This page lists past seminars and presentations by STAR
scientists and visiting scientists. These seminars include the STAR
Science Forum and similar events. Presentation materials for
seminars will be provided when available.
Title: Observing Spatial Variability of Marine Heatwaves in the Chesapeake Bay
Presenter(s): Rachel Wegener, University of Maryland In this work we use satellite SST over a 19 year period to look for spatial patterns and temporal trends in marine heatwaves in the estuarine environment of the Chesapeake Bay. We consider two satellite products, NOAA Geopolar and NASA MUR, and look at a variety of marine heatwave statistics.
Title 2: NOAA CoastWatch Communication Best Practices
Presenter(s): V Wegman, GST CoastWatch is enacting a new Communications Plan, with an associated document that lays out the Best Practices for CoastWatch affiliates.
Abstract: Moderate resolution (hundreds of meters to a few kilometers) satellite ocean color data are underutilized for monitoring water quality in coastal environments due to frequent data gaps from clouds and algorithm complexities in shallow waters. Commonly used data aggregation methods potentially smooth out small-scale variability with ecological importance. Here, we demonstrate an integrated spatiotemporal data aggregating scheme using Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) data at coral reef locations in Maui, Hawaii and Puerto Rico.
Bio(s): Erick Geiger comes from a background in satellite remote sensing, algorithm development, and modeling coastal ocean processes in the Mid-Atlantic region. Erick is currently employed as a Faculty Specialist at the University of Maryland Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center working as a developer and support scientist for NOAA's Coral Reef Watch program. Slides, Recordings Other Materials: available 24-48 hours following the seminar at this link: https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/star/PastSeminars_NOCCG.php
Abstract: The Visible Infrared Imaging Spectroradiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensor on board the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) series provides high quality radiometric measurements to enable detection and characterization of active fires. The current primary baseline NOAA operational product includes fire detection and fire radiative power (FRP) at 375m nadir resolution. VIIRS active fire data are generated globally by NOAA's ground system and the algorithm is also available to process direct broadcast data. The product has been used to detect and monitor fire occurrence, and to serve as input to various fire-related modeling applications. This seminar will include a summary of algorithm principles, the history of the evolution of the product, current status and plans for future improvements, and examples of key applications.
Bio(s): Ivan Csiszar is the Branch Chief of the Environmental Monitoring Branch of the Satellite Meteorology and Climatology Division at NOAA/NESDIS Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR). His work has focused on land surface observations from environmental satellites, in particular active fire detection and characterization. Previously he led multiple research projects aimed at fire mapping, and evaluating fire products and impacts from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the GOES Imager. Currently he is responsible for the operational NOAA baseline fire products, focusing on JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) and GOES-R Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) measurements and data from relevant partner satellite missions. He is also involved in activities aimed at applications of fire products in disaster and resource management through the NOAA Fire and Smoke Proving Ground Initiative.
Slides, Recordings, Other Materials: Slides, links shared during the presentation, and a recording may be found after the meeting at the URL listed above.
Abstract: Effective data management plays a key role in oceanographic research as cruise-based data, collected from different laboratories and expeditions, are commonly compiled to investigate regional to global oceanographic processes. Here we describe new and updated best practice data standards for discrete chemical oceanographic observations, specifically those dealing with column header abbreviations, quality control flags, missing value indicators, and standardized calculations of certain properties. These data standards have been developed with the goals of improving the current practices of the scientific community and promoting their international usage. These guidelines are intended to standardize data files for data sharing and submission into permanent archives. They will facilitate future quality control and synthesis efforts and lead to better data interpretation. In turn, this will promote research in ocean biogeochemistry, such as studies of carbon cycling and ocean acidification, on regional to global scales.
Bio(s): LiqingJiang (Associate Research Scientist, UMD) is a chemical oceanographer specializing in the study of inorganic carbon cycling and ocean acidification. He received his Ph.D in Oceanography from the University of Georgia in 2009 and did his postdoctoral research at Yale University. Dr. Jiang has been working at NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) through the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites (CISESS) since 2011. He is currently the lead principal investigator of the Ocean Carbon and Acidification Data System (OCADS) project, which is partially funded by NOAA's Ocean Acidification Program (OAP). In addition to data management, Dr. Jiang has also been leading the North American coastal synthesis project, and doing a lot of research in terms of the distribution of the global OA indicators. Slides, Recordings Other Materials: available 24-48 hours following the seminar at this link: https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/star/PastSeminars_NOCCG.php
Abstract: Milky seas' is a term coined by 19 th century mariners to describe an uncommonly encountered form of marine bioluminescence where extremely large swaths of ocean surface glow uniformly and steadily for hours on end across multiple nights. These mariners the dramatic appearance of a snowfield' that extends to the horizon in all directions and produces light at levels sufficient to read by. Milky Seas are thought to be caused by luminous bacteria in association with algal blooms, which trigger a bioluminescent response upon exceeding a critical bacterial population via a process known as quorum sensing. However, witness accounts paint an inconsistent picture as to their structure, and for lack of rigorous sampling of these remote and ephemeral events, the environmental circumstances surrounding their formation remain, to this day, unclear.
