R -- Industry Day - Creating an Integrated Ocean Observing System

OFFICE OF OCEAN.US INTEGRATED OCEAN OBSERVING SYSTEM (IOOS) INDUSTRY DAY Office of Ocean.US, 2300 Clarendon Blvd., Arlington, VA 22217-5660 CONTACT: Andrew M. Clark, Industry Liaison for Ocean.US (703) 588-0846; aclark@ocean.us DESCRIPTION: The Office of Ocean.US (Ocean.US) announces a briefing for interested organizations concerning plans to design, develop, fabricate, install and operate the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS). The IOOS is in the exploratory planning phase and all interested parties are invited to provide input, ideas, concepts and suggestions toward ensuring its effective development. Ocean.US is an interagency program office (www.ocean.us) established to develop the IOOS. The U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) is intended to be a - user-driven integrated network to include ocean observatories, data telemetry, data management and communication, systems and data analysis and modeling tools that reliably and continuously provide the data and information that is required to achieve the seven IOOS societal goals: (1) Improve predictions of climate change and weather and their effects on coastal communities and the nation; (2) Improve the safety and efficiency of marine operations; (3) More effectively mitigate the effects of natural hazards; (4) Improve national and homeland security; (5) Reduce public health risks; (6) More effectively protect and restore healthy coastal marine ecosystems; and (7) Enable the sustained use of marine resources. The IOOS is intended to become a national asset. IOOS may be characterized as a - network centric, system-of-systems. This large scale network will incorporate oceanographic, meteorological and atmospheric sensors offshore and onshore, sub sea and at sea surface, the equipment and telemetry methods to transmit this data first to shore and then through a national terrestrial network. Central to the IOOS will be an information system (IS) that includes the hardware, software, middleware and storage capacity to collect, analyze, archive, distribute and disseminate the IOOS data. It is intended that portals will be developed to allow contributors around the nation to input their data and that the data will be made available through graphical user interfaces (GUIs) in order that users in the private sector, academia and the government may access it. It is the goal of Ocean.US to completely characterize all components required to address these goals and solicit from industry input and best commercial practices that will help to achieve them. The industry brief will be held at the Hall of Flags, at the US Chamber of Commerce Bldg. located near the White House at 1615 H street NW, Washington, D.C., 20062-2000 Admission is controlled and the material to be presented at the IOOS industry brief will be unclassified. To attend this event, register online at www.oceanusmeeting.com. Phone or fax requests for registration material can be made to: Mr. Gil Donohue, PH: 703-442-7727; FX: 703-442-8199. Include names of all attendees (3 maximum). Attendance is limited to three per company/organization. Suggested attendees: Senior Technologist, Business Development, and Government Relations. Upon receipt of the completed IOOS Registration Package, potential attendees will receive a confirmation notice and other relevant information. Interested parties are reminded that no one will be admitted to the industry brief without this confirmation. Requests to attend this briefing must be received no later than 1600 EDT Friday 11 March 2005. Only individuals who have submitted their registration and clearance information by 1600 EDT on 11 March 2005 and have received approval will be allowed to attend the IOOS Industry Day on 18 March 2005. KEY WORDS: oceanographic, sensors, offshore, network centric, emergency management, insurance/reinsurance, system of systems, telemetry, software, middleware, metaware, large scale network, GUI, subsea, remote sensing, database, archive, maritime, numerical model, atmospheric, observing, integrated, grid, metaware, ontology, global earth observing, remote sensing, oil and gas.