A National Ocean Observing System
The task
The U.S. Congress has tasked the National Ocean Research Leadership Council, a multi-agency body, to develop plans for a nationwide coastal ocean observing system. The founders of GoMOOS helped write the seminal design documents for the proposed national system. They conceived the national system as a federation of linked regional systems such as GoMOOS.
The need
As stated in the so-called Frosch report entitled “Toward a U.S. Plan for an Integrated, Sustained Ocean Observing System” (1999), a national sustained ocean observing system will:
- Detect and forecast oceanic components of climate change
- Facilitate safe and efficient marine operations
- Ensure national security
- Manage living resources for sustainable use
- Conserve and restore degraded marine ecosystems
- Mitigate natural hazards
- Ensure public health
Where GoMOOS Fits In
GoMOOS is the working prototype for a regional ocean observing system. GoMOOS serves the regional states and provinces that border the Gulf of Maine and is preparing to serve the entire nation when the national system is put into place. As a first step in that direction, GoMOOS is partnering with other systems that will link together to create the NorthEast Observing System (NEOS) which extends from GoMOOS to New Jersey and on to the Carolinas
Coordination of the National System
The National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP) is a collaboration of fourteen Federal agencies whose missions relate to the ocean. NOPP is an innovative program established by Congress in 1997 to cut across agency boundaries and promote new interactions between government, academia and industry. NOPP has increased visibility for ocean issues on the national agenda and achieved a higher level of coordinated effort and synergy across the broad oceanographic community. Ocean.US (link “Ocean.US” to www.ocean.us.net) was created by NOPP in late 2000 to coordinate that effort and to implement the national federation of linked regional systems.
