OceAn science OceAn science OceAn science

and ecological issues, including human-dimension processes; build the foundation for
advancing basic understanding of open ocean, coastal, coastal watershed, and Great Lakes
processes; and revolutionize scientific and public access to the ocean. An integrated system
represents an ambitious effort of the national and global ocean community to establish
and maintain a robust, adaptive, continuous presence in the ocean and provide critical
information and models to users and stakeholders. Given the interconnected nature of
land-sea-air systems, an integrated ocean-observing system should be capable of interfacing
with current and future terrestrial, aquatic, and atmospheric observing systems and
be closely coordinated with the Global Ocean Observing System, as part of the Global
Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS) 33 . Several key steps must be taken to fully
implement the system:
• Fully integrate existing (e.g., buoy networks) and future (e.g., surface-water-quality
monitoring networks) components of a national observing system (“national
backbone”) to provide nationwide coverage of the most commonly required ocean
parameters.
• Expand regional and local coastal observing-system capabilities (fixed and mobile) to
provide greater density and diversity of observations on a regional basis, and address
region-specific observational needs, such as watershed-specific monitoring and landwater
fluxes.
• Maintain continuity of existing satellite missions and incorporate new remote-sensing
capabilities into future missions. Integral to this effort is the need for continued
sensor development, validation, and calibration that will ensure delivery of functional
data to users.
• Incorporate new and existing biological, chemical, physical, and geological measurements
into the observing system, and expand sensor development for biological,
chemical, and physical parameters.
• Implement data-management and communications plans that will modernize existing
data systems. Integrate current and future systems by promoting interoperability
among system components; developing metadata standards; integrating new components;
and enabling data discovery, availability, use, and archiving of the data streams
collected by the observing system and other observing assets (e.g., vessels).
• Integrate the data needs for decision-support tools into the development of observational
and information systems and models.
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