National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
United States Department of Commerce


 

FY 2013

Ship-based repeat hydrography: U.S. contributions to GO-SHIP

Talley, L.D., and R. Feely

In U.S. IOOS Summit Community White Papers, Interagency Ocean Observation Committee (IOOC), Herndon, VA, 13–16 November 2012 (2012)


Ship-based hydrography is the only method for obtaining high-quality measurements with high spatial and vertical resolution of a suite of physical, chemical, and biological parameters over the full ocean water column, and in areas of the ocean inaccessible to other platforms. Global hydrographic surveys have been carried out approximately every decade since the 1970s through research programs such as GEOSECS, TTO/SAVE, WOCE/JGOFS, and CLIVAR. This white paper provides scientific justification and guidelines for a coordinated network of sustained ship-based hydrographic sections that are an integral component of the ocean observing system. Without the repeat hydrography observing system, there would be no way to: measure and track ocean carbon inventories, observe the global ocean below 2000 m, measure and track overall ocean heat changes, or provide the highest quality in situ validation data for autonomous sensors.



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