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Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. The Global Ocean Observing System: Users, Benefits, and Priorities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5580.
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THE GLOBAL OCEAN OBSERVING SYSTEM

USERS, BENEFITS, AND PRIORITIES

Committee on the Global Ocean Observing System

Ocean Studies Board

Commission on Geosciences, Environment, and Resources

National Research Council

NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
Washington, D.C. 1997

Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. The Global Ocean Observing System: Users, Benefits, and Priorities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5580.
×

NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20418

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.

International Standard Book Number 0-309-056595-0

Additional copies of this report are available from:
National Academy Press
2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W. Box 285 Washington, DC 20055 800-624-6242 202-334-3313 (in the Washington Metropolitan Area)

Copyright 1997 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. The Global Ocean Observing System: Users, Benefits, and Priorities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5580.
×

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

Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. The Global Ocean Observing System: Users, Benefits, and Priorities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5580.
×

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

Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. The Global Ocean Observing System: Users, Benefits, and Priorities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5580.
×

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

Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. The Global Ocean Observing System: Users, Benefits, and Priorities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5580.
×

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.

The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. William A. Wulf is president of the National Academy of Engineering.

The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Kenneth I. Shine is president of the Institute of Medicine.

The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce Alberts and Dr. William A. Wulf are chairman and vice-chairman, respectively, of the National Research Council.

Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. The Global Ocean Observing System: Users, Benefits, and Priorities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5580.
×

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

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Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. The Global Ocean Observing System: Users, Benefits, and Priorities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5580.
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Suggested Citation:"FRONT MATTER." National Research Council. 1997. The Global Ocean Observing System: Users, Benefits, and Priorities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5580.
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The Global Ocean Observing System is a study by the Ocean Studies Board intended to provide information and advice to federal agencies (the U.S. GOOS Interagency ad hoc Working Group) to help define and implement an effective, affordable, and customer-based U.S. contribution to GOOS. In particular, the committee was asked to provide advice to U.S. agencies regarding a practical concept for GOOS, identify potential applications and users of GOOS during the next 3 to 5 years and beyond, recommend appropriate roles for industry and academia in GOOS, and prioritize observational and infrastructure activities that should be undertaken or continued by the United States in its initial commitments to GOOS.

In response to its charge, the committee reviewed the status of GOOS planning and implementation at both the national and international levels, invited presentations by relevant federal agencies and members of the private sector, and examined the range of potential uses and benefits of products derived from information to be collected by GOOS. Finally, the committee drew upon this information and its own expertise to develop a number of recommendations intended to help move the implementation of GOOS forward.

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