This document outlines Keith Alverson's talk on the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS). GOOS coordinates sustained ocean observations internationally to monitor climate, improve weather/climate prediction, and support ecosystem-based management. It works with various partner programs. Accomplishments include advancing the understanding of climate change and benefiting coastal management. Challenges remain in fully implementing observing networks and integrating with other systems. Developing regional observing systems for the Arctic and Southern Oceans is discussed.

1. NASA, NOAA, JCOMMOPS, FNMOC, CRT, URK
Keith Alverson
Ocean Observations and Services
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO

2. Outline of this talk
1. What is GOOS
2. Some lessons learned.
3. Developing Arctic and Southern Ocean
regional observing systems
4. Developing a biological module
5. Updating the Equation of State for Seawater
6. Sustaining GOOS

3. GOOS provides
• International and intergovernmental
coordination of sustained ocean observations
• A platform for the generation of
oceanographic products and services
• A forum for interaction between research,
operational, and user communities

4. GOOS is designed to
• Monitor and better understand climate
• Improve weather and climate prediction
• Provide ocean forecasts
• Improve management of marine and coastal
ecosystems and resources
• Mitigate damage from natural hazards and
pollution
• Protect life and property on coasts and at sea
• Enable scientific research

5. GOOS works in partnership with:
IOC, UNEP, WMO and ICSU (Sponsored by)
GEO, CEOS, WIGOS… (Member of)
JCOMM, IODE, GCOS, WCRP (partner programs at IOC)
SCOR, POGO, ICES, PICES, IASC, SCAR, GEOSS, GCOS,
GTOS, Scientific Unions, National Agencies (external
cooperation)
Argo, GLOSS, DBCP, OTN, Regional Alliances (provide
contributions to)

6. GOOS is comprised of:
• A climate module
The GOOS climate module is the ocean component of the
Global Climate Observing System (GCOS)
Advised by the Ocean Observations Panel for Climate (OOPC)
Implemented by member states usually cooperating through the
Joint WMO-IOC Commission for Oceanography and Marine
Meteorology (JCOMM)
• A coastal module
Advised by a Panel on Integrated Coastal Observations (PICO)
Implemented by member states usually cooperating through
GOOS regional alliances.
• Pilot Projects
eg. Arctic, Southern Ocean, Ocean Tracking Network ...

8. Major Accomplishments to date include:
1. Global GOOS. The open ocean observing system
for climate is approximately 60% complete.
Understanding of global climate change has been
substantially enhanced.
2. Coastal GOOS. The coastal ocean observing
system strategy and implementation plans are
approved. National coastal zone management
programs have benefitted from sharing best
practices.
3. Societal Benefits. Relevant components of the
GOOS are used for operational hazard warnings.

9. The ARGO array of profiling floats from 2003 to 2006 -
successful evolution of a pilot project

10. > 3000 Floats
The Argo network has achieved its initial design target.
The Argo network has achieved its initial design target.
Sustaining the network remains a major challenge.
Sustaining the network remains a major challenge.

11. Degree of completion of the initial design targets for the climate
module of the Global Ocean Observing System as of September 2008
as reported to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC).

12. Outline of this talk
1. What is GOOS
2. Some lessons learned
3. Developing Arctic and Southern Ocean
regional observing systems
4. Developing a biological module
5. Updating the Equation of State for Seawater
6. Sustaining GOOS

13. Upper-Ocean “cooling”
Cooling!!!
2003 to 2005
cooling:
-1.0 ± 0.33
W/m2
(Averaged
over Earth’s
surface)
from Lyman et al. (GRL, 2006)

14. Changing Ocean Observing System
Latitud Year
e
Technology changes and bias issues are now being
recognised –
- warm bias in XBT’s (Gouretski and Koltermann, GRL 2007)
- ‘spurious’ recent upper ocean cooling (Lyman et al, GRL
2006) Wijffels et al, in press 2008

15. Some Lessons Learned …
- Thompson et al, 2008: spurious 1945 global temperature
reconstruction drop from UK’s postwar resumption of
uninsulated bucket SST measurements.
Thompson et al, Nature, 2008

16. Changing Ocean Observing System
Forest and Reynolds, Nature,

17. Two
different
Reputable
Arctic Sea
Ice Extent
Anomaly
Analyses

18. Degree of completion of the initial design targets for the climate
module of the Global Ocean Observing System as of September 2008
as reported to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC).

