The Cook Inlet Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council , the Alaska Ocean Observing System, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are collaborating on the development of the Cook Inlet Response Tool (CIRT) which was revealed at the 2012 the Alaska Marine Science Symposium. The overarching goal of this particular collaboration is to develop and demonstrate a next generation oil spill response application that combines GIS spatial data layers, AOOS real time observations and model nowcast/forecasts for winds, waves, and ocean circulation, and a ShoreZone video imagery viewer. This demonstration project is focusing on Cook Inlet because many of the needed datasets are mature and the area is relatively small and tractable. The application will be scalable so that other areas in Alaska and the nation will benefit. The data will be integrated into the NOAA Emergency Response Management Application (ERMA) and utilized for Arctic oil spill response planning. The platform has not been released for use by the general public as of this writing. AOOS is planning to release the CIRT tool during March 2012 for public review and feedback.
The AOOS Ocean Workspace (project level data management system) is in active development and will be undergoing several focus group demonstrations and feed back sessions over the coming months. Initial rollout in planned for February 2012 to support the EVOS Herring and Long Term Monitoring programs.