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National Ocean Observing

National Federation of Regional Associations

The coastal component is required to assess and predict the effects of weather, climate and human activities on the state of the coastal ocean, on its ecosystems and living resources, and on the nation's economy. It encompasses the nation's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), the Great Lakes, and estuaries and consists of a national backbone of observations of the EEZ and a set of nested regional observing systems. More information on the national backbone and regional observing systems is available from the National Federation of Regional Associations.

NOAA-IOOS Program Office

The Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) is a multidisciplinary system designed to enhance our ability to collect, deliver, and use ocean information. The goal is to provide continuous data on our open oceans, coastal waters, and Great Lakes in the formats, rates, and scales required by scientists, managers, businesses, governments, and the public to support research and inform decision-making.

In 2007, NOAA established a new program to coordinate NOAA’s IOOS activities. The mission of the Program Office is to "lead the integration of ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes observing capabilities, in collaboration with Federal and non-Federal partners, to maximize access to data and generation of information products, inform decision making, and promote economic, environmental, and social benefits to our nation and the world."

Ocean.US

Ocean.US is the national program office established to coordinate the development of the IOOS. The IOOS is being developed in two closely related components that encompass the broad range of scales required to assess, detect and predict the effects of global climate change, the weather and human activities.

Global Ocean Observing System

The global ocean component is an international collaboration to develop a global observing system. The Global Ocean Observing System is designed to improve forecasts and assessments of weather, climate, ocean states, and boundary conditions for regional observing systems. It is anticipated to be part of the Global Earth Observing System of Systems, or GEOSS (Interagency Working Group on Earth Observations and Group on Earth Observations).