Our Team

  1. About
  2. Our Team

PolarWatch Operations Manager

Name: 
Jennifer Sevadjian
Organization: 
NOAA Affiliate for Fisheries PIFSC Ecosystem Sciences Division
Jennifer Sevadjian is the Operations Manager for PolarWatch a regional node of NOAA's CoastWatch. She has a background in ocean data management, data integration and web development. She began her career at NOAA CO-OPS Ocean System Test and Evaluation Program, in 2002, collecting in-situ data and performing data analysis, and has gone on to work in many different sectors including the military, academia, private industry and non-profit communities. She joined NOAA PolarWatch in 2017, after serving as the information manager for CeNCOOS (a U.S. IOOS regional association).

MOBY project - Moss Landing Marine Labs

Name: 
Stephanie Flora
Organization: 
MOBY project - Moss Landing Marine Labs
Stephanie Flora currently works for the Marine Optical BouY (MOBY) project, which is NOAA funded. Stephanie processes the daily MOBY data served on the CoastWatch Website. She customizes the data output for the various satellite sensors and puts it on the Moss Landing Marine Laboratory website for NOAA and/or NASA to download every day. Stephanie's other duties are to write and maintain software used to process data from radiometric and other oceanographic instruments used on the project.

Central Pacific OceanWatch Operations Manager

Name: 
Ryan Rykaczewski
Organization: 
NOAA Fisheries PIFSC Ecosystem Sciences Division
Ryan Rykaczewski is the Node Manager for OceanWatch - Central Pacific. He is based at the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center in Honolulu, Hawaii where he leads the Pelagic Research Program in the center's Ecosystem Sciences Division. Ryan's scientific work focuses on understanding the sensitivity of marine biogeochemical cycles, ecosystem structure, and fisheries production to changing ocean climate.

Great Lakes Node Operations Manager

Name: 
Songzhi Liu
Organization: 
NOAA Affiliate for Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory
Songzhi Liu is the operations Manager at CoastWatch Great Lakes Node. He has been working on satellite data over two decades. His work is mainly focused how to transform satellite data into daily usage. To achieve this goal, he developed multiple operational programs to receive, process, analyze, and archive the Great Lakes satellite data. He worked with many collogues and researchers to generate the Great Lakes regional mapping products from remotely sensed data.

Great Lakes Node Manager

Name: 
Andrea Vanderwoude
Organization: 
Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory
Andrea VanderWoude, PhD, is a satellite oceanographer, data scientist, and geologist. Dr. VanderWoude is currently the CoastWatch Great Lakes Node Manager. She has been using remote sensing for over 20 years and specifically hyperspectral imagery for more than 5 years to understand ecological and physical processes in the Great Lakes and the coastal and Southern Ocean. Dr. VanderWoude is working on providing ocean color, lake surface temperature, ice type and extent, and hyperspectral remote sensing data to stakeholders in the Great Lakes region.

East Coast Node Manager

Name: 
Shelly Tomlinson
Organization: 
NOAA National Ocean Service National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science
Shelly is the Coastwatch East Coast Node manager, providing useful satellite products to a wide range of users on the East Coast. She works in the Stressors and Impacts Division (SDI) within National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), in the National Ocean Service (NOS). Ms. Tomlinson’s current research focuses on the application of satellite derived ocean color sensors to detect, monitor, and forecast the occurrence of harmful algal blooms. This work has supported the development and transition of several HAB forecast systems within NOAA.

East Coast Node Operations Manager

Name: 
Ron Vogel
Organization: 
NOAA Associate for STAR/SOCD
Ron Vogel, the East Coast Node Operations Manager, applies oceanographic satellite data to coastal environmental issues on local and regional scales. He works directly with stakeholders, including environmental managers, decision-makers, and academic researchers in the areas of water quality, climate change and fisheries. By developing applications for routine environmental monitoring and analyses ecological understanding, he converts data to information and then to impactful knowledge for communicating with the stakeholders and informing environmental decisions.

Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean and Atlantic OceanWatch Operations Manager

Name: 
Joaquin Trinanes
Organization: 
NOAA Affiliate for AOML
Dr. Joaquin Trinanes is the Operations Manager for the NOAA/CoastWatch Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico Node, and for Atlantic OceanWatch. The Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (NOAA/AOML) in Miami hosts both nodes. Dr. Trinanes is Associate Professor at the University Santiago de Compostela. He received his PhD in Physics on the development of a global Fisheries Information System using satellite data. His research interests are focused on remote sensing, oceanography, and scalable data management and analysis.

Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean and Atlantic OceanWatch Node Manager

Name: 
Gustavo Goni
Organization: 
Physical Oceanography Division at NOAA/AOML
Dr. Gustavo Goni is the Node Manager for the Atlantic OceanWatch and Gulf and Caribbean Node. He is also a director of the Physical Oceanography Division at NOAA/AOML. Dr. Goni manages the NOAA eXpendable BathyThermograph (XBT) Program, which is a component of an international effort to design, implement, and maintain a global network of XBT transects. Dr. Goni is the Chairman of the WMO/IOC Ship of Opportunity Program, which main objective is to fulfill upper ocean observational requirements as established by GCOS and GOOS. One of Dr.

West Coast Operations and Deputy PolarWatch Node Manager

Name: 
Dale Robinson
Organization: 
NOAA Affiliate for Southwest Fisheries Science Center
Dale Robinson is the Operations Manager for the CoastWatch West Coast Node (WCN). In this role, he works with local stakeholders and engagement partners to develop and distribute value-added satellite products that are designed for use in the operational and research activities of NOAA and the entire CoastWatch community. To further support operational and research activities, he works directly with engagement partners to give them the advice, tools, and training needed to make it easy for users to discover, access and use valuable NOAA satellite products for their ocean applications.

