A multinational observation network PIRATA (Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic) has just gained support from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Research Vessel (NRV) Alliance to accomplish studies, monitoring and maintenance requirements of this essential climate monitoring program. A five-year framework agreement between NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), signed in December 2015, marks a breakthrough in transatlantic cooperation while fostering sharing of assets and capabilities in oceanic and atmospheric monitoring in the North Atlantic.

The third International Ocean-Colour Coordinating Group (IOCCG) Summer Lecture Series, dedicated to high-level training in the fundamentals of ocean optics, bio-optics and ocean colour remote sensing will take place at the Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche (LOV), in Villefranche-sur-Mer, France from 18 to 30 July 2016. Participation is restricted to 20 students and is highly competitive.

Application Deadline: 15 March 2016 (strictly enforced)!

The Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (QNLM) in China is proud to host the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP)'s CLIVAR Open Science Conference "Charting the course for climate and ocean research" in September 2016. The Open Science Conference, and the associated Early Career Symposium and Regional Stakeholder Forum, promise to bring together prominent international scientists and the future generation of scientific leaders.

Abstract submission deadline: 25 March 2016

Nippon Foundation-POGO Centre of Excellence (NF-POGO CofE) at the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven, Germany, is now inviting applications from early-career scientists from both developing and developed countries who hold at least a bachelor’s degree in science. The training will promote excellence in integrated, multidisciplinary oceanography at a global scale, and will run from October 2016 to August 2017 at AWI’s field sites on the offshore island of Helgoland and the Wadden Sea island of Sylt.

The deadline for applications is 20 February 2016.

We would like to inform you that the Global Carbon Project has released its newest (2015) annual update for year 2014, with preliminary estimates for year 2015. Relevant PowerPoint slides, figures, publications and other supporting documents are available at:

http://www.globalcarbonproject.org/carbonbudget/

The TPOS 2020 Project is evaluating and where necessary will implement changes to the Tropical Pacific Observing System. The project's aim is to ensure and improve the utility and sustainability of the Tropical Pacific Observing System. These deliberations must be based on the current understanding of tropical Pacific science and on anticipation of the needs of observing system stakeholders in the coming decades. To this end, the TPOS 2020 Biogeochemistry Task Team has put together a set of questions specifically about the biogeochemistry observational needs in the TPOS backbone design. The assessment of tradeoffs in the TPOS design will depend in part on answers to these questions.

Input to the Online Questionnaire before 15 January 2016 would be very appreciated!

We are pleased to announce the launch of the Latin American Ocean Acidification Network (LAOCA Network) a regional counterpart of the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON). On December 15^th, 2015, a group of 24 scientists from seven Latin-American countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru met at the city of Concepcion, Chile to establish the LAOCA.

The Oceans 2015 Initiative has produced a Policy Brief to try raising the profile of the ocean at 21^st session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP21) and beyond. The English version is available now while the French, Spanish and Chinese versions will be available in the next few weeks from the website below. Do not hesitate to disseminate.

http://www.iddri.org/Publications/Intertwined-ocean-and-climate-implications-for-international-climate-negotiations

The SOLAS-IMBER Working Group on Ocean Acidification has expressed its concern over the improper use of terminology by some scientists, media outlets and general public. The plea is published on the OA-ICC news stream where comments can be made. Some distinguished colleagues have have already made interesting comments which might lead us all to a systematic and globally agreed solution.

The observation-based pCO₂ fields were created using a 2-step neural network technique. In a first step, the global ocean is divided into 16 biogeochemical provinces using a self organizing map. In a second step, the non-linear relationship between variables known to drive the surface ocean carbon system and gridded observations from the SOCATv2 dataset (Bakker et al. 2014) is reconstructed using a feed-forward neural network within each province separately.