Ocean Thinking: Inside and Outside the Box Webinar Series Has Far-Reaching Effect - 10.03.2013

During the month of September 2013, COSEE-OS staff engaged with three scientists in a webinar series entitled Ocean Thinking: Inside and Outside the Box. Through the use of an innovative concept-mapping tool, these research scientists and COSEE-OS were able to disseminate three ocean salinity projects to a wide audience, reaching 84 participants from 22 states and 3 countries.

Participants heard from Julius Busecke, a PhD candidate at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory; Dr. Steve Riser, a professor at the University of Washington; and finally, Dr. Tom Farrar, a research scientist based out of WHOI. COSEE-OS worked closely with these scientists to create presentations that were both informative and interesting to the public, while keeping the science understandable to a general audience. Topics ranged from the observation of water movement into and out of the SPURS region; what an Argo profiling float is and what it’s measuring; as well as a discussion about “salt budgets” in the ocean and how a stationary mooring can help us calculate that budget. Engagement for this series was high, with a lively Q&A session following each webinar and a 32% retention rate (participants who attended 2 or more of the webinars in the series).

The Salinity Processes in the Upper Ocean Regional Study (SPURS) represents the collaborative efforts of a diverse group of scientists spanning national and international borders, from multiple organizations. These include, but are not limited to, physical oceanography experts and climate scientists from NASA, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and research professors from The University of North Carolina, Wilmington, to name a few.

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