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The Aquarius satellite mission and Salinity Processes in the Upper-oceanRegional Study (SPURS) are providing the scientific community with new insights intthe role seawater salinity plays in the Earth system. Aquarius and SPURS scientists andengineers, working with the University of Maine-based Salinity Public Engagement and Communications team, developed webinars that focused on how these programs' findings increase knowledge about topics such as the water cycle, ocean circulation, and climate. Direct involvement of research scientists and engineers was key to the success of these efforts. These experts learned how to use interactive concept maps to \"deconstruct\" scientific content into simpler graphical formats for their presentations. A benefit to webinar participants, presenters, and facilitators was that they honed their critical thinking skills. In addition, the webinars allow people traditionally not represented in science, technology, engineering and math to gain better access to high-quality NASA materials. Post-event audience evaluation data provide valuable feedback on the impacts of sharing the results of ocean salinity research beyond the scientific community.

Public appreciation and basic understanding of the role the ocean plays in the global environment has become more important as the urgency to make decisions on complex environmental issues has increased. Because communicating science to the public is often challenging for scientists, they can benefit from employing methods such as concept mapping, which \"deconstructs\" science into discrete ideas and organizes them into graphical formats. Responding to recommendations by ocean science faculty who participated in concept-mapping workshops with pre-college educators, four Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence designed, implemented, and evaluated a series of professional development workshops for graduate students. These workshops engaged 20 faculty-level ocean scientists to help 73 graduate students depict complex scientific ideas using concept maps. Evidence shows that operationally breaking down topics and reorganizing them into graphical formats benefited faculty and graduate students alike. Each workshop culminated with the graduate students delivering oral presentations to nonscientist audiences such as high school students. Graduate students were highly rated on their abilities to place topics within a broad societal context. In a follow-up survey, graduate students recognized the potential of concept mapping to enhance their professional skills and to organize their own research.

In an Oceanography article published 13 years ago, three of us identified salinity measurement from satellites as the next ocean remote-sensing challenge. We argued that this represented the next \"zeroth order\" contribution to oceanography (Lagerloef et al., 1995) because salinity variations form part of the interaction between ocean circulation and the global water cycle, which in tern affects the ocean's capacity to store and transport heat and regulate Earth's climate. Now, we are please to report that a new satellite program scheduled for launch in the near future will provide data to reveal how the ocean responds to the combined effects of evaporation, precipilation, ice melt, and river runoff on seasonal and interannual time scales. These measurements can be used, for example, to close the marine hydrologic budget, constrain coupled climate modles, monitor mode water formation, investigate the upper-ocean response to precipitation variability in the tropical convergence zones, and provide early detection of low-salinity intrusions in the subpolar Atlantic and Southern oceans. Sea-surface salinity (SSS) and sea-surface temperature (SST) determine sea-surface density, which controls the formation of water masses and regulates three-dimensional ocean circulation.

This paper describes the large, diverse set of in situ data collected during the Salinity Processes in the Upper-ocean Regional Study 2 (SPURS-2) field campaign. The data set includes measurements of the ocean, atmosphere, and fluxes between atmosphere and ocean; measurements of the skin surface layer, bulk mixed layer, and deeper water; (mostly) physical, chemical, and biological measurements; and ship-based, mobile drifting/floating, and moored observations. We include references detailing the methods for collection of each data set, provide DOIs for accessing the data, and note some papers in this special issue that use them. To facilitate broader access to SPURS-2 data and information, we created an online tool that allows users to explore data sets organized by various categories (e.g., instrument type, mobility, depth). This tool will complement content available from the Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) and will be highly engaging for visual learners.

The Ocean Observing Initiative (OOI) was designed to advance understanding of complex oceanographic processes by acquiring large quantities of data at six key locations in the world ocean. The OOI Education and Public Engagement (EPE) Implementing Organization has built an educational cyberinfrastructure and developed interactive tools targeted for undergraduate-level learners that enable easy access to OOI data, images, and video. To develop the suite of OOI education tools, EPE used an iterative design process, including needs assessment, tool prototyping, and usability testing in undergraduate classrooms. Data visualization and concept mapping tools were envisioned as a way to help undergraduates link concepts students see in oceanography textbooks to real-world phenomena. A Data Investigation Builder (DIB) was constructed to assist professors in designing data activities. During the usability testing, professors provided valuable feedback that allowed EPE to improve the tools. Based on the lessons learned from EPE, in 2016 we developed a new prototype set of Data Explorations that were more modular and easier to integrate into an undergraduate lecture or problem set. This paper reviews how the EPE toolset was developed, including establishment of requirements for the tools and incorporation of lessons learned from the user needs assessment and the results of usability testing of prototype tools.