NSF Ocean Sciences Office Hours
September 30, 3-4:30 PM (ET)
Staff and division leadership will share information and updates on preparing proposals, address commonly asked questions, and answer yours. These office hours webinars will not be recorded.
Register https://nsf.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_yu5jE4EWQl2FyUZ1x2LEAw?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery#/registration
OCB is seeking nominations for new Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) members, including a new early career member! The term begins in January 2026. The following SSC members are scheduled to rotate off at the end of 2025:
We are especially interested in filling the following expertise gaps:
To qualify for the early career spot, a nominee must have completed a PhD within the last 4 years; both postdoctoral researchers and new faculty members are eligible. For the early career nominees who are currently postdocs, a letter of support from the nominee’s postdoctoral advisor is required in addition to filling out the nomination form. This letter of support should be sent to hbenway@whoi.edu.
Please consider casting a wide net in submitting nominations. We are seeking to entrain a broad range of voices and ideas in OCB! Nominees can be from any US-based institution (including Univ. Puerto Rico, Univ. Virgin Islands or in other US territories). Please submit nomination(s) (self-nominations are welcome) HERE by November 21. All nominees’ 2-page abbreviated CVs should be sent to hbenway@whoi.edu.
Nominees are primarily evaluated based on their science expertise (relative to emerging expertise gaps) and their leadership potential. We encourage re-nomination if a prior nomination round was not successful. Note that many SSC members are nominated multiple times before becoming members. OCB SSC members serve a 3-year term. To learn more about what the OCB SSC is/does, please visit the SSC page of the OCB website and feel free to reach out to current SSC members about time commitment and their experiences as SSC members.
Thank you for being a part of OCB2025 online Summer Science Workshop for a week of science, connection, and community - June 2-6.
Your watch recordings of the workshop on the OCB YouTube channel.
OCB2025 plenary sessions
Constraining the dark ocean carbon cycle: Implications for ocean carbon budgets? (Co-chairs: Anne Dekas, Anela Choy, Jeff Bowman, Randie Bundy)
Rivers to coasts: Biogeochemical linkages and environmental resilience (joint with North American Carbon Program) (Co-chairs: Fei Da, Kanchan Maiti, Shaily Rahman, Libby Larson, David Butman)
Rapidly changing systems (Co-chairs: Kristen Krumhardt, Rachel Stanley, Melissa Melendez)
Bridging scales in the ocean carbon cycle (Co-chairs: Zachary Erickson, Tim DeVries, Roo Nicholson, Daniel Whitt, Dreux Chappell
Learn more and see the schedule
California Ocean Science Trust, in collaboration with a network of partners across the U.S West Coast and Alaska, is conducting a survey to assess the need for and inform the development of a regional marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) exchange/network. Building on existing networks and progress made by the Pacific Northwest and California Current Regional mCDR Nodes, and informed by the results of this survey, the regional exchange/network may build institutional science capacity, coordinate timely information exchange, highlight collaborative research opportunities, and provide science-based guidance to inform responsible policy on mCDR.
The goals of this survey are to
This survey is primarily intended for organizations or individuals with scientific and technical expertise, but interested parties from all sectors or backgrounds are invited and encouraged to respond.
Survey responses will be compiled and analyzed by the California Ocean Science Trust. All information received through survey analyses will be shared in an aggregated format; no information shared publicly will be traceable to any individual respondent or institution.
This survey should take 5-15 minutes to complete. If you have questions about this survey or the regional science exchange/network, please reach out to us at: mCDR@oceansciencetrust.org.
Your input is valuable to us. Thank you!
The Leaky Deltas OCB workshop was held 17-20 March 2025 at Louisiana State University, in Baton Rouge, USA, which is situated within the Mississippi River delta. We brought together 57 members of the research community who study river deltas in the context of the global carbon cycle. The goal of the workshop was to create a community consensus on the state of delta carbon cycle science, identify critical knowledge gaps, and brainstorm opportunities and priorities for future research efforts. Participants ranged in career stage from graduate student to senior scientist, and from disciplines ranging from biogeochemistry to geomorphology, river scientists to oceanographers; and scientists using a variety of methodological approaches.
