The IMDOS ambition

Inspired by the collective vision of the marine debris scientific community and guided by an international Interim Steering Committee, IMDOS aims to: 

• promote the development of a global network of marine debris observations according to Regional Seas Programme Action Plans and integrated within GOOS in cooperation with existing ocean observing infrastructures, networks and communities of practice;
• define strategies and priorities for coordinated and harmonised marine debris observations based on most relevant monitoring methods, standards and practices;
• promote integration of data management activities to provide free and open access to marine debris data and information products for stakeholders (e.g., via the GPML Digital Platform);
• support the development of remote sensing methods to detect marine debris by enhancing availability of required ground-truthing data;
• strengthen the interface between marine debris monitoring and modelling communities to support the development of a Digital Twin of the Ocean for Marine Litter Pollution;
• evaluate the readiness level and promote technological innovation to advance global observing approaches;
• develop standard sampling protocols and best practices in marine litter data collection and support training activities for their implementation;
• create communication services for the marine debris community including links to advocacy resources and other components of the multidisciplinary global ocean observing system.

Building IMDOS as a collective impact organisation

Designed according to the principles of collective impact organisations, IMDOS will serve as backbone support for many international and national organisations and initiatives that: (i) share a vision for coordinated marine debris observations to address the complex issue of marine pollution, (ii) collect data and report results consistently, (iii) contribute with differentiated yet mutually reinforcing activities, (iv) engage in consistent and open communication, and (v) have a backbone coordinating structure.

IMDOS is being developed as a joint project by the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Blue Planet Initiative, in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Global Partnership on Marine Litter (GPML), the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) Working Group #153, GESAMP Working Group #40, the International Ocean Colour Coordinating Group Task Force on Remote Sensing of Marine Litter and Debris, Ministry of Environment Japan (MOEJ), among others.

Currently, short-term part-time coordination support for IMDOS is provided by GOOS and GEO Blue Planet with funding from the European Union facilitated through the EU4OceanObs and H2020 EuroSea projects. A dedicated, globally distributed staff of at least 3 full-time employees is needed on the long run to provide overall coordination and communication of IMDOS operations and execution of Terms of Reference according to the Strategy and Implementation Plan, which are being developed under the guidance of an Interim Steering Committee.

Interim IMDOS Steering Committee

• Stefano Aliani (CNR ISMAR, Italy)
• Paolo Corradi (ESA, the Netherlands)
• Francois Galgani (Ifremer, France)
• Georg Hanke (JRC, Italy)
• Kara Lavender Law (SEA, USA)
• Nikolai Maximenko (Uni. Hawaii, USA)
• Toste Tanhua (GEOMAR, Germany)
• Alexander Turra (Uni. Sao Paolo, Brazil)

Following is a list of selected resources of potential use to the ocean acidification community. Many resources can be found through the GOA-ON website, also linked here below.

	2019 IOCCP & BONUS INTEGRAL Sensors Training Course: Video lecture recordings and lectures in PDF on a number of topics related to ocean acidification observations available from the Ocean Teacher Global Academy Website HERE
	Plans and Strategies   Workshop Reports   Guides and manuals   GOA-ON in a Box   Pier2Peer Mentorship Program
Reference Materials	For inquires related to purchasing Certified Reference Materials for oceanic CO2 measurements please contact Andrew Dickson's group at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Below you can find some information on batches of CRMs produced so far, and 3 references describing the Reference Material program.  Information on batches of Certified Reference Material for oceanic CO2 measurements (sample Certificate of Analysis for Batch 148, 1 May 2015) Standards for Ocean Measurements, Dickson 2010. (as pdf) The stability and reproducibility of Tris buffers in synthetic seawater, Nemzer and Dickson, 2005. (as pdf) Reference materials for oceanic CO2 analysis: a method for the certification of total alkalinity, Dickson et al., 2003. (as pdf)
	SDG 14.3.1 Indicator methodology, data and metadata templates  https://oa.iode.org
CO2 System Calculation Tools	Comparison of 10 packages that compute ocean carbonate chemistry, all listed below: CO2SYS in Excel (after Pelletier et al. 2007) CO2SYS in Excel (after Pierrot et al. 2006) CO2SYS in MATLAB csys in MATLAB ODV in C++ mocsy in Fortran 95 seacarb in R swco2 in Excel swco2 in Visual Basic Uncertainty propagation add-ons - Orr et al. (2018)  CO2SYS in Excel  CO2SYS in MATLAB mocsy seacarb

We are developing an initial set of activities and we will indicate their progress here.

