps safeguard both economic growth and
our marine environment – simultaneously protecting America’s special
places and resources. News of the designation is especially beneficial
to the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, a magical environment
and home to the nation’s only living barrier coral reef.
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Employee of Month
Invaluable Legal Resource
Her name is Leila Afzal. Her title is managing attorney in NOAA’s
Office of General Counsel. Ask why she is NOAA’s June Employee
of the Month, and the answer quickly becomes clear. Only it depends
on whom you ask.
Leila is the person NOAA looked to when launching an innovative education
toy project. And to clear a path for naming the Florida Keys Environmental
Center in memory of Dr. Nancy Foster. The Offices of Chief Scientist
and Sustainable Development depend on her expertise, and so do many
others. Leila is greatly appreciated for generously making her skills
available to anyone at NOAA who needs legal assistance.
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Team Member Helps Shape
More Accurate Weather Forecasts
A vital NESDIS team member, Anthony J. “Tony” Schreiner
is an associate researcher at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological
Satellite Studies, a part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Space
Science and Engineering Center. He has worked there since 1978 and,
for almost all of that time, has been a major contributor to NOAA’s
work through the development and generation of cloud products. Tony’s
work has made the nation’s weather forecasts more accurate and dependable.
In particular, he was recommended as this month’s Team Member of
the Month for developing, on short notice, a clear-sky brightness
temperature product during the summer and fall of 2001.
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Vice
Admiral Lautenbacher Calls for Expanded
Ocean & Climate Observing Systems
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Welcome
to the team! During his first international mission since coming to
NOAA, Vice Admiral extends greetings to Shuichiro Yamanouchi, president
of NASDA, Japan's National Space Development Agency. As chief U.S.
representative to APEC - Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation - Vice
Admiral Lautenbacher addressed APEC's first Ocean-related Ministerial
Meeting in Seoul, South Korea. A key U.S. objective called for expanding
the global ocean and climate observing systems that are so critical
to forecasting long-range climate events such as El Niño. The
U.S. also called for a broader eco-system approach to managing marine
resources for sustainable fishing, integrated coastal and ocean management,
and protecting vital coral reef areas and habitat.
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U.S.
Virgin Islands Wins Approval for Pollution Control Program
Tackles
Tough Challenge of Protecting America's Coastal Waters
Last month
the U.S. Virgin islands received final NOAA/EPA approval on a coastal
pollution program created to combat land-based sources of runoff primarily
from urban sources. This is the tenth such program to win approval.
Polluted runoff, also know as nonpoint source pollution, is a major
concern throughout the nation, especially in coastal areas and watersheds
that feed into sensitive sanctuaries and coastal environments. It
is caused when rain picks up pollutants on land and deposits them
into coastal waters, lakes, rivers, and even underground drinking
water aquifers.
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NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration
Rare
are the expeditions that hark back to an earlier era, when marine
explorers set out without knowing exactly where they were going or
what they would find. But there are compelling reasons to do just
that.
"We have shown that we can draw new money in for exploration," said
Craig McLean, director of NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration. Would-be
explorers will be interested in "Marine Researchers Hope to Sail Off
Into the Unknown" in Science.
(Reprinted by permission)
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Occasionally NOAA employees in Silver Spring, Maryland hear lilting
sounds coming from the stairwells during lunch hour. The sounds are
those of a violin, and the violinist is John Schmidt, who runs the
Research Associates Programs of NOAA Research's National Research
Council.
John has degrees in physics and psychology and attracts post-doctoral
researchers to NOAA labs from around the world. But his heart is also
in violins. Not just playing them but making them. John has been creating
and testing his violins of Norway spruce since the early 1980s. As
for the stairwell sounds, John explains that NOAA's building is 15
stories high and the stairwells are all concrete. "The acoustics are
great," he said.
In February, the Baltimore Sun called John a "renaissance man."
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Photo
by Gang Liu
"Between
Australia and the United States, most of the world's reliable coral
reef data is right at out fingertips," said William Skirving (right),
an Australian oceanographer collaborating with NOAA's Al Strong
on identifying areas of unusually high sea surface temperatures
where coral bleaching is apt to occur.
NOAA HotSpots Program
Identifies Where Coral Bleaching Likely to Occur
By Pat Viets
Dr. William Skirving, a satellite oceanographer from Australia,
feels like a "kid in a candy shop" working among the remote sensing
scientists at the NOAA Science Center in Camp Springs, Md. He is
a visiting scientist from the Australian Institute of Marine Science
working with NESDIS' Office of Research and Applications on the
Coral Reef Watch program.
William, who will be with NOAA's NESDIS - National Environmental
Satellite, Data, and Information Service -- for three years, is
working with Dr. Alan E. Strong, coordinator of the program. "He
has developed a working hydrodynamic model for the Great Barrier
Reef that shows areas that are less likely to bleach," Al said.
"We are delighted to have him here, and look forward to continuing
our work with coral reefs, especially after our successful workshop
on Satellite Oceanography and Coral Reef Bleaching," just concluded
in February in Townsville, Australia.
Al and William are working on NOAA's HotSpots program, which uses
data from NOAA's polar-orbiting operational environmental satellites
to identify areas of unusually high sea surface temperatures where
bleaching is likely to occur. William said, "We hope to produce
the penultimate version of HotSpots, to predict which reefs will
bleach and which will not."
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Fourteen
more young officers have just been welcomed into NOAA Corps. Rear
Admiral Evelyn J. Fields, director of NOAA Corps and NOAA's Office
of Marine and Aviation Operations, celebrates by cutting cake with
Ensign Amanda Francisco, of Syracuse, NY, class president of Basic
Officer Training Class 102.
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MARK
Trail © 2002 North America Syndicate, Inc.
Reprinted by special permission of King Features Syndicate.
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