West Coast and PolarWatch Node Manager

Name: 
Cara Wilson
Organization: 
Environmental Research Division Southwest Fisheries Science Center
Cara Wilson is the Principle Investigator of the West Coast Node of CoastWatch and of PolarWatch. She works at the Environmental Research Division of the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in Monterey California. She was instrumental in developing the CoastWatch Satellite Course back in 2006 and has been helping to teach it ever since. Her research interests involve understanding the dynamics associated with the anomalous summertime chlorophyll blooms that develop in the North Pacific.

Programmer Analyst for NOAA CoastWatch (Riva Solutions, Inc.)

Name: 
Ian Simpson
Organization: 
Riva Solutions, Inc. for NOAA CoastWatch
Ian Simpson is a member of the STAR Ocean Color Team, focusing on operations in CoastWatch Central. Before joining STAR, he worked on Ocean Color operations, software configuration management, and software security for NOAA’s Office of Satellite and Product Operations (OSPO). He works remotely from a sleepy town in northeast Alabama, ably assisted by two cats.

Central Pacific OceanWatch Operations Manager

Name: 
Melanie Abecassis, Ph.D.
Organization: 
Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC)
Dr. Melanie Abecassis is a Visiting Assistant Research Scientist at the University of Maryland, CMNS-Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center. She is the former Operations Manager for OceanWatch and is currently working on compiling virtual CoastWatch training resources. Dr. Abecassis is a Marine Ecologist with a Ph.D. from Universite Paul Sabatier (Toulouse III). Melanie’s research interests include animal habitat modeling and using satellite data to reduce endangered species bycatch.

Senior Scientist (Riva Solutions, Inc.)

Name: 
Michael Soracco
Organization: 
Riva Solutions, Inc. for NOAA CoastWatch
Michael Soracco is the HelpDesk Coordinator for NOAA CoastWatch/OceanWatch/PolarWatch. He specializes in user access by developing and maintaining data products, the data portal (and website) and runs the helpdesk. Michael studied aerospace engineering for his B.AE at Georgia Institute of Technology and earned his Master’s degree in Administration at Central Michigan University. He served as a commissioned officer in the NOAA Corps servicing equatorial moored buoys, conducting coastal hydrographic surveys, and as an ocean remote sensing operations officer.

Coordinator and Networker

Name: 
Merrie Beth Neely, Ph.D., PMP
Organization: 
Global Science and Technology for NOAA NESDIS STAR SOCD
Merrie Beth Neely provides programmatic support to various CoastWatch activities employed as a NOAA-affiliate contractor through Global Science and Technology, Inc. working for NOAA’s Satellite Oceanography and Climatology Division. She is a certified program manager, phytoplankton ecologist, and biological oceanographer holding advanced degrees from University of Tampa and University of South Florida.

Consultant for Riva Solutions, Inc. for NOAA CoastWatch

Name: 
Peter Hollemans, M.S.
Peter Hollemans is the creator of the CoastWatch Utilities software and the CoastWatch Data Analysis Tool (CDAT). He specializes in data analysis, visualization, data processing methods, and scientific data storage formats. Peter obtained a BS in physics and MS in computer science from the University of Victoria, where his Master’s thesis focused on computational complexity theory.

Senior Scientist (Riva Solutions, Inc.)

Name: 
Phil Keegstra, Ph.D
Organization: 
Riva Solutions, Inc. for NOAA CoastWatch
Phillip Keegstra is a developer for NOAA CoastWatch/OceanWatch/PolarWatch where he serves as the principal developer for the CWAPS (Coast Watch Automated Processing Software) processing system. He received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and supported NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in software development for astrophysics and website development for education outreach before joining CoastWatch.

Senior Scientist (Riva Solutions, Inc.)

Name: 
Sathyadev Ramachandran, Ph.D
Organization: 
Riva Solutions, Inc. for NOAA CoastWatch
Sathyadev Ramachandran is currently with Riva Solutions Inc. as a Sr. Support Scientist at the NOAA/NESDIS Center for Satellite Applications and Research in College Park, MD in support of the CoastWatch program. He received the B.Sc.(Honours) degree from Jadavpur University, Calcutta, India, in 1987, the M.Sc. degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India in 1989 and the Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1997, all in physics.

CoastWatch Contract Team Manager (Riva Solutions, Inc.)

Name: 
Heng Gu
Organization: 
Riva Solutions, Inc. for NOAA CoastWatch
I have been supporting NOAA CoastWatch program since 1997, and have been CoastWatch central contract team manager since 2008. I lead the CoastWatch central contract team to generate and distribute satellite ocean products to NOAA internal and public users. My first job with NOAA was supporting the ADEOS mission, right after the launch of ADEOS I Ocean Color and Temperature Scanner (OCTS). ADEOS I was an Earth observation satellite launched by NASDA (National Space Development Agency of Japan) in 1996.

NOAA CoastWatch/OceanWatch/PolarWatch Program Manager

Name: 
Veronica P. Lance, PhD
Organization: 
NOAA NESDIS STAR SOCD CoastWatch/OceanWatch/PolarWatch/
Dr. Veronica Lance is a NOAA federal employee and current Program Manager for the NOAA CoastWatch/OceanWatch/PolarWatch Program and previously served as CoastWatch Program Scientist for over 5 years. She is trained as a biological oceanographer with a Ph.D. from Duke University. Veronica’s research interests include the use of ocean satellite data to study phytoplankton and primary productivity. She serves as a liaison between the upstream satellite specialists and downstream users of NOAA’s CoastWatch data.