1. The GOOS and GCOS partnership
Albert Fischer
GOOS Office Director, IOC/UNESCO
GCOS SC, Hangzhou, 28 Sep 2017
Thank you for this opportunity to present the work of the Global Ocean Observing System. I’m Toste Tanhua, I work at GEOMAR in Germany, and I am now the co-chair the GOOS Steering Committee with John Gunn.
GOOS is led by the IOC, and co-sponsored by WMO, UN Environment, and the International Council for Science. It is a major ocean contribution to the work of the Group on Earth Observations GEO.

3. Framework for Ocean Observing A systems approach
GOOS at the global level as a program delivers strategic oversight, coordination, and evaluation of the sustained ocean observing system. The program is helping to coordinate a wide range of efforts by national and regional research and operational agencies, entraining a wide range of voluntary effort.
Since the publication by IOC in 2012 of the Framework for Ocean Observing, a growing community has been working using the same interoperable language of developing observing requirements for societal benefit, identifying Essential Ocean Variables or EOVs based on feasibility and impact, coordinating ocean observing networks through standards and the sharing and promotion of best practices, developing readiness to observe new EOVs in a globally sustained way, and developing coordinated and interoperable data management streams that feed different information generation mechanisms.

4. GOOS Strategy and Engagement development
Sustained ocean observations are but one part of a value chain that generates societal benefit from oceanography. GOOS sits inside a value chain with two paths to generating societal benefit – one through more operational systems, and one through scientific research, publications, assessments, and science-policy dialogues and formal interfaces. We are aware that GOOS must engage with all the players in this value chain in order to ensure the system is fit-for-purpose and delivering maximum value from its observations.

5. GOOS, in response to budget pressure at the IOC, has developed a Distributed Programme Office, with support to panels based in Geneva at GCOS, in Sopot Poland with the IOCCP, in Hobart and Oostende for the Biology and Ecosystems Panel, and in many places, including the US and China to support GOOS projects.
OOPC: Ocean Observations for Physics and Climate
IOCCP: International Ocean Carbon Coordination Project
JCOMM: Joint Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology
GOOS Regional Alliances
G7 initiative
Projects

6. GOOS Panels
The point to make here is when engaging with OOPC, we actually work with a much broader set of activities to deliver to GCOS. While there is a coordination overhead, GCOS gets a huge amount of value and input out of this arrangement.

7. GOOS distributed project office (1)
22 individuals dedicating 13.5 full-time equivalents (FTEs) virtually all with multiple team membership
Working on:
1.5 FTE: overall coordination and communications
0.2 FTE: engagement with partners
3.5 FTE: Steering Committee and 3 expert Panels
0.8 FTE: JCOMM Observations Programme Area teams
4.0 FTE: JCOMMOPS technical coordination and support
2.8 FTE: GOOS projects (TPOS 2020 and DOOS)
Based at:
4.75 FTE: IOC Paris
0.45 FTE: IOC Oostende
4.0 FTE: JCOMMOPS Brest
0.5 FTE: WMO (GCOS Secretariat)
1.5 FTE: Poland (IO PAN)
1.0 FTE: Australia (U. Tasmania)
1.2 FTE: USA (UCAR, OL)
0.25 FTE: China (SOA)

8. GOOS distributed project office (2)
FTEs funded by

9. GOOS Strategic Mapping
This activity will allow us to improve a Strategic Mapping of GOOS, which is shown here linking the three major societal drivers of GOOS: climate, services, and ocean health; with the societal benefits informed by sustained ocean data; the scientific issue, application, or product needed; the Essential Ocean Variable we need to capture; and the type of observing element contributing to the measure of these variables.
We can track how any particular observing platform measures a number of variables, feeding products and applications that deliver societal benefit.
A major message from this complicated diagram is that there are many interconnections. Many observations have multiple lifetimes – multiple uses. With growing sensor capability we are increasingly building an integrated observing system. And there is a tremendous needs for the coordination activities that make this system as efficient and effective as possible.
Behind each of the nodes in this mapping that we continue to build is a specification sheet with additional information on the global groups and standards and best practices information.
Each GOOS Regional Alliance or national effort will have its own variant of this mapping, based on local priorities and capacities.

10. EOV and network specification sheets goosocean.org/eov

11. GOOS-GCOS common issues
Strategy: GOOS developing a high-level strategy over coming months for adoption in June 2018 by IOC, WMO.
ask GCOS (chair/director) to review when open to partner input
OceanObs’19: forming Sponsors and Program Committees. Sponsors will shape outcomes of the conference.
Katy Hill (GCOS Sec) is supporting Sponsors Committee. Expect to be engaged – GCOS SC focal point?
Interface between GCOS and GOOS – supporting OOPC in its dual mission
GOOS SC (Sep 2017) created a Task Team to identify how best to meet strategic priorities of both GOOS and GCOS, including relationship with CEOS, supporting OOPC in its role. Led by co-chair Toste Tanhua, GOOS panel reps. Report by March Who from GCOS SC could engage?
EOV / observing network specification sheets database (GOOS Strategic Mapping)
”GCOS output” ECV descriptions, tables, etc.
John Wilkin (OOPC co-chair) is engaging in design of interfaces into the database: GCOS guidance for outputs?

12. Thank you