The NODC is the nation’s archive and distribution center

for U.S. coastal and global ocean data. It supports the

strategic goals of the U.S. Department of Commerce and

the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

This 1998 International Year of the Ocean has been a time of substantial challenges, change and accomplishments at the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC). We redirected resources to form a new Coastal

Ocean Laboratory while fully supporting NODC’s deep ocean data management activities. We also welcomed the Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry, whose expertise is recognized at the highest levels. Dr. Susan

F. Zevin joined the National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service (NESDIS) in July in a

newly created position of Deputy Assistant Administrator for Environmental Information Services. This

addition to the NESDIS Senior Executive staff provides a higher level of visibility and management support

for NODC.

I am proud of the diligent and expert NODC staff and of their accomplishments in 1998. With new science

staff members brought on board this year to enrich NODC, I am certain that we will experience substantial

accomplishments in 1999. Most importantly, we will be well prepared to enter the 21st Century with a

highly capable and effective NODC.

Henry R. Frey, Ph.D.

Director

October 1, 1998

Message from the Director
LATEX

The Louisiana-Texas Shelf Physical Oceanography

Program (LATEX) was a six-year initiative to identify key

dynamical processes governing the circulation, transport,

and cross-shelf mixing of the waters on the Texas-Louisiana shelf. Sponsored by the Minerals Management Service (MMS) of the Department of the Interior, LATEX is

the largest shelf physical oceanography research project

yet undertaken. Data from the project are available from

NODC on a 5-disk CD-ROM set.

NODC’s Role in the NOAA

Virtual Data System

NODC actively participated in development of the

NOAA Virtual Data System (NVDS) that is scheduled for

completion in 2000. The NVDS is a logically-centralized

physically-distributed system that will enable users to

search, access, browse, and download oceanographic, climatological, and geophysical data through a single query

point.

In support of NVDS goals, NODC: upgraded its information technology infrastructure; lead the NVDS team

to provide common tools to monitor system and network

operation; developed a system to provide FGDC-compliant metadata to the NVDS server; hosted the operating

COMPS (Customer Order Management and Processing

System) operation, including credit card ordering; and,

placed six NODC datasets online.

Interactive Data Access and

Retrieval

The Interactive Data Access and Retrieval System

(IDARS) is in advanced stages of development. Its goal is

to provide a common graphical user interface-based tool

that allows visual browsing of many types of data online.

Users may also view graphical representations of data.

IDARS is supporting the NVDS development.

NVDS data searches which link to NODC servers will tie

into IDARS data

display and graphical capabilities.

NOAA Buoy Data

retrieved through

NVDS may now

be displayed

graphically

through IDARS.

New Data Products

Ocean Profile Database

Access to over 8 million profiles is available

through NODC’s web page. Customers may search

geographic regions and time periods for data from this

integrated database and download up to 500 profiles

per query. Data from BT, STD, CTD, and bottle

samples are combined in the database, and include

measurements of 22 parameters.

World Ocean

Database 1998

NODC’s Ocean

Climate Laboratory (OCL) released World

Ocean Database

1998 (WOD98).

This product expands on World

Ocean Atlas 1994

(WOA94) by including nitrite,

pH, alkalinity,

chlorophyll, and

plankton, as well as all available metadata and meteorology and atlases of data distributions. WOD98 is an

International Year of the Ocean product.

World Ocean Circulation Experiment Global Data

on CD-ROM

NODC, working with the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) Data Products Committee,

distributed the WOCE Global Data Version 1.0 data

set on CD-ROM. The dataset includes hydrographic

data (with surface meteorology and bathymetry), upper ocean temperature, moored current meter, subsurface float, surface drifter, acoustic doppler current

profiles, sea level, and satellite altimetry and temperature. All CDs include documentation and products, as

well as data, and can be accessed with an Internet

browser.
eter data to monitor the 97-98 El Niño event. For that

work, the Laboratory received the Department of

Commerce’s highest award, the Gold Medal.

• The Director is serving as the Technical Program

Chairman for the Marine Technology Society’s Ocean

Community Conference ’98 to be held at Baltimore,

Maryland, in November 1998.

• Dr. Frey accepted an invitation to serve on the Steering Committee of the U.S. Coastal Component of the Global Ocean Observing System (C-GOOS).

International Activities

Mr. Harrison Ong’anda, Mombasa, Kenya, completed

2 months of IOC-funded training at NODC in November

1997. He was given hands-on training and experience in

the functions of NODC. His final product was a data management plan for the Kenya National Oceanographic Data

Centre.

A senior delegation of the State Oceanic Administration of the People’s Republic of China visited NODC on

May 5. During discussions, SOA expressed interest in exchanging information about the management of coral reef

data, and data for marine environmental monitoring and

protection. The delegation was led by SOA Administrator

Zhang Dengyi and included Prof. Chao Jiping (Honorary

Highlights

• To strengthen

NODC’s responsiveness to the nation’s

needs for coastal data

and information, the

Coastal Ocean Laboratory was formed.

Seven physical and

chemical coastal

oceanographers were

recruited. Meetings

of the NOAA Coastal

Ocean Data Working

Groups resulted in stakeholders’ requirements and a

plan to focus on priority issues.

• The Interagency Taxonomic Information System

(ITIS), which was developed from the NODC Taxonomic Code file, was awarded Vice President Gore’s

Hammer Award for improved efficiency in the Federal Government. ITIS is a multi-agency partnership

cooperating on the development of an on-line, scientifically credible, list of biological names focusing on the

biota of North America. See http://www.itis.usda.gov.

• The NOAA Library, housed in NODC, opened

access to its WINDandSEA, the oceanic and atmospheric sciences Internet locator. Presently WINDand

SEA has over 800 selected links to science and policy

sites organized by topic and alphabetically within

topic. See http://www.lib.noaa.gov.

