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"I
think we are looking at the Japanese sub!"
By Al Kalvaitis
One
of my several responsibilities at NOAA Research's National Undersea
Research Program (NURP) is operations and safety director. On August
28, 2002, I was aboard the PISCES IV submersible to witness
and oversee emergency safety demonstrations with her sister submersible,
PISCES V. This is my eyewitness account of that day which
led to the discovery of that long lost Japanese midget submarine
that was used in an attempted underwater attack of Pearl Harbor,
one hour before the air  assault.
Never did I think this would be the day I would become an eyewitness
to history, and that a persistent WWII mystery would at last be
resolved.
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FULL STORY --
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Team
Member of Month Bolsters Weather Service Capability To Detect
Severe Weather
Dr. Zhongqi (Zack) Jing, a senior scientist at the University
of Oklahoma who works closely with NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory,
is being honored as NOAA's September Team Member of the Month.
The laboratory is part of NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric
Research.
As a key member of a team responsible for establishing software architecture
and design to help the National Weather Service improve its capability
in areas of severe weather detection and warnings, Zack demonstrated
"scientific and engineering innovation, technical leadership and mentoring
skills." His research and insight have been pivotal in the success
of the Open Radar Product Generator Project, designed to upgrade a
system nearing obsolescence and unable to accommodate new and important
science. Now in the final stages of deployment, the project is being
called one of the best systems ever fielded by the National Weather
Service.
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FULL STORY --
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Employee
of Month Cited For Mitigating Recent Surge Of Western Wildfires
For her
outstanding work in helping to mitigate the effects of this nation's
sweeping wildfires, Donna McNamara has been named NOAA Employee
of the Month. As a physical scientist in the Office of Satellite
Data Processing and Distribution at the National Environmental Satellite,
Data and Information Service (NESDIS), Donna is being lauded for innovative
and tireless efforts to support both firefighters and the western
communities imperiled by this year's severe fire season.
As wildfires surged through Colorado in early June - and before they
spread to additional western states - Donna worked "above and beyond"
to escalate development of the Fire Hazard Mapping System that enables
analysts to detect fire and smoke that can be mitigated by emergency
response personnel. Her contributions provided a more frequent fire
mitigation product that proved indispensable during this very difficult
summer. Already Donna had led the development and acquisition of methods
to use NESDIS and NASA satellite imagery and other technologies to
identify and mitigate wildfires and smoke plumes in near real-time.
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FULL STORY --
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Vice
Admiral Lautenbacher Out in the Field
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SANTA
CRUZ
Photo
by Stephanie Bailenson
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Vice
Admiral Lautenbacher with a study subject, one of the marine mammals
that University of California, Santa Cruz marine scientists work with
to study marine mammal physiology, both in the field and captivity.
The Vice Admiral spent a full day at the newly constructed NOAA Fisheries
Laboratory, where his keen interest in collaboration was complemented
by visits with NOAA's many partners along Monterey Bay. Santa Cruz
is site of the National Marine Protected Area Science Institute, which
is strengthening science-based decision-making, marine protected area
effectiveness and stakeholder engagement.
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Tour with the Vice Admiral
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SAN
FRANCISCO
Photo
by Paul Wong
Introduced
by Susan Andres, Vice Admiral Lautenbacher talks with
staff and supporters of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine
Sanctuary.
Just north of San Francisco, the sanctuary is 1,235 square miles
of nearshore
and offshore waters ranging from wetlands and intertidal to deep-sea
communities. Some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world cut
through the sanctuary to San Francisco Bay.
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More about visit
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SEATTLE
Photo
by Su Kim
In
Seattle, Vice Admiral and Scott Rayder, (second from left), NOAA
chief of staff, visited with Usha Varanasi, director of NOAA’s NW
Fisheries Science Center, and John Stein, who directs environmental
conservation. During the visit, they also discussed salmon recovery
and data management with Mike Schiewe; partnering with coastal Indian
tribes to manage harmful algal blooms with Vera Trainer; and habitat
mapping and slope surveys with commercial fishermen with Liz Clark.
Michael Rust showed off the center’s Aqualab and John Stein led
a full tour.
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More about visit --
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“Who will do science,” asked Dr. Willie Pearson, Jr. as
he addressed about 40 NOAA staff a few weeks ago at Southeast Regional
Fisheries headquarters in St. Petersburg, Florida. He says the fields
of science and technology may be headed for a crisis, and that if
trends continue, the U.S. may lose its technological edge in science
and engineering. While NOAA is reaching out to stimulate scientific
interests among youth in multiple directions, the commitment must
be far-reaching. Dr. Pearson’s presentation was sponsored by Southeast
Regional Fisheries’ EEO Advisory Committee. He chairs the School of
History, Technology and Society at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
He also chairs the Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy
for the American Association for the Advancement of Science and serves
as vice chair of the National Science Foundation’s
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Full Story--
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This is the Year of Clean Water. To underscore its importance,
the Smithsonian’s Environmental Research Center and America's Clean
Water Foundation are co-hosting a Youth Watershed Summit in Washington,
DC on October 6 - 10.
Vice Admiral Lautenbacher will be among key speakers addressing
about 300 students and over 50 teachers from across the country.
The Vice Admiral will talk about NOAA’s water priorities and the
many initiatives underway here to safeguard the health of water
and marine environments for this and future generations. The lively
summit will include four watershed study rotations: lab/classroom,
canoe/river, trail/terrestrial, and boat/bay.
