OceanScope: a Proposed Partnership between the Maritime Industries and the Ocean Observing Community to Monitor the Global Ocean Water Column. Report of SCOR/IAPSO Working Group 133.

Abstract

The ocean plays an absolutely central role in the Earth’s climate and ecosystems. Despite its widely acknowledged importance, the interior of the ocean continues to be seriously under-sampled due to its global scale, the lack of resources commensurate to the task, and the technical challenges presented by the marine environment. While satellites routinely scan the state of the sea surface (when cloud cover permits), high resolution in situ data are essential to extend the scientific utility of present and planned satellite missions. For example, what is proposed herein will ideally complement planned high-resolution altimetry. While the global Argo and Ship-of-Opportunity (SOOP) programs provide broad coverage of the hydrographic state of the ocean, and the international global drifter program has yielded invaluable insight into surface currents, we are still severely handicapped with respect to measuring both the vertical structure of currents and the biogeochemical properties of the water column. Indeed, knowledge about ocean circulation as a whole is derived from various data-fitting techniques and not directly measured. Powerful as these measurements and techniques are, there is much they are unable to capture, including the most energetic part of the velocity spectrum, the structure of eddies and fronts, the deep velocity field and many circulation features in shallow seas and coastal areas. The ability to measure currents globally from vessels underway would be a transformational development enabling us to track what the ocean is doing in real time - to view the ocean engine in action and markedly improve our predictive capabilities by enabling truly rigorous validation and verification of the interior dynamics of ocean circulation models. Commercial ships have a presence on the high seas second to none and offer society a feasible and cost-effective opportunity to contribute to solving this observational deficiency. Building upon the success of the present Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and pilot research projects aboard selected commercial vessels, OceanScope proposes a formal partnership with the maritime industries (commercial vessel owners and operators as well as the marine industries they depend upon) to enable systematic and sustained observation of the structure and dynamics of the ocean water column so that physical, chemical, and biological processes can be studied simultaneously across all the inter-connected ocean basins. The programmatic approach of OceanScope is novel. It proposes to develop and implement techniques including acoustic and optical remote sensing, expendable probes and towed systems to monitor the entire oceanic water column, and to do so not only with respect to ocean physics, but also ocean chemistry and biology - all optimized for use on merchant marine vessels in regular traffic. The partnership between the ocean observing community and the maritime industries would be implemented through or associated with an international non-governmental organization working closely with the industry through institutions already in place (e.g. the International Chamber of Shipping and the World Ocean Council). This coordinated approach will enable the implementation of standardized methodologies and technologies that will be essential for operational reliability and data continuity and to provide the economies of scale essential to reduce installation, maintenance, and operational costs. Standardization will also enhance the commercial viability of developing and marketing new and improved observational technologies and facilitate the preparation of vessels “ready-built” to join the OceanScope fleet. OceanScope has the potential to capture the attention of industrial partners that have significant resources devoted to bringing the best ideas into the marketplace. OceanScope would be a major addition to the international GOOS, building upon and complementing programs such as Argo, Ship of Opportunity Program (SOOP), the Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) and the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science (SAHFOS) that operates the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) program. With respect to initial instrumentation, technology development and operational assistance and coordination, we would look to the SOOP and ICOS communities in regard to expendable probes and inorganic carbon measurement technology, and to SAHFOS in regard to the CPR to the extent that a ship operator is willing to provide support since the CPR (unlike other proposed technologies) is not fully automated. OceanScope would offer all those programs not only additional vessel platforms, but more significantly, the critical synoptic environmental data needed to understand the causes of the patterns observed and access to continually improving technologies. With respect to the Argo program and SOOP, the physical data streams themselves are inherently complementary. That is, drifters and profilers are, by design, freely drifting and comparatively widely distributed. However numerous, drifters and profilers alone are inadequate to directly sample either dynamic frontal regimes or oceanic eddy activity. While Argo floats (and drifters) continue to evolve as new sensors are added, choices will be limited by available space and power. Both impose fundamental sampling constraints. Sampling from commercial vessels on selected repeat routes can directly address both of these inherent limitations(technical and spatio-temporal). OceanScope data will have four distinct but related applications: (1) forecast/nowcast models, (2) processes and dynamics, (3) climatology, and (4) the state of the ocean. The first application addresses societal needs for real-time information on ocean currents (e.g., to improve ocean forecasting services); the second one the need to understand physical, biological and chemical variability; the third one long-term and global-scale change of the coupled ocean-atmosphere system; and the fourth, regulatory and management issues relating to ocean health. OceanScope would be implemented in phases. Phase One (lasting about five years) would extend and integrate today’s activities into a fleet of 20 instrumented vessels operating in the North Atlantic Ocean. During this phase, OceanScope oversight, organizational and administrative structures would be formalized and staffed and, equally significantly, data management, quality control and dissemination procedures would be implemented. Legal and jurisdictional issues will also be addressed prior to and during this phase. A North Atlantic Test Bed phase will not only focus attention upon a system of major importance to global climate dynamics (e.g. the meridional overturning circulation), but also leverage existing scientific collaborations with the maritime industry. A set of core measurements would be made on all ships with additional instruments upon a selected few vessels/routes. While vessels would at first rely upon existing technology (or small improvements there of), fundamental to OceanScope thinking will be targeted development of new marine vessel-optimized and standardized instrumentation, which as it becomes ready would be installed across the fleet of OceanScope vessels. Building upon the success of the North Atlantic Test Bed, OceanScope would then gradually expand through out the world ocean eventually consisting of a fleet of approximately 100 vessels incorporating these next-generation technologies. What OceanScope proposes is nothing less than the creation of an Earth-spanning framework - a facility or capability analogous to the European Organization for Nuclear Research(CERN) particle accelerator facility or the Hubble Space Telescope- freely providing data to the entire climate research, oceanographic research and operational oceanographic communities. To realize its full potential, it is essential that the ocean observing community speak with one voice with respect to the scientific benefits of such a facility as this partnership goes forward. The data that would be made available will revolutionize our ability to visualize the global ocean and track its evolution as the coupled physical, chemical, and biological whole that it truly is.