This presentation shows for the first time how a NOAA-operated low-light visible satellite sensor"the Day/Night Band (DNB)"can detect and quantify milky seas in an unprecedented way. An intensive survey of DNB imagery data on moonless nights over 2012-2021 has uncovered 12 distinct milky sea cases within the historical hot-spots of the Arabian/Somali Sea and Maritime Continent. These glowing waters drift with the currents and persist over days to in some cases even several weeks or more. The temperature and biomass properties of Milky Sea environments, including their preferred formation within sea surface current doldrums"has inspired a natural flask' hypothesis for Milky Sea incubation. Highlighted here is a Milky Sea that occurred south of Java in 2019"a truly massive event (100,000 km 2 ; about the size of Kentucky or Iceland) that persisted in varying intensity for over a month. Concurrency to another event in the Banda Sea, 2000 km to the east, suggests a possible relationship between Milky Seas of the Maritime Continent and the positive-mode of the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), similar to Milky Seas of the Arabian/Somali Seas and their empirical ties to the Indian Summer and Winter Monsoonal modes that modulate ocean current patterns and mixing offshore Eastern Africa.
Our newfound ability to detect, track, and characterize Milky Seas from space can help direct research vessels toward an active event, enabling detailed in situ sampling necessary learn more about the. Specifically, what insights this seemingly obscure yet massive expression of our biosphere may hold in terms of linkages between marine ecology and coupled air-sea interactions. And, perhaps in a general and more profound way, the response of primary production in Earth's oceans to climate change. With the power of new-generation satellites, and after 15 years of progress, we are poised to learn much more about Milky Seas.
Speaker
Bio(s): Steve Miller is a Professor of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University, where he also serves as Director of the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA),located in Fort Collins, Colorado. He earned his Bachelor's of Science degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of California at San Diego, and his Masters and Doctoral degrees from Colorado State University's Department of Atmospheric Science, studying atmospheric radiation theory its application to satellite-based remote sensing of clouds. Starting in the year 2000, he worked for the Naval Research Laboratory in Monterey as a Senior Meteorologist, where he designed novel satellite algorithms for detection and characterization of aerosol, cloud, and surface parameters. In 2007 he returned to Colorado State as CIRA's Deputy Director and support of the NOAA/NESDIS Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Branch. In 2020 he became CIRA's forth Director, and joined the CSU Atmospheric Science Department Faculty. Today, he specializes in satellite-based environmental visualization and application development using optical spectrum imaging radiometers. He holds a particular passion for exploring the unique array of phenomena and associated signals of the nocturnal environment as detected by low-light visible sensors. Slides, Recordings Other Materials: available 24-48 hours following the seminar at this link https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/star/PastSeminars_NOCCG.php
Title: Using Global Navigation Satellite System Radio Occultation Measurements for Atmospheric Applications and Climate Monitoring ESSIC Seminar Series
Presenter(s): Shu-peng (Ben) Ho, GNSS RO Lead Scientist, NOAA/STAR
Abstract: The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Radio Occultation (RO) is an active remote sensing technique, which is complementary with the passive microwave (MW) and infrared (IR) sounders and microwave imagers. NESDIS decided that RO will be a long-term core observable treated the same as other satellite observations in NOAA. STAR has become one of the international satellite centers for leading RO processing and science. This study will present our current studies using GNSS RO measurements for atmospheric applications and climate monitoring. I will demonstrate that because RO data are not sensitive to clouds and precipitation, they can provide the global vertical thermal profile information above, within, and below clouds which are critical for understanding the cloud and water vapor feedback mechanism. In addition, I will also demonstrate that with a vertical resolution of ~200"600 meters, RO measurements are very useful for studying atmospheric processes, including the variation of tropopause height and planetary boundary layer height. Because the raw measurements for the RO technique are traceable to the standard unit of time, we can also use RO measurements as the on-orbit references for satellite instrument calibration. I will also highlight STAR RO climate studies summarized in the recent IPCC AR6 report.