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A
Boost for Budding Scientists
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NOAA is working to leave no child behind.
This year's ACT-SO NOAA judges in biology were Donald Gray
(NESDIS), Bonnie Ponwith (NMFS), James Ditty (NMFS), Lamont
Jackson (NMFS) and James Randolph (NMFS). In chemistry:
Shobha Kondragunta (NESDIS). In architecture: Doug Perkins
(NOS). In physics general, Barbara Tobe (NWS), Frank Brody
(NWS) and William Read (NWS). In physics energy, Margaret
McCalla (Office of Federal Coordinator for Meteorological
Services).
Coordinating it all were Margaret McCalla (over-all coordinator),
Captain Rich Behn, Al Corea, Rhona Kaden, Jeanne Kouhestani,
Erica Van Coverden and LCDR Joe Pica.
Special thanks to Margaret McCalla, Erica Van Coverden and
Jeanne Kouhestani for creating this feature for AccessNOAA.
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The NOAA
ship Ronald H. Brown recently gave a handful of high school
students an end of summer cruise like they've never experienced before.
Four students who successfully competed in the NAACP's Academic, Cultural,
Technological, and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) won an invitation
to spend six days on a research cruise. Eleven NOAA scientists participated
as judges and selected the four national science competitors.
 ACT-SO
is a major youth initiative of the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People designed to prepare, recognize and reward African-American
youth who exemplify scholastic and artistic excellence. ACT-SO provides
a forum through which African-American youth demonstrate and gain
recognition for academic, artistic and scientific prowess and expertise.
The aim is help students successfully compete in classrooms, boardrooms
and science laboratories.
-- Full Story --
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Wild,
Wild Watershed!
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Aquanauts
Explore the Deep
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NOAA
and The Smithsonian Associates joined resources this summer to launch
the first annual Wild, Wild Watershed summer camp. Aimed at
teaching Washington, DC area youth about the Chesapeake Bay Watershed,
the camp encouraged hands-on restoration. Campers built their own
mini-ecosystem, learned about water chemistry, watched the effects
of pollution, and saw how fast it can spread.
Aquanauts:
Exploring the Ocean Depths
opened the adventurous eyes of 16 other kids this summer. The summer
camp for youth 10-to-13 was co-sponsored by NOAA's Office of Ocean
Exploration and the Smithsonian Associates.
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See more --
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Pop-Up
Satellite Archival Tags Yield 'Treasure Trove' of New Data
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Integrating
the latest technology into their research strategy, scientists from
the National
Photo by M.K. Musyl, University of Hawaii/Joint
Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research
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Marine Fishery Service's Honolulu Lab and the University of Hawaii
Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research are tackling many
questions about the ecology and management of pelagic (open ocean)
fishes and sea turtles in the Pacific Ocean.
Using archival and pop-up satellite archival tags, the scientists
are generating a "treasure trove" of immediately useful data. These
data are key in addressing a number of critical management questions,
including investigating post-hooking survivability, identifying possible
spawning areas and delimiting stock boundaries. Field studies are
being led by NOAA Fisheries' scientist Richard Brill and Michael Musyl
and Yonat Swimmer of University of Hawaii's Pelagic Fisheries Research
Program.
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Full Story --
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NOAA
Corps Women Celebrate Three Decades of Service
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By LT
Cecile Daniels
Women have been serving in uniformed services within various non-combatant
posts since 1811. But people are often surprised to learn that until
1972 women were not allowed into the smallest of the seven services
at all.
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Full Story --
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Latest
CREWS
Tilts With the Wind & Waves
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Featuring a radically new design, a coral reef monitoring station
was recently installed by NOAA scientists in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Designed to establish long-term data sets for environmental conditions,
the station is the second installed as part of the Coral Reef Early
Warning System (CREWS) network. The new design will be the basis of
future CREWS stations installed throughout the Caribbean and Pacific.
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Full Story --
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Partnerships
Ease Way in Louisiana
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Strong NOAA partnerships in Louisiana eased the way for a just completed
hydrographic survey of the Port of Lake Charles, including approaches
to the Gulf of Mexico. Using both side scan sonar and multi-beam acoustic
survey equipment, the NOAA Ship Whiting, a hydrographic survey
vessel, conducted the survey to support safe navigation.
-- Full Story --
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New Findings Put $10 Billion Estimated Economic Value
On Hawaii's Coral Reefs
Indicate
Traditional Ahupua'a Concept of Protection Has Eroded
Photo
courtesy of David Gulko/Hawaii Coral Reef Institute-Research Program
One
of the highlights of last month's National Ocean Service workshop
in Honolulu on coral reef economic valuation was the release of
the preliminary results of a report documenting the economic value
of Hawaii's coral reefs. Commissioned by the Hawaii Coral Reef Initiative
Research Program and funded by NOAA, the report provides the first
cross-cutting look at the value of Hawaii's coral reefs -- approximately
$10 billion -- and their economic benefits -- approximately $360
million annually. Final results will be released in December.
The workshop brought together 60 participants, including coral reef
managers, economists, and federal and non-government agency coral
representatives from the six U.S. Pacific and Caribbean islands
to explore approaches to characterizing the dollar value of U.S.
coral reefs.
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Full Story --
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