The workshop included five oral sessions, four breakout sessions, numerous opportunities for discussion over meals and coffee breaks, a trip to the LSU Center for River Studies, and a workshop dinner. The breakout sessions were formatted to encourage discussion among interdisciplinary groups of scientists at different career stages. During breakout session 1, participants were randomly assigned to groups that spanned career stages and expertise. This session was aimed at identifying grand challenges in delta carbon cycle science. Breakout session 2 had a disciplinary focus, where we broke out into groups of biogeochemistry, geomorphology, modeling, and ecosystems. Breakout session 3 was broken out into groups based on physical domains of the delta: river, wetlands, subaqueous delta, shelf, and continental slope. A highlight of day three was a field trip to the LSU Center for River Studies, where workshop participants were guided on a tour of the historical changes of the Mississippi River Delta, as well as the large-scale physical model of the delta. On the fourth and final day of the workshop, we had short break-out sessions and reconvened as a whole to synthesize ideas and circle back to the workshop objectives.
In summary, the workshop resulted in a consensus on the key knowledge gaps and research grand challenges, which included constraining the composition of organic matter, the timescales of geomorphic processes, biogeochemical reaction rates, impacts of human perturbations and extreme events, and challenges in monitoring deltaic processes. Workshop participants now have the task of writing a position paper that summarizes these grand research challenges, identifies the data needed to address these challenges, and recommends a framework and directions for future research. One outcome of the workshop included the structure and organization for this paper. The early career workshop participants will also lead an early-career-led perspective paper that discusses ideas for integrating new technologies and methodologies to address these grand challenges and identifies future challenges for the delta science community.
The NASA Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) Project and Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry (OCB) Program are hosting a second PACE Data Hackweek. This is a one-week social coding event that will include a combination of lectures, tutorials, and project work (data processing and analysis) that will kick-start research using the Earth science data streams generated by the OCI, SPEXone, and HARP2 instruments on board the observatory. Other projects that combine PACE data with other satellite data, such as from EarthCARE, TROPOMI, or SWOT are also encouraged. Participants will gain behind-the-scenes access to all aspects of PACE.
3-7 August 2025
University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)
Learn more and apply by March 24
Introduction to Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem (PACE) Hyperspectral Observations for Water Quality Monitoring
This online, introductory course will be cost-free and have three, 1.5-hour parts:
Part 1: Introduction to the PACE Mission for Water Quality Monitoring (September 25th)
Part 2: Overview, Access, and Analysis of PACE Ocean Color Data Products (October 2nd)
Part 3: Access and Visualization of PACE-OCI Data using Python/Jupyter Notebook Software (October 9th)
Registration is now open – course will be offered in English AND Spanish!
For more information and to register visit:
NASA’s ARSET program offers free, online training on using Earth Observations for decision making that are open to the public. Courses are designed for a broad audience, ranging from introductory to advanced. For more on ARSET and to see their wealth of upcoming and previous trainings, please visit their website.
Michelle Wagner is in her first year of master’s study at the City College of New York. Her research interest is in monitoring the responses of coastal systems to natural and anthropogenic stressors. After graduating from the City College of New York, Michelle joined the Tzortziou Bio-optics lab at CCNY. Her work utilized HPLC and microscopic analysis as well remote sensing data to characterize seasonal shifts in phytoplankton community composition in the Long Island Sound estuary and increasing intensity in red tide events and other HABS.
I am very happy to have been a part of the Cornell 2024 Satellite Remote Sensing Training Program this summer. As someone who is new to the world of satellite data processing, I could not have asked for a better introduction. Dr. Monger’s strong expertise as well as his guidance and encouragement gave me the confidence to tackle hard problems. The course not only introduced me to Python programming but also provided a range of tools for handling satellite data. It significantly broadened my perspective and deepened my understanding of satellite remote sensing. I really enjoyed this course and would recommend it to anyone pursuing satellite remote sensing and ocean color analysis. I would like to say thank you to Dr. Bruce Monger and OCB for this amazing experience!