Bio(s): Dr. Shu-peng (Ben) Ho is the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) radio occultation (RO) Lead Scientist and the Satellite Sounding Lead Scientist at NOAA Center for Satellite Applications & Research (STAR). He is responsible for leading the STAR GNSS RO and satellite sounding teams to develop state-of-the-art science data products and science applications using multiple RO missions and satellite infrared (IR) and microwave (MW) sounders. His research focuses on satellite remote sensing, atmospheric applications, and climate science studies. He is also the guest editor and on the editorial board of several international remote sensing journals, including the Journal of Remote Sensing. He has been on the steering committees and chair and co-chair of many GNSS RO international conferences. He is also a contributing author of the IPCC AR5 report and a co-chair of the Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Radiation Panel (GRP) water vapor profile climate data validation team. He is the recipient of the UCAR Outstanding Accomplishment Award for Scientific and Technical Advancement, the Special Contribution to UCAR COSMIC Mission Award, and the COSMIC Special Recognition Award for Interim Lead Scientist for COSMIC Program. He received the Ph. D. in atmospheric science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Abstract: This talk will consist of several parts documenting some of the recent developments related to the satellite ocean color and visualization, as well as new data products and imagery routinely produced by the NOAA Ocean Color Research Team. One of often forgotten, but nevertheless important data sets for ocean color derivation and visualization, especially over the coastal and inland waters, is consistent and up-to-date global land mask data. In this part of talk, we will present an updated global land mask data set for the satellite ocean color retrievals, and will briefly discuss the methodology of deriving an improved land mask data set from multiple existing data sources. False color imagery has been historically used in vegetation monitoring, and land-water surface mapping. It is also especially valuable in monitoring and mapping the regional extents of floating vegetation, such as Sargassum algae. Recently, global false color imagery derived from one year of VIIRS SNPP data was used for floating algae survey and monitoring at the global scale. Here, we show some of more striking examples from the global survey, and discuss potential applications of multi-year global false color imagery. Recent abundance of satellite imagery from multiple sensor platforms present new opportunities to combine and create new types of imagery. In this part, we will show how to produce the near-surface clear sky imagery from daily global multi-satellite imagery time series, and present several examples of applications, including monitoring the evolution of algae blooms. Finally, we will also review some new/enhanced functionality and features of the NOAA Ocean Color Viewer (OCView).
Speaker
Bio(s): Karlis Mikelsons is a research scientist at Global Science and Technology, working at the NOAA Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR), Ocean Color Research Team since joining NOAA at 2014. His research interests include satellite ocean color data analysis, algorithm development, and satellite and geospatial data visualization techniques. As part of his efforts at NOAA, Karlis developed the NOAA Ocean Color Viewer (OCView) web page. Karlis received MS and PhD degrees in physics from the University of Cincinnati, and performed a post-doctoral study at Georgetown University. Slides, Recordings Other Materials: available 24-48 hours following the seminar at this link https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/star/PastSeminars_NOCCG.php
Abstract: This talk will consist of several parts documenting some of the recent developments related to the satellite ocean color and visualization, as well as new data products and imagery routinely produced by the NOAA Ocean Color Research Team. One of often forgotten, but nevertheless important data sets for ocean color derivation and visualization, especially over the coastal and inland waters, is consistent and up-to-date global land mask data. In this part of talk, we will present an updated global land mask data set for the satellite ocean color retrievals, and will briefly discuss the methodology of deriving an improved land mask data set from multiple existing data sources. False color imagery has been historically used in vegetation monitoring, and land-water surface mapping. It is also especially valuable in monitoring and mapping the regional extents of floating vegetation, such as Sargassum algae. Recently, global false color imagery derived from one year of VIIRS SNPP data was used for floating algae survey and monitoring at the global scale. Here, we show some of more striking examples from the global survey, and discuss potential applications of multi-year global false color imagery. Recent abundance of satellite imagery from multiple sensor platforms present new opportunities to combine and create new types of imagery. In this part, we will show how to produce the near-surface clear sky imagery from daily global multi-satellite imagery time series, and present several examples of applications, including monitoring the evolution of algae blooms. Finally, we will also review some new/enhanced functionality and features of the NOAA Ocean Color Viewer (OCView).
