Program Update – August 2012
The NOPP Office was excited to announce the 2011 NOPP Excellence in Partnering Award winners in mid-August. Dr. Charles Fisher from Pennsylvania State University and Dr. James Brooks from TDI International, Inc. were recognized for their FY 2008 NOPP-funded project titled Exploration and Research of Northern Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Natural and Artificial Hard Bottom Habitats with Emphasis on Coral Communities: Reefs, Rigs, and Wrecks (also known as Lophelia II). The project was nominated by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), and includes partnerships with BOEM, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). More information on the award announcement can be found here. More information on the Lophelia II project can be found here and here. The NOPP Office will be presenting the awards to Dr. Fisher and Dr. Brooks during the MTS/IEEE Oceans ’12 Conference in Virginia Beach, Virginia on October 15.
NOPP-funded PIs Shu-Chih Yang, Takemasa Miyoshi, and Eugenia Kalnay published their third article on Improving Tropical Cyclone Intensity Forecasting, titled “Accelerating the EnKF Spinup for Typhoon Assimilation and Prediction,” in Weather and Forecasting. More information on the publication announcement and the article can be found here and here.
The Interagency Working Group on Facilities and Infrastructure’s (IWG-FI) Federal Oceanographic Fleet Working Group (FOFWG) and Fleet Schedule Portal Working Group (FSPWG) held a joint meeting at Ocean Leadership on August 27. The Subcommittee on Unmanned Systems (SUS) co-chairs met on August 13, and the full group will meet on September 12. The IWG-FI will hold their next meeting at Ocean Leadership on September 18 and will hear updates from their subcommittees and working groups on their progress.
The Ocean Research Advisory Panel (ORAP) held its first meeting since April 2011 at the Ocean Leadership offices in Washington D.C. on August 15-16. The ORAP heard briefings on Implementing Ecosystem Based Management, Balancing Ocean Infrastructure with Ocean Research (focused on Ocean Observing), and Leveraging Ocean Education Opportunities. The Panel also received an update from National Ocean Council Director Dr. Deerin Babb-Brott and approved the report of the Ocean Renewable Energy Workshop. For more information about the ORAP meeting, including presentations, please see the ORAP meetings webpage. The ORAP will hold its next meeting in January 2013.
