NOAA's New IOOS Program

Having information about our environment is key to sustaining Earth, our way of life, and future generations. The Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) is a nationally important infrastructure that will enable many different users to characterize, understand, predict and monitor changes in coastal and ocean environments and ecosystems. This infrastructure is critical to understanding, responding and adapting to the effects of severe weather, global-to-regional climate variability, and natural hazards. NOAA owns and operates much of the coastal and ocean observing and data distribution infrastructure. NOAA is the only federal agency that has responsibility for some aspect of all seven IOOS goals through our many mandates and programs; IOOS objectives are inherent to our mission. In December 2006, NOAA decided to standup an IOOS Program Office that will provide a central focal point for IOOS activities within NOAA. In the near-term NOAA will concentrate on developing a data integration framework. A fully operational data integration framework will take significant time to develop. However, we have set a 12 month goal of standing up the framework necessary to integrate five core IOOS variables, from multiple NOAA observing sources, for rapid and routine operational access and use by NOAA product developers and other end users. Between months 12 and 18, we expect to ingest these integrated variables into four specific NOAA data products. We will then systematically test and evaluate product enhancements, and verify, validate, and benchmark new performance specifications for operational use. Integrated regional coastal ocean observing system data, and effective regional management structures, are critical components of a fully realized U.S. IOOS program. NOAA intends to continue supporting the development and integration of these regional components. Regional partners are both producers and consumers of data and; therefore, will continue to have a role in the development of NOAA's IOOS data integration framework. The new office will serve as a focal point for the regions on U.S. IOOS efforts. The paper will discuss how NOAA is approaching the data integration framework within the context of NOAA and our United States Federal and Non-Federal partners. Further, we will discuss the context of integrating data and the necessary standards definition that must be done not only within the United States but in a larger global context. Conceptually, anyone interested in ocean observing or using ocean observations is a part of IOOS. Structurally, members include Federal agencies, state agencies, academic institutions, regional associations, trade associations, professional societies, business interests, public interest groups, and interested families and individuals. The IOOS model is assembling observations from diverse sponsors, thereby insuring innovation from independent perspectives, and yet establishing a foundation for all the diverse components to share data. The power of IOOS is synergy. Integrated data provides a board and synoptic view of our coastal, Great Lakes and ocean environments. By working together to integrate data we increase our knowledge of complex environmental phenomena which enables us to make better and smarter and coastal and ocean related management decisions.