- Success Stories
- Environmental Resource Assessment & Management
Organizing Teams to Monitor Coastal Contaminants
For nearly 40 years NOAA’s National Mussel Watch Program has been monitoring contaminants in coastal waters in over 400 sites around the U.S. by testing sediment and bivalves, such as oysters and mussels. A CSS employee owner organizes and coordinates the regional missions to collect and test samples. This includes developing a schedule and coordinating several teams to collect samples in different subregions for each region as well as shipping equipment and supplies needed for each of the team to carry out their tasks.
CSS employee owners work alongside federal program staff and local partners to collect samples throughout the regions. In fiscal year 2024 CSS staff deployed to the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific Ocean, which includes Alaska, Hawaii, and the West Coast. The team adds data they collect during these missions to the Coastal Pollution Data Explorer, a cloud-based ArcGIS platform that allows users to search by location or type of contaminant, generate a report, and download the data. A CSS employee owner serves as the lead developer for this online platform. Learn more about NOAA’s National Mussel Watch Program.
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Fire Detection Support
CSS provides fire detection support to the Atmospheric Science and Technology Applications team with NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Services. CSS Surface Characteristics Scientist serves on the Fire Emissions and Fire Detection teams, providing data manipulation, algorithm development, and performance evaluation for the system. This ensures fast and reliable satellite data to stakeholders,…
An Approach to Assessing Laboratory Space
CSS employee owners were part of a team of scientists at the National Institutes of Health who developed an approach to evaluating new laboratory space to determine if the space will fit operational needs. This concept, titled The BaseLINE Approach, combines traditional safety processes with additional safety and environmental factors to assess before operations begin.…
Fueling NOAA’s Scientific Partnerships
Maintaining NOAA’s active global climate tracking requires seamless collaboration with top-tier universities, research labs, and private contractors. In support of NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, CSS program manager for Climate Data Records (CDR) has managed complex budget plans and contract modifications, securing crucial funding for essential climate variables. This effort directly preserved funding for CRDs including the Total Solar Irradiance CDR (which measures the Sun’s energy…