CIMMS/ESE Seminar: Virtual Observatory for Coastal Science and Applications

Dr. Yi Chao, JPL

More than 2000 drifter buoys have been deployed as part of
the Global Ocean Observing System. Multiple orbiting
satellites are monitoring the world ocean and returning
data to scientists' desktops almost in real-time. With the
proposed FY07 start of the Major
Research Equipment Facility at NSF, the Ocean Observing
Initiative (as part of the Orion program) will further
enhance the existing observing network and introduce many
new sensors and platforms into the ocean observatory.?
These new data constantly challenge theoreticians with new
hypotheses, and will ultimately enable ocean forecasting to
become as routine as today's regional and global weather
predictions.

In this talk, I will review the essential elements of the
emerging Integrated Ocean
Observing System and its associated virtual observatory (or
cyberinfrastructure).? A recent field experiment that
explored the implementation of such an ocean observatory
for Monterey Bay, California, will be described. The
synthesis of results from state-of-the-art ocean sensors,
numerical models and data assimilation systems enabling
real-time forecasting will be presented. Future challenges
in scaling up the Monterey Bay observatory to the global
scale and operating the proposed integrated ocean
observatory in an interdisciplinary environment will also
be discussed.



[ Refreshments are served in the Keck lobby at 3:40 p.m.]




For more information see: http://www.ese.caltech.edu/seminars/index.html