Biden-Harris Administration invests $101.5 million for ocean observing systems – Reposted from https://www.noaa.gov/news-features

Funding will support NOAA’s efforts to provide coastal climate resilience services

Today, the Department of Commerce and NOAA announced $101.5 million in funding across 12 awards to expand equitable service delivery and support the modernization of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) Regional Associations. U.S. IOOS supports ongoing data collection in U.S. ocean, coastal and Great Lakes waters and develops infrastructure and tools to make that data accessible. These funds are made possible by the Biden-Harris Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act.

“Thanks to President Biden and Vice President Harris’ ambitious climate agenda, we are giving communities, particularly frontline and underserved communities, the tools and information they need to build resilience to devastating weather and climate disasters,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “With this $101.5 million investment, NOAA’s IOOS will be able to improve and deliver critical information and tools to help coastal communities become more resilient to the impacts of climate change.”

These 12 awards are:

Alaska

  • The Alaska Ocean Observing System (AOOS): $7.7 million. 
    • AOOS will use $5 million in funding to support community-led and co-developed projects, including deployment of new buoys and moorings to benefit tribes and frontline communities, workshops and monitoring support for harmful algal blooms and fisheries, support for regional observing networks, youth engagement and data management.
    • AOOS will receive an additional $2.7 million to fill gaps in the Alaska Water Level Watch network and expand coverage of a tool that converts elevation data from various sources into a common reference system.

California

  • Central and Northern California Ocean Observing System (CeNCOOS): $5 million.
    • CeNCOOS will use this funding to support expanded water sampling to increase the understanding of climate impacts; next-generation data management and access services; animal tag data processing for place-based management; Ocean Vision AIoffsite link image data processing and engagement; and model improvements for West Coast Regional Ocean Model System applications. The funding will also support outreach through workshops, equitable service delivery engagement and education programs. 
  • Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System (SCOOS): $5 million.
    • SCCOOS will use this funding to support resilience and expanded capacity for harmful algal bloom detection and monitoring along the California coast; improvements to the California Underwater Glider Network; increased engagement, training and workforce development with Indigenous groups and expanded, multi-linguistic resources for community engagement and K-12 learning. 

Great Lakes Region

  • Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS): $5 million. 
    • GLOS will use this funding to support projects in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. These projects will be aimed at increasing equitable service delivery through the expansion of year-round observations and analysis. They will also expand Seagull information technology platform offsite linkcapabilities and coordinate with networks connected to Indigenous communities to provide workshops on Seagull. Additionally, GLOS will develop a lightweight application focused on Great Lakes Beach safety, expand the Great Lakes Acoustic Telemetry Observation System and collect ice thickness measurements from ice anglers to help ice modeling efforts.

Gulf of Mexico Region

  • Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS): $5 million. 
    • GCOOS will use this funding to support projects in and around the Gulf of Mexico, including Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. The projects will deploy assets that complement and fill observation gaps in existing networks, build new asset networks and enhance regional technical capacity to provide equitable data service delivery to communities to build coastal resilience. These include new observation projects and tools co-developed with frontline and Indigenous communities to measure and equip them with knowledge about surface currents, flooding, harmful algal blooms, rip currents to validate offshore data, and to develop multilingual program materials.

Mid-AtlanticRegion

  • Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System (MARACOOS): $48.8 million.
    • MARACOOS will receive $5 million to support projects in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina that strengthen the delivery of data information services and provide equitable service delivery to support coastal resilience needs across the region. These needs include the expansion of ocean acidification and water quality sensing for ocean forecasting systems in the Mid-Atlantic Bight; the development of tailored, community-driven data tools; greater engagement with the off-shore wind community and schools and an expanded communications program. 
    • MARACOOS will receive an additional $43.8 million and serve as a coordination point for a national effort by all of the IOOS Regional Associations to build capacity and expertise in support of ecosystem change management and place-based planning, water level and wave observation and monitoring, optimization of product development and delivery and equitable service delivery. 

Northeast Region

  • Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems (NERACOOS): $5 million.
    • NERACOOS will use this funding for projects in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut that support the enhancement of the regional buoy network. The projects aim to provide improvements to NERACOOS’s data management system — including the addition of community-tailored products and services, expanded capabilities for the Northeast Coastal Ocean Forecast System and improvements to biodiversity observations and assessments that benefit Indigenous communities.

Pacific Northwest

  • Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems (NANOOS): $5 million.
    • NANOOS will use this funding to support regional coastal resilience in Washington, Oregon and California by investing in better detection of harmful algal blooms, hypoxia, marine heat waves and similar hazards; the co-design of data products and decision-support tools and engagement with a broader swath of communities in the Pacific Northwest. 

U.S. Caribbean Islands

  • Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observing System (CARICOOS): $5 million.
    • CARICOOS will use this funding for projects in the U.S. Caribbean, including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to support enhancing their observational capacity to continue providing water column data for improved hurricane intensity forecasting and assessing coastal and ocean ecosystem status and threats. The funds will also help to build educational centers to improve resiliency by engaging and educating particularly vulnerable coastal communities about their exposure to coastal hazards in the region.

U.S. Pacific Islands

  • Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System (PacIOOS): $5 million.
    • PacIOOS will use this funding to support coastal resilience in the U.S. Pacific Islands, including Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, through a focus on enhanced engagement and education, capacity sharing and the co-design of data visualization and decision-making tools — using wave, water and other ocean conditions — with Indigenous and other underserved coastal communities throughout the region. 

Southeast Region

  • Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association (SECOORA): $5 million.
    • SECOORA will use this funding to support projects in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The projects aim to ensure equitable service delivery, including the recapitalization of high-frequency radar, gliders and buoy assets; a program to deploy low-cost wave buoys near frontline communities; continued development of the Sargassum Watch product; and stakeholder engagement and workforce development in underserved communities through workshops, enhanced communications and internship opportunities. 

“Ocean, coastal and Great Lakes data and information are vital to building coastal resilience to the impacts of climate change,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, Ph.D. “With this historic investment, the IOOS Regional Associations will introduce transformational change by expanding the network of community partners, growing the data user community and building the capabilities needed to better serve their regions.”

Visit NOAA’s Inflation Reduction Act web portal to learn about current and future funding opportunities.

Climate, weather, and water affect all life on our ocean planet. NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict our changing environment, from the deep sea to outer space, and to manage and conserve America’s coastal and marine resources.

Media contact

Kimberly Rodgers, kim.rodgers@noaa.gov, (771) 233-3988