Sustaining Ocean Observations to Understand Future Changes in Earth's Climate (2017) / Chapter Skim
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4 Sustaining Global Ocean Observations in the United States
4 Sustaining Global Ocean Observations in the United States
Pages 77-96
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From page 77... ...
involvement in ocean observing activities is substantial today, issues related to flat or declining funding and reduced workforce capacity are already causing U.S. leadership in ocean observations to decline and creating challenges in maintaining long-term, ocean climate observations.
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From page 78... ...
The Argo array would provide the subsurface data needed for operational oceanography, including global ocean reanalyses and forecast modeling applications. • omplementarity of Argo and many other sustained ocean observing C programs -- satellite sea surface height, temperature, salinity, and wind stress, plus in situ repeat hydrography, moored observations, XBT, sur face drifter, and glider data.
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From page 79... ...
The key aspects that have and will continue to allow Argo to be sustained have evolved out of those that contributed to Argo's early growth: • rgo has revolutionized global oceanography through its major contribu A tions to basic research, climate assessment, education, and operational applications. These have gone far beyond what was anticipated at the start of the program.
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From page 80... ...
Agencies should sustain the operations of established airborne, terrestrial, and marine observation platforms with ongoing attention to sufficient coverage and data quality." It is difficult in this plan to identify all of the U.S. components of the ocean climate observing system, although some key components are identified by name (e.g., Argo)
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From page 81... ...
Act of 2009 and chartered to "advise, assist and make recommendations on matters related to ocean observations."1 Among its responsibilities, the IOOC will "establish required observation data variables to be gathered by both Federal and non-Federal assets and identify, in consultation with regional information coordination entities, priorities for System observations." The ICOOS Act authorized the establishment of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS)
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From page 82... ...
A particular issue is that the committee was not able to identify any plan with associated resource requirements to sustain or expand as needed the many components of the ocean climate observing system. Although Congress has recognized the need for sustained ocean observations in the ICOOS Act, budgets are subject to the annual appropriation process and have not been matching the increasing costs of sustaining the current system in terms of workforce, infrastructure, and data management.
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From page 83... ...
The Climate Observations Division Strategic Plan 2015-2020 (NOAA, 2015) lays out a bold vision for, "A sustained, comprehensive, and responsive global climate observing system that seamlessly delivers information and products to our partners and users within and beyond NOAA, and that provides a critical foundation for climate, weather, and environmental decision-making." In addition to global ocean observations, NOAA's National Ocean Service also supports coastal observations, including those critical to the heat, carbon, and fresh water budgets, through the IOOS program office.2 These include long-term NOAA observing programs as well as observations supported by the 11 regional associations that form the coastal component of IOOS.
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From page 84... ...
Large coordinated scientific programs may be funded in this manner following years of community discussion, project formulation, and a proposal that is fully peer reviewed. These programs can be the genesis of longterm ocean observations including methods and instrumentation.
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From page 85... ...
mission that will contribute to establishing a long-term chlorophyll record. Among NASA's Foundational Missions relevant for sustained ocean observing were sea surface salinity measured by Aquarius (2011-2015)
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From page 86... ...
. Both reports were created in an environment of diminishing resources, and the challenges in implementing the survey's recommendations are indicative of those facing implementation of sustained ocean observations as a whole.
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From page 87... ...
Some foundation-funded activities map directly onto ocean observations relevant to understanding climate change, such as the Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health X-Prize to develop better and more affordable technologies to measure ocean pH and ocean acidification, and the Sloan Foundationfunded Census of Marine Life. Yet many foundations limit funding for basic research on the ocean environment or technologies, favoring instead targeted funding in support of areas such as marine conservation, ocean health, food security, and blue economy development.
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From page 88... ...
THE CHALLENGE OF SHORT-TERM FUNDING Sustainment of ocean observations requires an ongoing source of funding, yet in the federal budget process, these investments are subject to annual review and appropriation. Continuous long-term climate datasets can be interrupted if the associated grant-making or operational government offices receive a reduction in their appropriations.
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From page 89... ...
Finding: The continuity of ocean observations is essential for gaining an accurate understanding of the climate. Funding mechanisms that rely on annual budget approval or short-term grants may result in discontinuity of ocean climate measurements, reducing the value of the observations made to date and in the future.
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From page 90... ...
This poses challenges for sustaining ocean observations as we look ahead several decades and beyond. The committee heard from community members that the current demographics of ocean observing experts cannot sustain longterm operations.
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From page 91... ...
Ultimately, though, funding is critical for sustaining any scientific effort, and the federal agencies' funding decisions will play an important role in reinforcing the oceanographic institutions' efforts to reward participation in sustaining the ocean observations that will be necessary to monitor and understand climate changes. Scientists are also hindered by the lack of research positions that provide long-term funding stability.
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From page 92... ...
Research vessels are categorized by their size, which dictates the range of distances they typically travel. Three categories of research vessels are useful for ocean observations: global class vessels, the largest ships which have a global range; ocean class vessels, slightly smaller and which do not travel globally; and regional class vessels, which are even smaller and operate closer to coasts.
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From page 93... ...
Opportunities to increase efficiency and leverage capacity will be important, such as the use of autonomous observing technologies, and national and international infrastructure coordination. IMPORTANCE OF FUNDING TO ADVANCE TECHNOLOGICAL CAPABILITY Looking ahead, there will be the need for more sustained ocean observations and sampling of more diverse ocean variables.
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From page 94... ...
The limited investment in advancing technological capabilities is a challenge that, if addressed, will yield significant returns over the lifetime of sustained observing platforms through development of more robust and efficient sensors and platforms. The NOPP, under its mandate to coordinate ocean research efforts, has worked to coordinate agency investment in technological development.
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From page 95... ...
Most countries mandate that collected data be submitted to their national data centers, such as the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI; which includes the former National Oceanographic Data Center) in the United States.
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From page 96... ...
The committee is conscious that budget restrictions may place a premium on core data collection activities, but sees substantial benefits in adapting FAIR Guiding Principles and corresponding cyberinfrastructure frameworks in the management and stewardship of the sustained ocean observing system. Similar to these principles, the American Geophysical Union has adopted the position that data should be "Credited, Preserved, Open, and Accessible" in order to help future scientists understand the Earth systems and will adopt data management best practices for their own and other journals (AGU, 2017)
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