Shellfish farmer Bill Dewey remembers the first year he heard of ocean acidification, a phrase that means a change in chemistry for ocean water. It was around 2008, and Dewey worked for Taylor Shellfish, a company that farms oysters in ocean waters off the coast of Washington. That year, thousands of tiny “seed” oysters died off suddenly. Today, a cloud-based predictive system from the University of Washington (UW) and Microsoft Research may help the shellfish industry survive changing conditions by providing forecasts about ocean water.
Dewey, director of Public Affairs for Taylor Shellfish, vividly remembers walking into a conference room where an audience of shellfish farmers first heard that ocean acidification might threaten their industry profoundly. They learned that increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is making ocean water more acidic. In 2013, the Washington legislature stepped in and asked the UW to study and build a predictive forecast model, aptly named, LiveOcean.
Just like a numerical weather forecast model, LiveOcean will soon provide a forecast that predicts the acidity of water in a specific bay, part of Puget Sound or other coastal regions, days in advance.
Parker MacCready, a professor of physical oceanography at UW, is the scientist leading the LiveOcean team and used Microsoft Azure to create the cloud-based storage system. The system holds enormous amounts of data from his remote ocean model, the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS), which helps feed the LiveOcean models. The Azure component uses Python and the Django web framework to provide these forecasts in an easy-to-consume format. To produce these forecasts, the LiveOcean system relies on other sources: US Geological Survey data (for river flow), atmospheric forecasts, and another ocean model called HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM).
Dewey needs information on the acidity levels because a baby oyster needs to create a shell immediately to survive, and needs carbonate ions in the water to make that first tiny shell. If the water is too acidic, the baby oyster must use too much energy and dies in its attempt to make that first shell. Taylor Shellfish has hatcheries for the baby oysters and “planting” beds where young oysters are carried to grow to full size. Forecasts of water acidity in both places would help the company know when it was safe to hatch the babies, and where (and when) it is safe to plant them.
Ocean acidification is an emerging global problem, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Scientists are just starting to monitor ocean acidification worldwide, so it is impossible to predict exactly in what ways it will affect the marine environment. In a report, NOAA wrote, “There is an urgent need to strengthen the science as a basis for sound decision making and action.”
Azure tools make the system open to anybody. MacCready is eager to see how others develop sites pulling data on water currents for kayakers, for example, or information for salmon fishers. He is particularly excited about “particle tracking,” which helps him see where individual particles in the ocean move. That tracking could predict where an oil spill might move, for example. Using the cloud is “the way of the future” from his scientific perspective. “It gives the ability to create and use different resources without having to go out and buy hardware yourself.”
Fine-tuning and testing is essential to the reliability of the predictions. In recent years, MacCready and others have been validating the forecasts that LiveOcean is making. They pair real observations from physical instruments to predictions. Within months, he hopes to refine forecasts down to the level of individual bays, so that he can tell Dewey whether Samish Bay or Willapa Bay, for example, is “safe” for the new oysters.
LiveOcean has impacts far beyond just the shellfish industry. Jan Newton, principal oceanographer at the Applied Physics Laboratory, is the co-director of the Washington Ocean Acidification Project (WOAP), believes it may change how the public sees climate change and ocean chemistry.
“Data portals and models like LiveOcean can really make a bridge [of understanding] because even if people don’t understand the chemistry, they’ll look at the color-coding and see how this changes with location and season,” she said. Dewey believes that these tools for the Pacific Ocean chemistry will be adopted by others for oceans worldwide.
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Building global connectivity, making music visual and sharing achievements in research
From grants to help spread the power of digital technology to a band that’s turning live music into a vivid visual experience, this week brought some interesting and uplifting news around Microsoft. Check out some of the highlights in this latest edition of Weekend Reading.
Microsoft announced 12 winners of the Affordable Access Initiative grants that will receive seed funding and a range of resources to bring digital technology and affordable Internet access to underserved places around the world.
Technology can connect expectant mothers with faraway doctors, help rural farmers access financial services or allow children in remote places to take online courses from top schools. Yet for more than half the world, wrote Peggy Johnson, Microsoft executive vice president of Business Development, these benefits remain out of reach.
