Sargasso Sea Commission Sponsors NASA Mapping Workshop

Participants in Sargasso Sea COVERAGE Pilot Project Workshop (20-22 March 2016)

Acknowledgement: Workshop funded by NASA grant NNX16AD10G

NASA Workshop Group 2016

Sargasso Sea Commission - Jet Propulsion Laboratory - NASA Workshop

Overview of Workshop

The COVERAGE-Sargasso Sea Workshop was held 21-22 March, 2016 at the NOAA Eco-Discovery Center, Key West, Florida. The workshop involved expert presentations on COVERAGE and issues of heightened relevance for the Sargasso Sea region followed by a series of focused group discussions with the objective of developing consensus recommendations on priorities for the future advancement of COVERAGE-Sargasso Sea application. The 36 participants included members of the scientific community as well as the Sargasso Sea Commission and representatives of the 6 governments that signed the Hamilton Declaration on Collaboration for the Conservation of the Sargasso Sea in 2014. The specific objectives of the workshop were to expose the COVERAGE-Sargasso Sea pilot project to peer review and comment; to examine the utility of COVERAGE to illuminate the relationship between ocean conditions and uses of the Sargasso Sea; and identify the high-priority applications for COVERAGE to enable “use cases” for future implementation. The Workshop started with a demonstration by the JPL team of the prototype NASA COVERAGE-Sargasso Sea product and with presentations from the researchers present of the work they are doing relevant to this project. After breakout sessions the Commission/government representatives group developed a list of desiderata for the project and the science group prepared a detailed list of technical recommendations. The plenary then developed a set of Overall Recommendations. These identify three issues of priority concern – “Ships and Sargassum,” “Organisms and their Environment” and “Fishing and the Environment,” together with a number of additional detailed recommendations and follow up items.

Background on COVERAGE

COVERAGE was initiated in a CEOS Strategic Implementation Team meeting in Pasadena in 2013 with the longer term aim of fusing ocean data into a single product, available in near-real-time, including climatologies, and allowing for the inclusion of emerging in situ data sets (e.g. ship tracking, animal tagging, etc.). The intent is to build a project that brings together 4 CEOS Ocean Constellations, enables broad international participation, facilitates broad use of ocean satellite data, and utilizes emerging data management and cloud capabilities. The Sargasso Sea was identified as a NASA pilot project to ensure that the development is user-driven and effective. This resulted in a prototype application for the Sargasso Sea Commission (SSC), that was presented publicly during the NASA supported COVERAGE-Sargasso workshop. Beyond the Sargasso Sea, the aim is to present COVERAGE to the CEOS SIT with plans for CEOS (global) engagement, real-time implementation, based on a priority-set of use cases. A spinoff would be a global product with near-real-time capabilities.

COVERAGE-SARGASSO Workshop
The COVERAGE-Sargasso workshop was held between March 21-22, 2016 and hosted at the NOAA Eco-Discovery Center, Keys, Florida. It involved the participation of 6 SSC Commission members and the Secretariat, international Government participation (including UK, USA, Bermuda, BVI, Bahamas, Azores, Monaco), and 22 invited scientists and engineers from diverse agencies including NASA, NOAA, and from academia. A detailed list of workshop participants with affiliations is given in appendix 2. The workshop was organized and led by Dr David Freestone (SSC Executive Secretary) and Dr Eric Lindstrom (NASA Physical Oceanography Program Manager).

The specific objectives of the workshop were to:

· Expose the COVERAGE pilot project to peer review and comment.

· Examine utility of COVERAGE to illuminate the relationship between ocean conditions and uses of the Sargasso Sea.

· Identify the high-priority applications for COVERAGE to enable “use cases” for future implementation.