NGI Annual Report Award NA110AR4320199 Reporting Period: July 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017 1 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................. 5 NGI General Description and Core Activities ................................................................................................ 5 NGI Management, Mission, and Vision ........................................................................................................ 6 Executive Summary of Important Research Activities ................................................................................ 10 Distribution of NOAA Funding .................................................................................................................... 14 PROJECT REPORTING (Note that the last 2 digits of the NGI File # correspond with the amendment # to NA110AR4320199) 14-NGI2-70: Examining microplastic occurrence in gut contents of Sargassum-associate juvenile fishes ........................................................................................................................... 16 14-NGI2-71: Diagnosing Atlantic Basin Tropical Cyclone Rapid Intensification with Artificial Intelligence and Composite Techniques .................................................................................... 20 14-NGI2-74: Occurrence and Accumulation of Marine Debris on barrier Islands in the Northern Gulf of Mexico .......................................................................................................................... 29 14-NGI2-79: Increasing our understanding of the interaction between physical and ecological processes in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean ........................................................................ 33 14-NGI2-83: Development of Geospatial Data Products for NOAA's Exploration Data Collection.......................................................................................................................... 38 15-NGI2-105: Climate Variability in Ocean Surface Turbulent Fluxes ....................................... 42 15-NGI2-108: Analysis of Fisheries Acoustics Data .................................................................. 48 15-NGI2-110: Improving ATMS SDR Data Quality for Weather and Climate Studies ............... 50 15-NGI2-111: Calibration and Validation of NPP VIIRS - Color and SST Ocean Products for Monitoring Oceans .................................................................................................................... 52 15-NGI2-112: Exploring the use of coupled camera and acoustic systems for estimation of fish densities and catchability in a test-bed using stationary camera arrays, AUVs, and ROVs and towed sleds ............................................................................................................................... 65 15-NGI2-113: Determination of movement patterns and reproductive status of adult smalltooth sawfish ...................................................................................................................................... 67 15-NGI2-115: Collaboratory Exploration with Scientists at AOML ............................................. 75 15-NGI2-116: Gulf Sturgeon Genotyping .................................................................................. 76 15-NGI2-117: Towards fine-tuning satellite algorithms for Ocean Acidification Product Suite (OAPS) ..................................................................................................................................... 82 15-NGI2-118: Sensing Hazards with Operational Unmanned Technology for the River Forecasting Centers (SHOUT4Rivers) ...................................................................................... 85 2 15-NGI2-119: Predicting the impact of anthropogenic climate change on physical and biogeochemical processes in the northern Gulf of Mexico ......................................................... 88 15-NGI2-120: Further Refinements to Stepped-Frequency Microwave Radiometer Surface Wind Measurements in Hurricanes .................................................................................................... 92 15-NGI2-121: U.S. Research Vessel Surface Meteorology Data Assembly Center ................... 99 15-NGI2-122: Comparative Metagenomics to Indicate Sites under Anthropogenic Pressure .. 106 15-NGI2-123: Integrated Ecosystem Assessment for the Northern Gulf of Mexico Estuaries .. 108 15-NGI2-124: Improving Coastal Precipitation Forecast through Direct Assimilation of GOES-R ABI Radiance in GSI-NAM/HWRF........................................................................................... 111 15-NGI2-125: Data Management in Support of NOAA's Integrated Ecosystem Assessment for the Gulf of Mexico through the NGI ......................................................................................... 113 15-NGI2-127: Shelf-Slope Interactions and Carbon Transformation and Transport in the Northern Gulf of Mexico: Platform Proof of Concept for the Ocean Observing System in the Northern Gulf of Mexico .......................................................................................................... 115 15-NGI2-128: Collaborative Research: Understanding the Current Flow of Weather Information and Associated Uncertainty, and Their Effect on Emergency Managers and General Publics- Public Perception Research Component ................................................................................. 123 15-NGI2-130: Advancing the Use of Airborne Lidar Bathymetry (ALB) for Navigational Charting .................................................................................................................................. 129 15-NGI2-131: Infrastructure development, initial data analysis, and field campaign activities .. 132 15-NGI2-132: Enhancing the Mississippi Digital Earth Model (MDEM) .................................... 138 15-NGI2-133: Hypoxia National Office Support Activities ........................................................ 141 15-NGI2-134: Telepresence, Information Management, and Data Product Development for Stennis ECC ........................................................................................................................... 151 15-NGI2-135: Certificate Program Curriculum Development in Social Science Applications for Meteorologists ........................................................................................................................ 154 16-NGI2-139: Improvements to TAO Delayed-Mode Data Processing .................................... 156 16-NGI2-140: Digital Surface Model Creation ......................................................................... 159 16-NGI2-141: Bias characterization and hurricane initialization using ATMS, SSMIS, and AMSR-2 .................................................................................................................................. 161 16-NGI2-142: Northern Gulf of Mexico Sentinel Site Cooperative Intern ................................. 164 16-NGI2-143: Continuing secure archival for NOAA/NMFS preserved specimens at USM's plankton archival facilities ....................................................................................................... 166 16-NGI2-145: NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards Network Transformational Change Stakeholder Engagement Phase One ..................................................................................... 167 3 16-NGI2-146: Processing of side-scan sonar and multibeam sonar data ................................ 169 16-NGI2-147: 2016 NOAA-NGI Diversity Internship Program ................................................. 174 16-NGI2-149: Storm Surge and Sea Level Rise on a Changing Landscape ............................ 176 16-NGI2-150: Core infrastructure enhancements, operations, and preliminary research activities supporting VORTEX-SE 2017 field campaign activities; Phase I: Infrastructure enhancements ........................................................................................................................ 178 Appendix A: Publication Documentation ................................................................................. 183 Appendix B: Employee Support ............................................................................................. 184 Appendix C: Other Agency Awards ........................................................................................ 185 4 INTRODUCTION This Northern Gulf Institute (NGI) Annual Progress Report reviews and summarizes the research and the education and outreach activities accomplished during the reporting period of July 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017. The items in this report cover the research conducted under NOAA award NA11OAR4320199. The report consists of two (2) sections and appendices. The first section provides the General Description of NGI, the NGI Direction, Organization and Operations, Key Research and Economic Impact, and Distribution of NGI funding from NOAA. The second section is titled Project Reporting. The section describes the project objective and research conducted for each project and other project details, along with contact information and related NOAA sponsor and strategic goal. Appendix A provides the total count of publications for this reporting period, and Appendix B summarizes the total number of employees and students supported by NOAA funding at NGI. Appendix C lists other agency