With these grants, Microsoft is “partnering with local entrepreneurs across five continents, each of whom deeply understand the unique needs of their own communities, and are already delivering hardware, applications, connectivity and power solutions to solve them,” Johnson wrote.
This week on the Microsoft Facebook and Instagram channels, we met Bension Maina of Mawingu Networks. From a converted shipping container in rural Kenya, Benson provides his community with affordable Internet by tapping the broadcast power of unused television channels or “white spaces.”
Just in time for the summer music festival season, the artists of Big Grams have evolved their performances way beyond music to captivate audiences with boundary-pushing live visual experiences. The group — a collaboration of former Outkast member Big Boi, and Phantogram’s Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter — partnered with V Squared Labs and are using Kinect technology to generate a striking visual display based on the artists’ movements onstage.
“We want the viewer, listener, fans that are there in the room to feel like they’re going on a trip,” says Big Boi. “If the music got them there sonically… then visually we’re aiming to put them in a trance.”
Microsoft researchers are exploring ways to better secure cutting-edge consumer technologies as well as more traditional tools that we rely on for everyday activities like accessing bank records and identifying ourselves at work. They’ll present four papers at the annual IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy that begins Monday in San Jose, Calif.
The Microsoft Research Blog shares the highlights of their work, which includes creating mechanisms that would prevent certain types of vulnerabilities such as Freak and Logjam, as well as developing a software system that limits the amount of information a person’s keycard discloses about them.
Great news for news junkies came out of the Microsoft Garage: The latest release of News Pro, where you can find news articles on hot topics and issues that are relevant to you, now gives you a way to share and comment on articles with your colleagues and others.
The new version also offers a News Pro bot that’ll help find information on the latest developments in your industry or field and even discuss it with you.
“Reading news, especially work-related news, can sometimes be a bit dry. A bot that can have some basic conversation with you could make news reading more fun,” says Yumao Lu, a principal development manager whose team works on Bing news products. “News Pro bot is your news agent at your beck and call.”
Exciting news also came this week for the young people who will have access to computer science training through a partnership between Microsoft and the Real Madrid Foundation: The collaboration has been renewed for another three years.
More than 6,000 at-risk children have already benefited from the training and digital literacy activities designed by both organizations to unlock new opportunities for young people at Real Madrid’s social-sport academies in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru.
The Real Madrid Foundation and Microsoft now plan to extend their reach, with a particular emphasis on at-risk young people in Spain and five other countries from Latin America. Microsoft will supply the software, cloud services, training content and funding to implement the activities designed by the foundation.
This week also brought big news in apps and games. For starters, “Battle,” the first mini game for “Minecraft” on Xbox 360, Xbox One and other consoles, will be available in June for an unbeatable price: It’s free. “Battle” allows you to set up a competitive multiplayer fight for survival in which speed, strategy — and sometimes just pure luck — will make you the winner.
And now’s the time to take advantage of the discounts available in the Ready, Set, Summer Collection, which is packed with more than 100 popular games, music, TV shows and apps. The promotion is now live in the Windows Store and runs through June 6.
If you’re looking to settle in this weekend with some fun games, get started building your dungeon and embarking on light-fingered escapades with 30-percent-off Special Starter Packs for “King of Thieves,” where the goal is to steal gold and precious gems from other players. Or give “LUDO Blitz!” a try; it updates the classic board game in this fast-paced, hi-res version with 3-D movements and actions.
Show your kids a magical playground of colorful fun in “Crayola Bubbles,” where they can explore a world of pathways, sandboxes and slides teeming with 3D bubbles that they can combine to create new colors as they go.
A special lineup of other games is headed your way as Games with Gold celebrates its third anniversary. These free games include “Goat Simulator,” “The Crew” and more; check out the dates and details on Xbox Wire.
You’re now caught up on this week’s top news around Microsoft. We hope you enjoyed your Memorial Day weekend!
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Understanding ocean chemistry through the power of Cloud Computing
Ocean temperatures and chemistry are changing dramatically and posing a risk to certain life forms, including shellfish such as oysters grown and harvested in Washington state. Microsoft Research teamed up with University of Washington scientists to take data from a complex modeling system run on supercomputers and bring it to the cloud. Soon, it will be widely available to help predict growing conditions for the shellfish industry and may help other industries adapt to ocean changes.