• Adornato, L. & Co-Authors (2010). "In Situ Nutrient Sensors for Ocean Observing Systems" in Proceedings of OceanObs'09: Sustained Ocean Observations and Information for Society (Vol. 2), Venice, Italy, 21-25 September 2009, Hall, J., Harrison, D.E. & Stammer, D., Eds., ESA Publication WPP-306, doi:10.5270/OceanObs09.cwp.01 PDF

• Borges, A. & Co-Authors (2010). "A Global Sea Surface Carbon Observing System: Inorganic and Organic Carbon Dynamics in Coastal Oceans" in Proceedings of OceanObs'09: Sustained Ocean Observations and Information for Society (Vol. 2), Venice, Italy, 21-25 September 2009, Hall, J., Harrison, D.E. & Stammer, D., Eds., ESA Publication WPP-306, doi:10.5270/OceanObs09.cwp.07 PDF

• Byrne, R. & Co-Authors (2010). "Sensors and Systems for In Situ Observations of Marine Carbon Dioxide System Variables" inProceedings of OceanObs'09: Sustained Ocean Observations and Information for Society (Vol. 2), Venice, Italy, 21-25 September 2009, Hall, J., Harrison, D.E. & Stammer, D., Eds., ESA Publication WPP-306, doi:10.5270/OceanObs09.cwp.13 PDF

• Claustre, H. & Co-Authors (2010). "Bio-Optical Profiling Floats as New Observational Tools for Biogeochemical and Ecosystem Studies: Potential Synergies with Ocean Color Remote Sensing." in Proceedings of OceanObs'09: Sustained Ocean Observations and Information for Society (Vol. 2), Venice, Italy, 21-25 September 2009, Hall, J., Harrison, D.E. & Stammer, D., Eds., ESA Publication WPP-306, doi:10.5270/OceanObs09.cwp.17 PDF

• Fairall, C. & Co-Authors (2010). "Observations to Quantify Air-Sea Fluxes and their Role in Climate Variability and Predictability" in Proceedings of OceanObs'09: Sustained Ocean Observations and Information for Society (Vol. 2), Venice, Italy, 21-25 September 2009, Hall, J., Harrison, D.E. & Stammer, D., Eds., ESA Publication WPP-306, doi:10.5270/OceanObs09.cwp.27 PDF

• Feely, R. & Co-Authors (2010). "An International Observational Network for Ocean Acidification" in Proceedings of OceanObs'09: Sustained Ocean Observations and Information for Society (Vol. 2), Venice, Italy, 21-25 September 2009, Hall, J., Harrison, D.E. & Stammer, D., Eds., ESA Publication WPP-306, doi:10.5270/OceanObs09.cwp.29 PDF

• Garzoli, S. & Co-Authors (2010). "Progressing Towards Global Sustained Deep Ocean Observations" in Proceedings of OceanObs'09: Sustained Ocean Observations and Information for Society (Vol. 2), Venice, Italy, 21-25 September 2009, Hall, J., Harrison, D.E. & Stammer, D., Eds., ESA Publication WPP-306, doi:10.5270/OceanObs09.cwp.34 PDF

• Goni, G. & Co-Authors (2010). "The Ship of Opportunity Program" in Proceedings of OceanObs'09: Sustained Ocean Observations and Information for Society (Vol. 2), Venice, Italy, 21-25 September 2009, Hall, J., Harrison, D.E. & Stammer, D., Eds., ESA Publication WPP-306, doi:10.5270/OceanObs09.cwp.35 PDF

• Gruber, N. & Co-Authors (2010). "Adding Oxygen to Argo: Developing a Global In Situ Observatory for Ocean Deoxygenation and Biogeochemistry" in Proceedings of OceanObs'09: Sustained Ocean Observations and Information for Society (Vol. 2),Venice, Italy, 21-25 September 2009, Hall, J., Harrison, D.E. & Stammer, D., Eds., ESA Publication WPP-306, doi:10.5270/OceanObs09.cwp.39 PDF

