Chia-Wei Hsu and Cathy Smith, Marine Heatwave Portal

Science service: Chia-Wei Hsu and Cathy Smith developed the Marine Heatwave Portal, an interactive web-based system that allows users to rapidly access a wide range of usable information about marine heat waves, including observed events in the historical record, present-day conditions, and seasonal predictions. Their efforts have made significant contributions to the field of marine heatwave research and public education. The innovative data visualization portal transforms vast amounts of data previously available only to technical experts and makes it easily accessible to decision-makers as well as the public in near real-time. Over the past year, 20,000 unique users have accessed the site. The portal has also generated significant media attention, including from The New York Times and National Public Radio.