Climate change driven fluctuations in ocean chemistry have been linked to die-offs of baby oysters along the Northeast Pacific Ocean coast. The gradual change known as ocean acidification is making it difficult for shellfish, corals, sea urchin, and other creatures to form their calcium-based shells or other structures. The Northwest region’s thriving oyster hatcheries were struck by high mortality rates. While climate is changing worldwide, the Northwest is particularly vulnerable to ocean acidification because of the upwelling of colder more acidic water into the bays and estuaries of Washington, Oregon and British Columbia.
Modeling complex currents and chemistry
The Washington state legislature asked the University of Washington to study ocean acidification through the Washington Ocean Acidification Center (WOAC). Microsoft Research joined with Parker MacCready, professor of physical oceanography, to bring complex information from a variety of data sources into a system called LiveOcean, which would provide a model of currents and chemistry and predict a few days into the future.
Just like a numerical weather forecast model, LiveOcean will soon provide a forecast that predicts the acidity of water in a specific bay or other coast region three to seven days in advance. Bill Dewey, Director of Public Affairs for Taylor Shellfish, needs that prediction to know when and where it is safe to plant oyster larvae and raise juvenile oysters.
Estimates are that the West Coast oyster industry generates 3,000 jobs and makes an annual economic impact of about $207 million.
More than 30 percent of Puget Sound’s marine species are vulnerable to ocean acidification by virtue of their dependence on the mineral calcium carbonate to make shells, skeletons and other body parts.
A baby oyster uses carbonate ions in the water to make their first shell. If the water is too acidic, the baby oyster uses too much energy and dies. Taylor Shellfish has hatcheries for the baby oysters and separate “planting” beds where young oysters are moved to continue growing. Forecasts would help Taylor Shellfish know the safest planting locations.
Dewey remembers hearing the phrase “ocean acidification” for the first time in 2007, with other industry leaders at a meeting, and knows the extreme challenges from ocean acidification. Besides working for Taylor Shellfish, Dewey also farms his own shellfish beds and has a personal stake in the challenge.
Making a model open to everyone
MacCready is the scientist leading the LiveOcean team who stepped up to help the shellfish industry. But he also looks forward to other scientists and industries drawing their own insights from this same model. The LiveOcean design incorporates the open use by others.
MacCready was a visiting scientist who spent four months at Microsoft Research in Redmond, Washington collaborating with scientists there, including Rob Fatland. Fatland is now the Director of Cloud and Data Solutions at the University of Washington.
MacCready’s team used Azure tools to draw data from a large model run on a high-performance computing cluster. The model is known as the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS). They push data out of Azure with Python then write scripts for websites. Using the cloud is “the way of the future” he said, for complex systems like this one. “It gives the ability to create and use different resources without having to go out and buy hardware yourself.”
MacCready and Microsoft researchers built a forecast system open to everyone. Using the cloud, a non-scientist will be able to reach into ROMS forecast data and pull out information through a smart phone, laptop, tablet, or other devices. The Azure component uses Python and the Django web framework to provide these forecasts in an easy-to-consume format. To produce the forecasts, the Live Ocean system relies on other sources: US Geological Survey data for river flow, atmospheric forecasts, and another ocean model called HYCOM.
One crucial element of LiveOcean is the careful validation of its results. MacCready and others have spent years validating the modeling system by direct observation from physical instruments paired to predictions.
Policy and public understanding
Predictions will be vital for both policy-makers and scientists, according to Dewey. The impact of discoveries from the model could be vast. It will show a bigger and better picture to every part of society as decisions loom due to challenges from climate change. Beyond the industries and legislators, MacCready also sees LiveOcean as providing a new and important window on the coastal ocean globally as scientists and others adopt the model and begin to use it.
Dewey sees the model waking people up to changes. “The ocean acidification issue has really come to light here on the Pacific, where we have these upwelling events. But we are the tip of the spear for this. It has woken up the industry across the country,” he said.
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