• Hood, M. & Co-Authors (2010). "Ship-Based Repeat Hydrography: A Strategy for a Sustained Global Program" in Proceedings of OceanObs'09: Sustained Ocean Observations and Information for Society (Vol. 2), Venice, Italy, 21-25 September 2009, Hall, J., Harrison, D.E. & Stammer, D., Eds., ESA Publication WPP-306, doi:10.5270/OceanObs09.cwp.44 PDF

• Hydes, D. & Co-Authors (2010). "The Way Forward in Developing and Integrating Ferrybox Technologies" in Proceedings of OceanObs'09: Sustained Ocean Observations and Information for Society (Vol. 2), Venice, Italy, 21-25 September 2009, Hall, J., Harrison, D.E. & Stammer, D., Eds., ESA Publication WPP-306, doi:10.5270/OceanObs09.cwp.46 PDF

• Monteiro, P. & Co-Authors (2010). "A Global Sea Surface Carbon Observing System: Assessment of Changing Sea Surface CO2 and Air-Sea CO2 Fluxes" in Proceedings of OceanObs'09: Sustained Ocean Observations and Information for Society (Vol. 2), Venice, Italy, 21-25 September 2009, Hall, J., Harrison, D.E. & Stammer, D., Eds., ESA Publication WPP-306, doi:10.5270/OceanObs09.cwp.64 PDF

• Send, U. & Co-Authors (2010). "OceanSITES" in Proceedings of OceanObs'09: Sustained Ocean Observations and Information for Society (Vol. 2), Venice, Italy, 21-25 September 2009, Hall, J., Harrison, D.E. & Stammer, D., Eds., ESA Publication WPP-306, doi:10.5270/OceanObs09.cwp.79 PDF

• Smith, S. & Co-Authors (2010). "Automated Underway Oceanic and Atmospheric Measurements from Ships" in Proceedings of OceanObs'09: Sustained Ocean Observations and Information for Society (Vol. 2), Venice, Italy, 21-25 September 2009, Hall, J., Harrison, D.E. & Stammer, D., Eds., ESA Publication WPP-306, doi:10.5270/OceanObs09.cwp.82 PDF

• Testor, P. & Co-Authors (2010). "Gliders as a Component of Future Observing Systems" in Proceedings of OceanObs'09: Sustained Ocean Observations and Information for Society (Vol. 2), Venice, Italy, 21-25 September 2009, Hall, J., Harrison, D.E. & Stammer, D., Eds., ESA Publication WPP-306, doi:10.5270/OceanObs09.cwp.89 PDF

• Belbeoch, M. & Co-Authors (2010). "The JCOMM In Situ Observing Platform Support Centre: A Decade of Progress and Remaining Challenges" in Proceedings of OceanObs'09: Sustained Ocean Observations and Information for Society (Vol. 2), Venice, Italy, 21-25 September 2009, Hall, J., Harrison, D.E. & Stammer, D., Eds., ESA Publication WPP-306, doi:10.5270/OceanObs09.cwp.04 PDF

GLOBAL OCEAN DATA ANALYSIS PROJECT   www.glodap.info    Latest product release    Background and history		SURFACE OCEAN CO2 ATLAS   www.socat.info    Latest product release    Background and history

SOCATv2024 released on 19 June 2024

SOCAT version 2024 has quality-controlled in situ surface ocean fCO₂ (fugacity of CO₂₎ measurements made on ships, moorings, autonomous and drifting surface platforms for the global ocean and coastal seas from 1957 to 2023. The latest update of the community-led Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (www.socat.info), version 2024, has delivered 38.6 million, quality-controlled, in situ surface ocean fCO2 (fugacity of CO2) measurements collected between 1957 and 2023 with an estimated accuracy of <5 μatm.

We want to thank all >100 data contributors, quality controllers and other contributors who made SOCAT version 2024 possible, and acknowledge the continued leadership of Dorothee Bakker (UEA, UK) in producing the annual SOCAT release.

