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IOOS Regional Associations — deep dives

Quick-start guides for each of the eleven U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System Regional Associations.

What this teaches

  • The 11 IOOS RAs and what each one is best at
  • A consistent pattern for exploring any regional ocean observing system

Sources used: all IOOS RA collections

The eleven RAs

The current AQUAVIEW catalog item count for each, ordered by coverage (live snapshot from aggregate(collection_frequency)):

RA Collection ID Region Items in AQUAVIEW
Southeast Coastal OOS SECOORA SE U.S. coast + GoM 1,268
Alaska OOS AOOS Alaska, Arctic 1,053
Central & Northern California OOS CENCOOS OR border to Pt. Conception 519
Mid-Atlantic Regional ACOOS MARACOOS Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras 421
Northeast Regional ACOOS NERACOOS Gulf of Maine, NE 199
IOOS HF Radar IOOS_HFRADAR Nationwide (cross-cutting) 172
Caribbean Coastal OOS CARICOOS Puerto Rico, USVI 92
IOOS Glider DAC IOOS Nationwide (cross-cutting) 53
Great Lakes OS GLOS Great Lakes 41
California OOS CALOOS California state-wide 39
Pacific Islands OOS PacIOOS Hawaii, Pacific Islands 17
Pacific Northwest OOS NANOOS Oregon, Washington 8
Coastal Data Information Program CDIP Coastal U.S. (Scripps + USACE) 5

AQUAVIEW's RA coverage is uneven — SECOORA, AOOS, and CENCOOS have rich coverage; CDIP and NANOOS are thinly indexed at the moment. For RAs with low item counts, consult the upstream ERDDAP directly (links in list_collections).

A repeatable prompt pattern

For any RA, this prompt skeleton works:

Show me what {RA NAME} ({COLLECTION_ID}) has for {REGION OR VARIABLE}
in {TIME RANGE}. Group by data type and give me a sample item from each.

Examples:

Show me what MARACOOS has for glider deployments in 2024–2025.

Show me what NANOOS has for ocean acidification monitoring on the
Oregon coast.

Show me what AOOS has for Bering Sea ice and weather buoys this winter.

The agent will scope the search to the right collection ID, apply the bbox/datetime, and return regional data products.

What makes each RA distinct

  • AOOS — only Arctic / Alaska coverage; pair with POLARWATCH for satellite ice.
  • CALOOS / CENCOOS — strong on HF radar and kelp ecosystem data. Pair with IOOS_HFRADAR for cross-region radar consistency.
  • CARICOOS — coral reef and tropical storm focus; pair with NOAA_AOML_HDB for hurricane heat potential.
  • GLOS — only freshwater RA; pair with GLERL.
  • MARACOOS — strongest glider density on the U.S. east coast.
  • NANOOS — strong on tsunami detection and Columbia River plume monitoring.
  • NERACOOS — Gulf of Maine, Casco Bay long-term moorings (NERACOOS-A01 etc.).
  • PacIOOS — Hawaii coastal + tropical Pacific atolls.
  • SECOORA — strong on coastal SE & GoM, includes SUNRISE cabled observatory.

Cross-cutting notes

  • IOOS-coordinated networks (IOOS, IOOS_HFRADAR, IOOS_OFFICE, IOOS_SENSORS) cut across regions and may duplicate per-RA data. Use them when you want a national view.
  • Each RA exposes its data via an ERDDAP endpoint — aquaview:source_url carries the URL for direct query.