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NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competencies and with regard for appropriate balance.
This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.
This report and the committee were supported by a contract with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a grant from the National Science Foundation. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsors.
Cover art was created by Jennifer Swerda. Ms. Swerda has studied fine arts for a number of years at several institutions, most notably the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. A native Washingtonian, she resides in Silver Spring, Md.
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COMMITTEE ON THE GLOBAL OCEAN OBSERVING SYSTEM
WORTH D. NOWLIN (Chairman),
Texas A&M University, College Station
JERRY ASPLAND,
California Maritime Academy, Vallejo
KENNETH BRINK
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts
PAUL EPSTEIN,
Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
JOHN FLIPSE, Independent Consultant,
Georgetown, South Carolina
DAVID KEELEY,
Maine Coastal Program, Augusta
THOMAS POWELL,
University of California, Berkeley
PETER RHINES,
University of Washington, Seattle
BRIAN ROTHSCHILD,
University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
DOUGLAS WALLACE,
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Uptown, New York
ROBERT WELLER,
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts
HERBERT WINDOM,
Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, Savannah, Georgia
Staff
DAN WALKER, Study Director
JENNIFER SWERDA, Project Assistant
OCEAN STUDIES BOARD
KENNETH BRINK (Chairman),
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts
ALICE ALLDREDGE,
University of California, Santa Barbara
DAVID BRADLEY,
Pennsylvania State University, State College
WILLIAM CURRY,
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts
ELLEN DRUFFEL,
University of California, Irvine
RANA FINE,
University of Miami, Florida
CARL FRIEHE,
University of California, Irvine
ROBERT GAGOSIAN,
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts
SUSAN HANNA,
Oregon State University, Corvallis
JOHN HOBBIE,
Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
EILEEN HOFMANN,
Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia
JOHN KNAUSS,
University of Rhode Island, Narragansett
ROBERT KNOX,
University of California, San Diego
RAY KRONE,
University of California, Davis
LOUIS LANZEROTTI,
Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, New Jersey
JOHN MAGNUSON,
University of Wisconsin, Madison
WILLIAM MERRELL,
The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, Washington, D.C.
B. GREGORY MITCHELL,
University of California, San Diego
NEIL OPDYKE,
University of Florida, Gainesville
MICHAEL ORBACH,
Duke University Marine Laboratory, Beaufort, North Carolina
TERRANCE QUINN,
University of Alaska, Juneau
C. BARRY RALEIGH,
University of Hawaii, Honolulu
JAMES RAY,
Shell Oil Company, Houston, Texas
GEORGE SOMERO,
Stanford University, Pacific Grove, California
PAUL STOFFA,
University of Texas, Austin
Staff
MORGAN GOPNIK, Acting Director
M. ELIZABETH CLARKE, Associate Director
EDWARD R. URBAN, JR., Program Officer
DAN WALKER, Program Officer
JOAN ZEISER, Administrative Associate
LORA TAYLOR, Senior Project Assistant
JENNIFER SWERDA, Project Assistant
COMMISSION ON GEOSCIENCES, ENVIRONMENT, AND RESOURCES
GEORGE M. HORNBERGER (Chairman),
University of Virginia, Charlottesville
PATRICK R. ATKINS,
Aluminum Company of America, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
JAMES P. BRUCE,
Canadian Climate Program Board, Ottawa, Ontario
WILLIAM L. FISHER,
University of Texas, Austin
JERRY F. FRANKLIN,
University of Washington, Seattle
THOMAS E. GRAEDEL,
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
DEBRA KNOPMAN,
Progressive Foundation, Washington, D.C.
KAI N. LEE,
Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts
PERRY L. MCCARTY,
Stanford University, California
JUDITH E. MCDOWELL,
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts
RICHARD A. MESERVE,
Covington & Burling, Washington, D.C.
S. GEORGE PHILANDER,
Princeton University, New Jersey
RAYMOND A. PRICE,
Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario
THOMAS C. SCHELLING,
University of Maryland, College Park
ELLEN SILBERGELD,
University of Maryland Medical School, Baltimore
VICTORIA J. TSCHINKEL,
Landers and Parsons, Tallahassee, Florida
E-AN ZEN,
University of Maryland, College Park
Staff
STEPHEN RATTIEN, Executive Director
STEPHEN D. PARKER, Associate Executive Director
MORGAN GOPNIK, Assistant Executive Director
GREGORY SYMMES, Reports Officer
JAMES MALLORY, Administrative Officer
SANDI FITZPATRICK, Administrative Associate
MARQUITA SMITH, Administrative Assistant/Technology Analyst
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PREFACE
The first calls for coordinated observation of the world's oceans were raised nearly a decade ago. Since that time, the governments and scientists of the world have made some tentative steps toward developing a true global ocean observing system (commonly referred to as GOOS). The challenges to successful completion of a satisfactory observing system are numerous and complex. However, the value of such a system, if well designed, could be great. As stated in the 1992 report of the National Research Council's Ocean Studies Board, Oceanography in the Next Decade: Building New Partnerships, "Designing and deploying a GOOS will be among the most important and difficult tasks for physical oceanography and climate studies for the next decade."
The overall scope of GOOS includes important nonphysical issues such as the health of the ocean and living marine resources. Thus, the successful implementation of GOOS could result in improvements in a number of areas (e.g., coastal hazard prediction and warnings, navigational systems, fish stock assessments, prediction of algal blooms in coastal regions, climate forecasts, health warnings).
The present represents the efforts of the Ocean Studies Board's Committee on the Global Ocean Observing System to provide guidance and impetus to U.S. efforts toward implementing GOOS. With the assistance of the U.S. GOOS Project Office, the committee gathered information from numerous federal agencies involved in planning U.S. implementation of GOOS and solicited input from numerous nongovernmental entities.
This, the resulting report, outlines the nature and status of international plans toward development of GOOS. With these international plans as a context, the report (1) discusses U.S. efforts to implement GOOS and recommends specific actions to be taken by the U.S. GOOS community, (2) provides detailed discussion of potential benefits of GOOS to a variety of users, and (3) discusses the importance of developing support for GOOS across the entire marine community.
An effort as complex and important as GOOS represents a serious challenge for the ocean science community and for society as a whole. Every effort must be made to ensure that the goals are reasonable and the efforts well reasoned, because the costs of failing to meet this challenge would be enormous.
Kenneth Brink, Chairman
Ocean Studies Board