Click here to download the SOCAT version 2024 release poster

GLODAPv2.2023 released in October 2023

The Global Ocean Data Analysis Project (GLODAP) data product provides access to quality controlled surface to bottom ocean biogeochemical data, with an emphasis on seawater inorganic carbon. GLODAPv2.2023 is an update of the previous version, with 23 additional cruises and includes measurements from more than 1.4 million water samples from the global oceans collected on 1108 cruises. The data for the 13 core variables have undergone extensive quality control, especially systematic evaluation of bias. The data are available in two formats: (i) as submitted by the data originator but updated to WOCE exchange format and (ii) as a merged data product with adjustments applied to minimize bias.

The original data, their documentation and doi codes are available at the Ocean Carbon Data System of NOAA NCEI. This site also provides access to the merged data product, which is provided as a single global file and as four regional ones, and access to the GLODAPv2.2023 ODV collection.

GLODAP: Background and history

Synthesis of ocean interior carbon and carbon-relevant data has been supported by IOCCP since the beginning of the project. Such data are of fundamental importance for accurate assessments of oceanic carbon inventories and uptake rates and for model validation. Over time, three efforts were initiated: GLODAP(v1.1), CARINA and PACIFICA.

All follow rigorous and ever-improving data quality control (QC) procedures to assure the highest possible internal data quality and consistency with other efforts. Key members of the international marine CO₂ community over the past 4 years were assembling the new global carbon data product, Global Ocean Data Analysis v2 (GLODAPv2). This product assembles all past carbon and carbon-relevant data products covering interior ocean into one harmonized data package. Specifically the data from the previously assembled products CARINA, GLODAP v1.1 and PACIFICA. Additionally data from almost two hundred ”new” cruises were added to this collection. IOCCP continues to support this challenging effort. 

GLOBAL OCEAN DATA ANALYSIS PROJECT

The GLobal Ocean Data Analysis Project (GLODAP) is a cooperative effort to coordinate global synthesis projects funded through the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the National Science Foundation (NSF) as part of the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study - Synthesis and Modeling Project (JGOFS-SMP). Cruises conducted as part of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE), JGOFS, and the NOAA Ocean-Atmosphere Exchange Study (OACES) over the decade of the 1990s have created an oceanographic database of unparalleled quality and quantity. These data provide an important asset to the scientific community investigating carbon cycling in the oceans. The central objective of this project is to generate a unified data set to help determine the global distributions of both natural and anthropogenic inorganic carbon, including radiocarbon. These estimates provide an important benchmark against which future observational studies will be compared. They also provide tools for the direct evaluation of numerical ocean carbon models.

ATLANTIC OCEAN CARBON SYNTHESIS GROUP

This project was initiated at the IOCCP-CarboOcean Initial Atlantic Ocean Carbon Synthesis Meeting, June 28-30 2006, Laugarvatn, Iceland. The meeting brought together 23 participants from 9 countries with expertise ranging from ship-based hydrography and carbon measurements, physical oceanography, surface pCO2 variability, CFC and tracer measurements, O2 on profiling floats, modeling, and data synthesis and management. During the meeting it was decided that the CARINA (Carbon in the Atlantic) data synthesis should be extended to include the Arctic and Southern Oceans. The Workshop participants developed three coordinated synthesis groups and a common data module:

• North Atlantic working group (lead: Are Olsen, Bjerknes Center for Climate Research, Bergen, Norway)
• Atlantic working group (lead: Toste Tanhua, IFM-GEOMAR, Kiel, Germany)
• South Atlantic / Southern Ocean (lead: Mario Hoppema, AWI, Bremerhaven, Germany)
• Data: Robert Key, Princeton University, USA

These groups met three times after the Iceland meeting; in Kiel, Germany (March 2007), Delmenhorst, Germany (December 2007) and Paris, France (June 2008) to tune the methodology and evaluate the results. Further more, an interactive website was developed that allowed the different investigators to upload and view results of the synthesis. By the end of 2008, the CARINA secondary quality control was finalized. After this the individual cruise data in WOCE exchange format, as well as three merged data products, were published on CDIAC (CARINA at CDIAC) and on CCHDO (CARINA at CCHDO). Working documents, and updates on follow-up activities are also available from the CDIAC website. In addition to these data, an ODV collection and Matlab routines to facilitate reading the data was added to the CIDAC site. The documentation of the CARINA project is primarily done through 20 articles published in a special issue in Earth System Science Data.

