National Aeronautics and Space Administration

This once-in-a-decade meeting brought together scientists, engineers, researchers, modelers, policy makers, end users, and representatives from communities whose lives are closely tied to the well-being of the world oceans. The conference seeks to determine how we meet future user needs, improve the delivery of products across the globe, advance technology and services, and balance needs, capabilities, and knowledge worldwide. Achieving these outcomes will result in a fit-for-purpose Global Ocean Observing System over the next decade. The OceanObs’19 conference was held in Honolulu, Hawaii from September 16-20, 2019.

GMAO’s Eric Hackert, Santha Akella, Anna Borovikov, and Robin Kovach gave poster presentations, and Santha also co-chaired a session and gave an inspirational talk at the Ocean Art Stage.

In front of his poster, Eric Hackert talks with Yosuke Fujii, who is the lead for the Joint Observing System Evaluation & Coupled Prediction Task Team. The team is part of Tropical Pacific Observing System (TPOS2020) Observing System Experiment group. Eric’s posters was titled "Observing System Experiments for Evaluating the Impact of Satellite Sea Surface Salinity on Seasonal Prediction from the GMAO S2S System."

Santha Akella gave a short talk on the Ocean Art Stage about his drawing, “What would my son see?”, and what inspired him to create it. Santha also presented the poster, “Diurnal Cycles in SST: Coupled Data Assimilation and Future Observational Requirements.”

The Kupaianaha (wonderful, amazing) event celebrated how local and indigenous communities can teach the ocean observing community how to set the pace for innovative marine resource management. In addition to remarks from key leaders, it included a traditional chant, hula, conch blowing and a performance by award winning local vocalist and Grammy nominee Raiatea Helm and her band.

The OceanObs’19 conference hosted a luau and in this photo, Robin and Anna stand with Dr. Eric Lindstrom (NASA Headquarters) holding the ceremonial paddle. The paddle was given as a gift during the Kupaianaha Indigenous Event and used during the conference to prod people back to the room after breaks

Anna Borovikov is joined by Rachel Killick from the United Kingdom’s Met Office in front of Anna’s poster “GEOS seasonal forecast systems: ENSO prediction skills and biases. Two system versions, two time periods.”

Robin Kovach takes a minute to pose in front of her poster, “Assessment of Sea Surface Salinity Products Using a Coupled ENSO Prediction Model.”

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