The PI requests funding to partially support a one-day GEOSS workshop entitled "Evolution of Ocean Observing Systems building an infrastructure for science" that will be held Seattle, WA, USA, on 19 September 2010. The theme of the workshop follows the need to understand the capabilities of the major ocean observing systems to be used within the GEOSS era, and specifically new and existing cabled observing systems and their ability to address the data and information needs for science. This workshop is organized by the IEEE Committee on Earth Observations (ICEO) as part of an ongoing international series of GEOSS workshops that focus on data, science, and user themes pertinent to GEOSS.
The IEEE GEOSS workshops focus on development of observing systems for Earth science and the system-of-systems engineering communities that form a core intellectual resource for integrating complex systems. The emphasis on ocean observation systems in this specific workshop serves to direct attendees' attention toward key ocean observational challenges and opportunities within the context of both US and global monitoring. The unique format and scope of the GEOSS workshop series serves to ensure that a broad range of data users, scientists, and engineers contribute to the discussions on Earth system models and the use of environmental data. This will be the 40th in the IEEE series of GEOSS workshops, and so follows an established tradition of success in focusing attention within the relevant science, engineering, and user communities around GEOSS issues.
Broader Impacts
This GEOSS workshop advances the understanding of the Earth and its processes by presenting contemporary issues associated with Earth observation to a broad and international audience, then publicizing the results of in-depth discussions on these issues on the internet for free global access. The benefits of this workshop are thus available globally, both in direct publications and in the impact that this workshop will have on the identification and implementation of GEO tasks. The activity also serves to connect the engineering community more closely with the Earth science modeling and Earth data user communities, thus enhancing an important three-way partnership necessary to see the maximum benefits from Earth observations.
The project supported the organization of two international workshops to explore key ocean observational challenges and opportunities within the context of global ocean monitoring. Various initiatives for ocean monitoring were considered by an international group of scientists and ocean engineers numbering a total of over one hundred attendees. These initiatives included those in the US, Japan, Australia and Europe, and focused on a series of questions associated with ocean data collection, evaluation and decision support systems. The goal of these workshops was to develop a global coordinated information and data system for ocean monitoring to better understand the dynamics of the deep-ocean processes throughout the ocean water column. Accordingly, the role of the various organizations involved in such types of monitoring in contributing to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) was central to workshop discussions. Topics addressed include (i) evolving international governance approaches for long-term sustainability of ocean observations, (ii) improvements in interoperability of observatories to better facilitate data distribution to the global ocean data user community, and (iii) key measurements and sensor developments to better serve science and societal needs. In these areas, the workshop discussions centered on how to broaden interdisciplinary observations (e.g., those made by differing groups of ocean scientists involved in either different regions of the worlds' ocean of studying related but distinct scientific problems, such as ocean acidification and ocean circulation) for the benefits of both decision makers and society as a whole. One outcome of the workshops was the development of an ocean observation community of practice (CoP) to continually help achieve these goals after the workshop ended. The proceedings from the two workshops are available to the general public at www.ieee-earth.org/events/category/workshop-events/past .