• The NOAA Central Library continued its leadership role in the newly formed organization, Atmospheric Science Librarians International (ASLI) by

maintaining the organization’s homepage at http://

www.lib.noaa.gov/asli/asli.html and providing up-todate information. Library staff coordinated the

organization’s program at the annual meeting of the

American Meteorological Society.

• NODC merged the contents of its separate ocean

profile data bases into a single, on-line Ocean Profile

Data Base.

More than 8

million profiles are accessible.

• The

Laboratory

for Satellite

Altimetry

provided national leadership in the

use of altimDirector, National Marine Environment Forecasting Center), and six members of SOA staff. Other scientists from

Russia, South Africa, Japan, and the Ukraine visited

NODC for briefings, data exchange, and collaborative

research. Additional activities engaged in by members of

NODC include:

• Janice Beattie of the NOAA Central Library was reelected as chair of the Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries

(ASFA) Advisory Board, which is co-sponsored by the

United Nations International Oceanographic Commission.

• Robert Gelfeld, Ocean Climate Laboratory, was elected

to chair the Working Group on Marine Data Management,

of the International Council for Exploration of the Seas.

• Dr. Frey led a delegation to the Sixth Working Group

on U.S.-P.R.C. Data Cooperation at Beijing.

• World Data Center A (Oceanography) published an

atlas of the Barents Sea in collaboration with Russian institutions. Atlases in other regions are planned for the

“International Ocean Atlas Series”.
National Oceanographic Data Center

SSMC3, 4th Floor

1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring MD 20910

http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/

New

Staff

Kurt Schnebele -

Deputy Director,

NODC. B.S. and

M.S. in oceanography from the

University of

Washington and

the Naval Postgraduate School, respectively. He has over 30

years experience in oceanography and program management.

As a NOAA Corps officer, he served on five NOAA Ships, the

last two as Commanding Officer. Most recently, he was Executive Director of the NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.

Wayne Wilmot - Chief, Coastal Ocean Laboratory. B.S. in

Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland; PhD in

Oceanography from the University of Washington; M.S. in

Technical Systems management from Johns Hopkins University. He has 26 years experience in coastal physical oceanographic field studies, numerical modeling, ecosystem

dynamics, and systems development for observation and

simulation systems.

Catherine Stephens - Physical Scientist (Ocean Climate Laboratory). B.S. and M.S. in Meteorology from Florida State University. Previous work includes 4 years at NASA Goddard

working on improving a coupled ocean/atmospheric model.

At the OCL, she is helping to create a blended chlorophyll

dataset, and establishing statistical methods necessary to

blend in-situ and satellite chlorophyll data.

L. Charles Sun - Oceanographer (Coastal Ocean Laboratory).

B.S. in Oceanography from National Taiwan Ocean University;

M.S. in Physical Oceanography from National Taiwan University; Ph.D. in Physical Oceanography from North Carolina

State University. His areas of expertise are multi-variate

analysis of oceanographic data, numerical modeling, data

assimilation, Web information dissemination, graphics and

visualization.

Michelle Paraso - Oceanographer (Coastal Ocean Laboratory). B.S. in Marine Science Biology from Long Island University; M.S. in Oceanography (biological and physical) from Old

Dominion University. She is leading the development of a

hazardous algal bloom database at NODC.

Margaret M. Deksheneiks - Oceanographer (Coastal Ocean

Laboratory). B.A. in Environmental Science from the University of Virginia; M.S. in Biological Oceanography and PhD in

Physical Oceanography from Old Dominion University. She is

studying conditions for thin layer algal blooms, and will develop applications of the hazardous algal bloom database at

NODC.

John Holdzkom - Oceanographer (Coastal Ocean Laboratory).

B.S. in Physics and PhD in Physical Oceanography from Old

Dominion University. He is ingesting physical oceanographic

data into on-line databases, and building systems to assimilate in-situ and remotely sensed data into numerical models

for coastal oceans.

Steven Rutz - Oceanographer (Coastal Ocean Laboratory).

B.S. in Geological Oceanography from the University of Michigan; M.S. in Marine Science from the University of South Carolina.

He is building coastal ocean physical oceanographic databases.

Michael Ford - Oceanographer (Coastal Ocean Laboratory). B.S. in

Biology from Providence College; M.S. in Biological Oceanography

from the University of Connecticut. Michael is building coastal

ocean plankton databases.

Diana Abney - Technical Information Specialist (NOAA Central Library). B.A. in Library Science from the University of the District of

Columbia. She accepted into an upward mobility program with

emphasis on digitization and processing of library material.

Albert E. Theberge - Technical Information Specialist (NOAA Central Library). M.S. in Management from the Naval Postgraduate

School and 27 years as a NOAA Commissioned Officer. He joined

the library’s Reference team providing information on NOAA and

NOAA-related subjects for the public and staff at the Silver Spring

campus.

Lynda Warden - Secretary (NOAA Central Library). She provides

secretarial support to the NOAA Central Library and the Laboratory

for Satellite Altimetry.

FY 99 Plan

• Ensure that all data sets obtained by NODC are

archived.

• Expand the amount of data available online.

• Provide increased access to cross-discipline data sets

through the NOAA Virtual Data System.

• Publish the World Ocean Atlas, a twelve-volume set

of data distributions and analyses.

• Sponsor a workshop on the Global Ocean Data Archeology and Rescue Program (GODAR) to review

accomplishments and provide direction for the future.

• Co-sponsor a workshop on Coral Reef Data Management in support of the President’s Executive Order on

Coral Reef Protection.

• Publish GEOSAT altimeter and ERS1/2 marine gravity field products

• Develop a coral reef data base.

• Develop a harmful algal bloom database.