NORTH PACIFIC CARBON SYNTHESIS GROUP

This synthesis activity was launched with a workshop entitled “Understanding North Pacific Carbon-Cycle Changes: A Data Synthesis and Modeling Workshop”, held in Seattle in June 2004. This workshop was sponsored by NOAA's Global Carbon Cycle Program with additional support from the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES), The Global Carbon Project (GCP), and the University of Washington Program on Climate Changes (UWPCC). This workshop addressed 3 primary questions:

• 1. How are air-sea CO2 fluxes in the North Pacific affected by different modes of variability?
• 2. How and why are the North Pacific distribution patterns of carbon, nutrients and oxygen in the water column changing with time?
• 3. What are the requirements for detecting a climate change signal in the North Pacific carbon cycle?

A special section of the Journal of Geophysical Research entitled “North Pacific Carbon Cycle Variability and Climate Change” was published in 2006 (C. Sabine and N. Gruber, guest editors, Introduction doi:10.1029/2006JC003532). In 2005 this international collaboration was further formalized with the formation of the PICES Section on Carbon and Climate. A major data synthesis effort subsequently got underway. This project was known as PACIFICA and was coordinated by M. Ishii (Japan) and R. Key (United States). This project has adopted many of the methodologies developed by CARINA in the Atlantic and was expected to be completed in early 2013.

SOCAT: Background and history

Net CO₂ absorption by the world’s oceans is known to benefit human-kind by reducing the concentration of this greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, but the increase in ocean carbon also causes ocean acidification endangering marine organisms. Knowledge of year-to-year and decadal changes in oceanic CO₂ uptake are essential for assessing the feedbacks between climate change and the ocean carbon cycle.

In 2007 the international ocean carbon community led by the IOCCP, SOLAS and IMBER initiated the Surface Ocean CO₂ Atlas (SOCAT) project to ensure long-term access to high quality, regularly updated surface ocean CO₂ data. First public release of SOCAT dataset took place on 14 September 2011 providing unrestricted access to 6.3 million surface water fCO₂ (fugacity of carbon dioxide) measurements taken on 1851 cruises from 1968 to 2007. 

Both the raw input data and the recalculated output data are publicly available and the methods used are fully documented on the SOCAT website. The unique aspect of this dataset is that the observations have been combined into a single uniform format and were quality controlled. To make the dataset user-friendly, it is available on the web through a sophisticated online data visualisation and manipulation tool called the Live Access Server. The LAS provides interactive maps that enable users to interrogate the data. Gridded monthly data are also available. Potential applications include carbon budgets, studies of seasonal, year-to-year and decadal variation in oceanic CO₂ uptake, and research into the processes driving these. For a complete list of SOCAT impacts see here.

Regular updates to SOCAT are planned. The IOCCP continues to strongly support SOCAT efforts to further improve and streamline data submission, quality control and access procedures. The latest version of SOCAT is available from www.socat.info.

US OCB Working Group - Filling the gaps in observation-based estimates of air–sea carbon fluxes working group

https://www.us-ocb.org/filling-the-gaps-in-observation-based-estimates-of-air-sea-carbon-fluxes-working-group/

Principle Investigators: Galen McKinley, Jessica Cross, Tim DeVries, Peter Landschützer, Goulven G. Laruelle, Nicole Lovenduski, Pedro Monteiro, Ray Najjar, Laure Resplandy, Adrienne Sutton, Rik Wanninkhof, and Nancy Williams