Speaker
Bio(s): Karlis Mikelsons is a research scientist at Global Science and Technology, working at the NOAA Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR), Ocean Color Research Team since joining NOAA at 2014. His research interests include satellite ocean color data analysis, algorithm development, and satellite and geospatial data visualization techniques. As part of his efforts at NOAA, Karlis developed the NOAA Ocean Color Viewer (OCView) web page. Karlis received MS and PhD degrees in physics from the University of Cincinnati, and performed a post-doctoral study at Georgetown University. Slides, Recordings Other Materials: available 24-48 hours following the seminar at this link https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/star/PastSeminars_NOCCG.php
Abstract: The CoastWatch seminar series will feature 2 speakers per month on CoastWatch-related topics. Talks may be general or technical, concern operations or products, and will always be of interest to the CoastWatch user community and anyone interested in delivery of NOAA operational or experimental services.
The CoastWatch Data Portal is a collection of services that facilitate access and use of data. The Portal's map viewer is an online tool that allows visualization and exploration of many satellite oceanographic datasets leveraging services provided by THREDDS and ERDDAP. The portal viewer provides the ability to find data covering an area of interest, compare data from different time periods, subset and download data, plot point time-series, and much more.
Vertigo is a tool that is currently available in a beta form to everyone including NOAA users. The goal of the Vertigo project is to create an intuitive application for scientific data search and display. This tool is not yet advertised on the CoatWatch website but is on Github:https://github.com/phollemans/vertigo and feedback on it is requested.
Vertigo ties together scientific data of any kind from different data servers in a virtual globe environment and currently supports any THREDDS, ERDDAP, or OPeNDAP servers, CF-compliant NetCDF files including level 2 data, or tiled web map servers such as the STAR OCView (static images) site or ArcGIS and other tiled web map servers (dynamic images). The current development (beta 0.7 on the github link above) has these changes since the last 0.6 beta release: - Reorganization of the source code so that users can build and run their own copy of the latest beta version (instructions on Github) - Error logging window now available from within the application to help with beta development and user feedback - Added support for Mercator projection on ellipsoid Earth model (previously just spherical Earth) - Fixed window size and empty Earth display issues under Windows
Speaker
Bio(s): Michael Soracco, RIVA Solutions for NOAA, is the HelpDesk Coordinator for NOAA CoastWatch. He specializes in user access by developing and maintaining data products, the "data portal" and the CoastWatch helpdesk. He has served as a commissioned officer in the NOAA Corps where assignments included servicing equatorial moored buoys, conducting hydrographic surveys, and as a NESDIS operations officer. He supports CoastWatch through user engagement, training, and product development.
Peter Hollemans, Terrenus Earth Sciences, has been contracted to NOAA via RIVA Solutions and has been with NOAA's CoastWatch Central since 1997. He writes software for data processing, access, and visualization. Slides, Recordings Other Materials: available upon request
Abstract: NOAA's latest partnered satellite radar altimeter, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich (S6MF),entered routine operations on November 29 after a planned 12-month commissioning. STAR scientists supported the commissioning through leading multiple cal/val teams, completing cal/val work packages, and critical new algorithm development. These cal/val efforts are essential to NOAA users of sea level, wave heights, and wind speeds, and for a wide range of applications from marine wave and wind hazard warnings, hurricane intensity forecasting, coast inundation, marine debris mitigation, and fisheries management.Sentinel-6 was designed to operate in two altimeter modes, Low-Rate and High-Rate, which increased the complexity of the commissioning compared to its predecessor missions in the TOPEX/Jason series. During the development of Sentinel-6, NOAA Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry played a critical role that ensured that altimeter would interleave these modes to provide continuity in the sea surface record, which is essential to the goals of monitoring long-term sea level rise.In the seminar, STAR's unique contributions to the commissioning are highlighted.These include the application of a STAR-developed algorithm, Fully-Focused SAR, in the absolute range calibration. More critically, STAR scientists identified, developed, and delivered a critical correction in wave heights.
Bio(s): Dr. Eric Leuliette is the Branch Chief of the Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry (LSA) in the NESDIS Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR) in College Park, Maryland. The branch includes STAR's Sea Surface Height and Sea Ice science teams. As the NOAA Jason Program Scientist and Project Scientist, he co-chairs the Ocean Surface Topography Science Team and the Sentinel-6 Validation Team.
