The Global Ocean Observing Component of IOOS: Implementation of the Initial Global Ocean Observing System for Climate and the Path Forward

Abstract

The global ocean observing system for climate, which comprises the global in situ component of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System, has now achieved about 61% of its initial design goal. Although this observing system, implemented cooperatively by over 70 countries worldwide, serves multiple applications, it is designed primarily to address climate requirements defined by the international Global Climate Observing System. The U.S. contribution to the system, described here, is implemented as an interdependent set of observational subsystems that constitute about half of the over 8,000 observing platforms deployed by the world community. Although much work remains to complete the initial global observing system, scientific advances of the past decade have identified the need to deploy a second-generation system that integrates biogeochemical and ecological observations with the primarily physical and carbon-related oceanographic observations that form the backbone of the initial observing system.