19. Lessons learned from ocean climate
monitoring …
Develop sustained and integrated national ocean
observing commitments
National contributions and
commitments were confirmed
at the Intergovernmental
Committee for GOOS (I-
GOOS) meeting June, 2007,
UNESCO/IOC headquarters,
Paris … But governmental
engagement and willingness to
commit multilaterally must be
strengthened.
Alverson and Baker, Science, 314:1657, 2006

20. WHY develop SAON and SOOS?

21. Alverson EOS, 89:39, 2008

22. Implementing Coastal and Regional GOOS
SAON
SOOS
1st GOOS Regional Forum, Athens, Greece, 2002
2nd GOOS Regional Forum, Nadi, Fiji, 2004
3rd GOOS Regional Forum, Cape Town, S. Africa, 2006
4th GRA Forum, Guayaquil, Ecuador, November, 2008

23. Observing climate change …

24. … Human Impact on Marine Ecosystems is:
substantial, global, but not climate dominated
Halpern et al, Science, 319: 948-52, 2008

25. Operational near real time data stream from the Arctic (left) and
Southern (right) ocean components of the Global Ocean
Observing System reported over the WMO Global
Telecommunication Network in August 2008.

27. Near real time reporting tide gauges monitoring sea level globally
as part of the Global Sea Level Observing System (GLOSS) on
September 23, 2008 at 15h30 GMT.

28. Prudhoe Bay near real-time tide gauge on September 23, 2008
at 15h30 GMT as captured by the IOC sea level station
monitoring facility.

29. Planned research vessel cruises contained in the POGO
database in late September 2008. Of the four cruises indicated
four had already been completed and one was underway.

30. Predictions require monitoring
?

31. WHAT existing elements might be brought
together as an initial system?
Bremen, 1-3 October 2007.
St. Petersburg, 5-7 July 2008.

32. Stockholm, 12-14 November 2007
Alberta, 9-11 April 2008 - Engage Governments
St. Petersburg, 7 July 2008 - Russian Community
Helsinki, 15-17 October 2008 - Final Plan

33. Arctic Council Salekhard Declaration 2006
”Urge all Member countries to maintain and extend long term monitoring
of change in all parts of the Arctic, and request AMAP to cooperate with
other AC Working Groups, IASC and other partners in efforts to create a
coordinated Arctic Observing network that meets identified societal
needs”
IOC Executive Council 2008
“GOOS should become engaged with the Southern Ocean Observing
System, the Sustained Arctic Observing Network and Arctic ROOS, with
a view to creating sustained polar observing systems which will grow out
of the successful International Polar Year activities…the Executive
Council decided that consideration of the legacies of the IPY and IYPE
would be put on the Provisional Agenda of the 25th Session of IOC
Assembly (2009)”

34. Human Impact on Marine Ecosystems:
influences nonlinear ecosystem dynamics
Anderson et al, Nature, 452: 835-39, 2008
(this figure from Stenseth and Rouyer, N&V, ibid)

35. Kiribati creates world's largest marine reserve
(14 Feb 2008, Reuters)
Kiribati says it needs more money to pay for
surveillance against illegal fishing as well as develop
a trust fund, possibly as large as $100 million, to pay
for running costs and compensate the government
for lost income from commercial fishing licenses.

37. Higher ocean CO2 leads to Acidification.
www.ocean-acidification.net
By the end of this century, if concentrations of CO2 continue to rise
exponentially, we may expect to see changes in pH that are three times
greater and 100 times faster than those experienced during the
transitions from glacial to interglacial periods. How ecosystems will be
affected is unknown.

38. How will ecosystems be affected?

39. Developing country net exports of commodities
Source: Emerson (2005)

40. Fish Trade flows, 2003 (in US$ billions)
Developed Developing
Developed Developing
Source: Emerson (2005)

41. WHAT existing elements might be brought
together as an initial system?
Oxygen sensors on Argo float array
OTN Arrays and Partner Institutions

42. Continuous Plankton Recorder
75 year record!

43. Ocean Color
• IOCCG, CholorGIN, Antares, SAFARI…

44. CoML and OBIS
Observation and population
data for all species of the tuna
genus Thunnus mapped on a
global scale. (Ocean
Biogeographic Information
System - OBIS)
CoML project map

45. HOW might governance and political
commitments be enabled?
GEO-BON?
I-GOOS?
CBD?
GRAME?

46. A multi-user, multi purpose system
Alverson, Nature, 434:19-20, 2005

47. Bridge the research-operational divide
“A comprehensive ocean observing system simply
cannot exist without the full engagement of the
oceanographic research community”
• improve deployment
opportunities for autonomous
platforms (eg. Argo, drifters)
• facilitate data availability,
archiving
•Ensure high quality
‘research’ data contributes to
the sustained data flow of
GOOS
Alverson, IOC Annual Report, 38-39, 2005

48. Outreach and Communication
No lack of high profile public
interest stories:
Global Warming
Sea level Rise
Red Tides
Pacific Garbage Gyres
Ocean Acidification
Fisheries Collapses

49. Outreach: Better engage governments, the
research community and the private sector.
IAPSO/IAMAS/IACS Joint Assembly, Montreal 19-29 July, 2009
Session J01 – Observations of High Latitude Climate Change
UNFCCC SBSTA (Bonn, 1-12 June, 2009)
and COP (Copenhagen, 1-12 December,
2009).
OceanObs’09 21-25 September, 2009. Venice, Italy

50. Outreach: Better use of the web

51. Sustain and Integrate
• Avoid being everything for everyone!
• Synergy can be negative. Incentivize!
• GEOSS? WIGOS? SAON?
• UNFCCC COP ? UNESCO Convention?

