IOOS data management activities

The Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) will provide information about open oceans and US coastal waters and Great Lakes to scientists, managers, businesses, governments, and the public in order to support research, to inform decision-making, and to enable new applications and derived products beyond the original intent of the data gathering. Programmatically, IOOS is a component of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and the Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS). The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has been assigned the role of lead federal agency in this endeavor. Technically, IOOS includes or interfaces with existing observing systems, data providers and archives, and collaborates in developing additional capabilities in observations, data management and data use. The NOAA IOOS office has established a limited-scope data-management prototype and is developing an architecture to extend and augment that prototype. This paper introduces a general architecture for IOOS and discusses specific standardization and implementation activities in that context.