1^st Meeting: May 5-6, 2020 at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Summary: A number of recent studies have applied novel statistical and machine-learning methods to in situ surface ocean carbon dioxide (CO₂) observations to estimate the ocean carbon sink with unprecedented spatio-temporal resolution. These studies suggest that the oceanic CO₂ sink is more variable on multiyear timescales than previously estimated from biogeochemical model simulations. This newly identified variability challenges our model-based mechanistic understanding and puts into question our projections of the future ocean carbon sink. These observation-based estimates, however, rely on extensive interpolation of limited observations, and thus their reliability is unclear, particularly in data-sparse regions and seasons. Furthermore, inconsistencies regarding the area covered by open and coastal ocean estimates hampers our ability to constrain CO₂ fluxes across the full marine continuum (i.e., all tidal waters). The goal of this working group will be to assess critical uncertainties in existing observation-based products, determine how best to integrate observation-based open-ocean and coastal-ocean CO₂ air–sea fluxes, and quantify uncertainties in the natural (pre-industrial) outgassing of CO₂. These efforts will lead to better constraints on the contemporary ocean carbon sink and its variability. The results of this OCB Working Group will assist the global carbon community in understanding the state of the global carbon cycle so as to contribute to international efforts to address climate change.

For more information on the planned activities and expected impacts please see the full WG proposal. 

Surface ocean pCO₂ measurements are conducted on research vessels and ships of opportunity, as well as on moorings and surface gliders. This page shows the approximate status of the global network of these observations. 

Ships of Opportunity / Volunteer Observing Ships

The map below illustrates the global network of Ships of Opportunity / Volunteer Observing Ships that collect underway pCO₂ measurements. Currently, there are ships from 14 nations around the globe contributing to this component of the ocean observing system.

 Last modified: November 2018

For more information on individual cruises and data, click on the section names using the interactive version of the map on the OCADS-NCEI site here: https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/ocads/oceans/VOS_Program/

Moorings

Below is a map of moorings with pCO₂ measurements performed in open ocean (blue), coastal (green) and coral reef (red) settings. Interactive version of the map is available from NOAA PMEL Carbon Program at https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/CO2+Data+Discovery   

 Last modified: February 2019

Integrated Carbon Observation System - Ocean Thematic Centre (ICOS OTC)

ICOS OTC maintains an array of ocean stations and cruise tracks along which underway CO₂ observations are made. ICOS OTC is the European node of SOCONET. See the map below for the current status of the observing network.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1U-5GU87i7_ZhoZhYBS-tVHiUj3g&ll=55.37189057654185%2C-19.240893745319113&z=4 

PREFACE

Determination of surface water partial pressure/fugacity of carbon dioxide (pCO₂/fCO₂) is of great interest as it provides a means to determine flux of CO₂ between the ocean and atmospheric and offers the opportunity to measure changes in surface water CO₂ levels in support of ocean acidification research. Surface water CO₂ levels are steadily increasing due to increasing atmospheric CO₂ levels from anthropogenic sources, primarily burning of fossil fuels, and resulting increases in air-sea CO₂ fluxes. However, the ocean CO₂ sinks and surface water CO₂ increases are not homogeneous in time of space. On a climatological scale the lower latitude oceans emit CO₂ (CO₂ sources) and higher latitude oceans sequester CO₂ (CO₂ sinks). Patterns change by season and are modulated by biological and physical processes. Multi-year anomalies are becoming apparent in the observational databases often linked to large-scale climate reorganizations such as the ENSO.

The surface water CO₂ effort aims to quantify CO₂ uptake and surface water CO₂ changes on seasonal scales for the world's ocean to determine the sequestration of anthropogenic CO₂, and elucidate the mechanisms of changing uptakes. This is in support of assessments of the fate of CO₂ in the earth system and to determine impacts of rising and changing surface CO₂ levels on ocean ecosystems. The observations are done from a variety of platforms with automated instrumentation. Currently most measurements are done on ships of opportunity (SOOP-CO₂) and surface moorings utilizing similar systems that measure the CO₂ content in the headspace of a chamber (equilibrator) that had seawater flowing through it such that headspace and water have the same CO₂ concentrations. The infrared detectors used are calibrated at frequent intervals with traceable atmospheric standard gases providing a key link between surface water and atmospheric CO₂ levels.

New instrumentation and new platforms are coming on line that will enhance the surface water CO₂ observing network. These include smaller instruments with different calibration and equilibration procudures, and different detectors such as spectrophotometers. Autonomous surface vehicles utilizing wave, solar and wind power are being tested and deployed. Using pH measurements [on profiling floats] to calculate pCO₂ is being investigated. In order to include these measurements into the surface water CO₂ data holdings, careful tests and intercomparisons must be accomplished.