52. Where are the Gaps in GOOS?

53. ~ 40% of the planned in-situ GOOS climate network ($)
Polar regions and deep ocean (Technology development, $)
Developing countries (Capacity building, $)
Non-physical variables (Users, Technology development, $)
Integrated data products (Users, $)
Real time operations (Technology development, $)
Sustainability - eg ARGO network, Satellite altimeters ($)
Integration with other systems (Users)

54. Near real time reporting tide gauges monitoring sea level globally
as part of the Global Sea Level Observing System (GLOSS) on
September 23, 2008 at 15h30 GMT
(www.vliz.be/gauges/map.php).

55. Implementation by nations
UK NTSLF
JCOMM OPA, NOAA/OCO

56. Planned research vessel cruises contained in the POGO
database in late September 2008. Of the four cruises indicated
four had already been completed and one was underway.

57. Adoption by Governments, then …
Past UNESCO/IOC
Standards
Practical salinity scale 1978 and the international equation of 1981
state of seawater 1980.
Algorithms for computation of fundamental properties of 1983
seawater
Salinity and density of seawater: Tables for high salinities (42- 1991
50)

58. Who will needs to adopt the new equation of
state for seawater?
Researchers. Including individual data
collectors and modelers in physical, chemical
and biological oceanography as well as
climatologists. Also scientific unions. Minimal
United Nations (IOC) role.
Industry. A broad range of companies
including data collectors and modelers. Could
potentially effect manufacturers of salinity
measuring devices. Minimal United Nations
(IOC) role.
Governments. Including national
oceanographic, environmental, fisheries and
research agencies as well as navies. Lead
United Nations (IOC) role.

59. Standards are not ideal, nor for everyone …

60. Adoption by the Scientific Community
Pathway to Adoption
① IAPSO/SCOR Working Group WG 127 on
thermodynamics and equation of state of report.
② Peer reviewed publications.
③ Endorsement of scientific unions such as SCOR, IAPSO,
AGU Ocean Sciences, IAPWS, ...
④ Community uptake. “Best Practices” or “Guidelines” are
more palatable in some research communities (experience
of carbon community) than “Standards”
Potential Concerns
① Scientists don’t like to fix anything that isn’t clearly
broken.
② Different adoption tasks, and hence different responses, are
likely from Data vs Modeling communities and from
physical vs chemical oceanographers, from climatologists
vs process researchers.

61. Adoption by Industry
Industry might either lead or follow
researchers or governments
The bottom line will always be profit
A panoply of industries including
offshore drilling, aquaculture and
coastal zone management.
If a new absolute salinity unit (in g/kg)
replaces the existing conductivity based
unit, manufacturers of CTD’s, Argo
floats, Marine mammal tags, would be
potentially effected.

62. Adoption by Governments, and now…
Uptake by global operational
programs

63. Adoption by Governments
Roadmap to Adoption
① Call for comment by relevant, standing IOC expert groups
from October to December 2008.
② Assuming no major objections, IOC secretariat to work
with WG 127, leaders of IOC subsidiary bodies and
interested Member States to prepare a Draft Resolution by
4/2009.
③ IOC Member States to consider and (hopefully) resolve to
adopt the new equation of state 6/2009
④ Leaders of WG 127 to write the IOC technical manual and
web based server for codes/algorithms by 1 January 2010.
⑤ IOC Secretariat publishes, distributes to Member States,

64. Adoption by Governments
Potential Benefits
① An intergovernmental agreement will
help catalyze implementation by some
national ocean services.
② A resolution by IOC/UNESCO, the body
that adopted the currently used equation
of state, will help clarify that the new one
Potential Concerns the old one.
formally replaces
① IOC Assembly Members don’t represent
all relevant Government Agencies. This is
a national level concern that only
individual governments must deal with.
② IOC Resolutions are not binding, so there
is no guarantee that Members will follow
through with their resolve. This is true for
many modern multilateral organizations

65. How to promote…
White paper and presentation at OceanObs09
(www.oceanobs09.net), 21-25 September 2009 ?
Relevant websites and mailing lists ?
Poster/Display at major meetings (AGU, OS,
IAPSO, etc) ?

66. HOW might commitments be enabled?
GEO? WIGOS?
IOC/WMO/UNEP/ICSU?
Regional: GRAs? Arctic Council?
UNEP regional seas conventions?