The Nation needs a clear framework for its operational oceanography enterprise to clearly delineate, communicate, and understand:
- roles, responsibilities, and authorities,
- capabilities and capacities,
- paths and processes, and
- user engagement and requirements.
Establishing integration within and between national, regional, and local efforts, through enhanced partnerships between existing entities and, as needed, new organizational structures to address gaps serves to strengthen the Nation’s operational oceanography efforts into a coherent and robust enterprise spanning governmental, non-governmental, academic, and private sectors. Exploiting national agency participation flows through the national mission mandates of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Navy (Office of Naval Research), Homeland Security (U. S. Coast Guard, etc.), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Interior (Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), ….), the Department of Energy, the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA), etc. Within the NOAA, the National Ocean Service (NOS), the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the National Weather Service (NWS), the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), as well as the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO), each have significant roles for enabling and implementing the Nation’s operational oceanography enterprise. A clear opportunity exists with engaging, integrating, and capitalizing on the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) Regional Associations, whose activities comprise research, development, and operations, that provide cross-sector, as well as cross-partner, integration and development. Sustained and robust IOOS Regional Association operations struggle for resources beyond research and development funding. IOOS Regional Association roles, responsibilities, and authorities for operational oceanography need delineation and integration with national-level components. Operational oceanography user requirements and engagement flow from the IOOS Regional Associations, as well as industry organizations (e.g., the Consortium for Ocean Leadership) and national agencies; consequently, clear paths for capturing and routing those needs and interactions must be integrated within the enterprise architecture.
OceanPredict.US aims to serve as a catalyst for evolving the Nation’s oceanographic capabilities and capacities into a coalesced operational oceanography enterprise, enabling national, regional, and local efforts to address the needed ocean technologies, services, and knowledge. Additionally, OceanPredict.US aims to foster international partnerships and collaborations to leverage global capabilities and capacities for the benefit of the Nation’s operational oceanography enterprise, including:
- the international OceanPredict network, the Expert Team on Operational Ocean Forecast Systems (ETOOFS), the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNSESCO (IOC), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) global and regional partners, etc.
- UN Ocean Decade Programmes and projects, e.g., ForeSea, CoastPredict, SUstainability, Predictability and REsilience of Marine Ecosystems (SUPREME), SynObs, etc.;
- the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Blue Planet Initiative, the ocean and coastal component of GEO linking data providers and users, supporting stakeholder needs and generating societal benefits from ocean information;
- OceanPredict.US will facilitate and enable engagement with private sector entities (BluTech Cluster Alliance, Consortium for Ocean Leadership, etc.).