Alba Guzmán Morales was born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. She received her B.S. in Biology and M.S. in Biological Oceanography from the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez Campus in 2019 and 2024, respectively. Her research focused on using satellite imagery to study water clarity trends in Puerto Rico to evaluate management efforts in a watershed. As a NOAA Cooperative Science Center in Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Fellow, she evaluated the applicability of a NOAA Kd490 product by comparing it with in situ Kd490. She has also been involved in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle research to measure salinity.
Cornell's Satellite Remote Sensing course was what I expected and more. While I had previous experience processing satellite data the course provided me with tools I hadn’t yet had the opportunity to use in my work. It was amazing to process and visualize L1 to L2 ocean color, SST, wind, and altimetry data. I am deeply thankful to the great instructors Dr. Bruce Monger and Jillian Steinmetz, to the colleagues I met during the course as well as OCB for supporting this opportunity. Let the research continue!
Kiwanuka Moses: I’m a second-year Earth Systems Science PhD Student working under Dr. Sridhar Maruthi Balaji Bhaskar at Florida International University. My research uses remote sensing and machine learning to estimate water quality parameters for inland lakes (Okeechobee and Victoria). The goal is to develop monitoring algorithms based on Landsat 8 OLI and Sentinel 2 MSI images. These models will be correlated with results from NASA SeaDAS software.
The Cornell Satellite Remote Sensing course was a great experience. I learned multiple ways of downloading datasets, cleaning them, and channeling them to a particular study area. I also learned how to use Python command lines for image processing using NASA SeaDAS and better understood the different components of oceanography (Physical and biological) as a field. There was a great improvement in my programming skills. I enjoyed every moment with Dr. Bruce Monger and Ms. Jillian Elaine, the TA. Their patience regarding the questions directed at them was exceptional. I recommend this course to anyone interested in remote sensing and ocean color. Special thanks to Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) for the sponsorship and for making this a reality for me.
María del Alma Concepción Rodríguez's journey into water resources began during her undergraduate studies at the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico. Earning a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and a master’s in environmental management, she immersed herself in internships and projects related to the water industry. These experiences profoundly impacted her, highlighting water's vital role as the driving force of nature and the center of life.
As she advanced to her PhD in Civil Engineering, now going into her third year, María del Alma’s passion for water conservation grew stronger. She became particularly concerned about the potential contamination from regulated wastewater disposals in the waters surrounding the Caribbean Island of Puerto Rico. This concern sparked a compelling desire to delve deeper into understanding their impacts. Her doctoral research is a testament to this dedication. It focuses on how effluent discharges affect oceanic waters and aims to develop a comprehensive evaluation methodology. María del Alma leverages innovative GIS techniques to identify contamination hotspots through spatial data analysis. Her goal is to create geospatial models that visualize current and future scenarios, providing a clearer picture of the potential impacts on our waters.
Through her work, María del Alma strives to protect and conserve our natural environment, recognizing that safeguarding water resources is not just important but essential.
Imagine learning about the intricacies of satellite remote sensing while collaborating with peers, all within the vibrant academic atmosphere of Cornell University—that was my experience in a nutshell. The 2024 Cornell Satellite Remote Sensing Summer Course was an enriching experience that deepened my technical knowledge and connected me with a network of passionate individuals in the remote sensing community. The course’s rigorous curriculum laid a strong foundation for my understanding of the field and opened my eyes to the vast remote sensing applications. We delved into the core principles of remote sensing, how the satellite data is collected, and the processing of such data using coding. Dr. Bruce Monger was an excellent instructor who guided us throughout the course while getting a better understanding of each of our investigations. Teaching assistant Jillian Steinmetz was knowledgeable and always willing to assist us. The course featured lectures and hands-on workshops where you were given exercises to work on the computer using Python and SeaDAS to understand the processing of satellite imagery. One of the most exciting moments of the course was the hands-on experience with satellite data—using advanced software to process and analyze the data and turn the raw information into meaningful insights for my PhD research. Participating in the 2024 Cornell Satellite Remote Sensing Training Program was a transformative experience that broadened my horizons and passion for using innovative technology in real-world water applications.
Registration will open in early April
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Funding for the Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry Project Office is provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The OCB Project Office is housed at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
