Congratulations to AOOS, NANOOS, and PacIOOS for receiving funds for a new project under the National Science Foundation’s Convergence Accelerator program. These three U.S. IOOS Regional Associations are collaborating with Sofar Ocean, a lower-cost buoy and sensor company, to improve access to ocean data for Indigenous communities.
Indigenous coastal communities have depended on ocean resources for food, transportation and their livelihoods for over a millennia. Climate change is creating more unpredictable conditions such as changes in waves, sea level, temperature, and other factors that have a profound impact on communities.
The goal of the project is to provide oceanographic data and information to Indigenous communities through the design, deployment and operation of lower cost instrumentation. Through a co-design process, the partners will design, deploy and maintain lower-cost instruments such as wave buoys, providing new tools and information at locally relevant scales.
