Although Thomas Jefferson had recognized the need for mapping and charting the waters of the young United States in 1807, it wasn’t until 1830 that the US Navy established the Depot of Charts and Instruments, which later became the US Naval Hydrographic Office. At the beginning, the Depot was a clearinghouse for navigational equipment and the few foreign charts that were available. The Depot didn’t make its own charts until 1837, with the first one covering Georges Shoal and Bank, from ship tracks provided by Lt. Charles Wilkes. Wilkes later led the famous 1838 US Exploring Expedition that provided the United States its first worldwide mapping coverage (Heynen, 1978).

In the early 1990s, the US environmental science, Intelligence, and Defense Communities came together in one of the largest declassification efforts ever undertaken. The collaboration was sparked by US Vice President Al Gore and US Central Intelligence Agency Director Robert Gates who saw the contribution that this unused global information could make to our understanding of Earth's environment. Their leadership led to the formation of a group named MEDEA, consisting of scientists representing a broad set of Earth science disciplines who were given access for the first time to highly classified data from the US Intelligence Community and the Defense Department. The new data led to deeper insights into Earth processes and more than doubled the existing ocean database. MEDEA's later unique collaboration with intelligence agencies in Russia resulted in US-Russia Oceanographic Atlases that have been used for more than 20 years now. The MEDEA program also supported complementary research studies on key observational topics and analyzed the issues of climate treaty monitoring and verifying CO2 emissions. The data revealed are still being used for time series and comparison with new measurements of global change. MEDEA's Global Fiducial Data Network continues to monitor critical environmental parameters today. The MEDEA effort brought important new data on global change to the science community. It showed that national security systems acting in concert with civil and commercial remote-sensing systems and in situ measurements can significantly improve collection of critical environmental parameters.

Sustained ocean observations benefit many users and societal goals but could benefit many more. Such information is critical for using ocean resources responsibly and sustainably as the ocean becomes increasingly important to society. The contributions of many nations cooperating to develop the Global Ocean Observing System has resulted in a strong base of global and regional ocean observing networks. However, enhancement of the existing observation system has been constrained by flat funding and limited cooperation among present and potential users. At the same time, a variety of actors are seeking new deployments in remote and newly ice-free regions and new observing capabilities, including biological and biogeochemical sensors. Can these new needs be met? In this paper, a vision for how to sustain ocean observing in the future is presented. A key evolution will be to grow the pool of users, engaging end users across society. Users with shared values need to be brought together with commitment to sustainable use of the ocean in the broadest sense. Present planning for sustained observations builds on the development of the Global Ocean Observing System which has primarily targeted increased scientific understanding of ocean processes and of the ocean's role in climate. We must build on that foundation to develop an Ocean Partnership for Sustained Observing that will incorporate the growing needs of a broad constituency of users beyond climate and make the case for new resources. To be most effective this new Partnership should incorporate the principles of a collective impact organization, enabling closer engagement with the private sector, philanthropies, governments, NGOs, and other groups. Steps toward achieving this new Partnership are outlined in this paper, with the intent of establishing it early in the UN Decade of Ocean Science.

Predicting climate change is a high priority for society, but such forecasts are notoriously uncertain. Why? Even should climate prove theoretically predictable—by no means certain—the near-absence of adequate observations will preclude its understanding, and hence even the hope of useful predictions. Geological and cryospheric records of climate change and our brief recent record of instrumental observations show that the climate system is changeable on all time scales—from a few years out to the age of the earth. Major physical, chemical, and biological processes influence the climate system on decades, centuries, and millennia. Glaciers fluctuate on time scales of years to centuries and beyond. Since the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide has been emitted through fossil fuel burning, and it will be absorbed, recycled, and transferred amongst the atmosphere, ocean, and biosphere over decades to thousands of years.

![Figure][1] NPOESS Preparatory Project satellite (artist's rendition). CREDIT: NOAA IN SPACE COLLECTION In the News Focus story “Weather forecasts slowly clearing up” (9 November, p. [734][2]), R. Kerr nicely summarizes how the growing improvement in prediction is coming from a focus on “more computer power, the assimilation of radar observations, and more physically realistic models.” He emphasizes that better assimilation of satellite data is a key element of improved forecasting. Unfortunately, these potential improvements will have little effect on forecasts if the basic data set from the existing polar-orbiting weather satellite system is not available. In a report issued in June 2012 ([ 1 ][3]), the U.S. Government Accountability Office noted that “data from this system is the predominant input to numerical weather prediction models” and warned that “there will likely be a gap in satellite data lasting 17 to 53 months” when the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project satellite ceases operations and NOAA's new satellite system (the Joint Polar Satellite System) launches. The report also notes that there are “potential satellite data gaps in DOD [Department of Defense] and European polar satellite programs which provide supplementary information to NOAA forecasts.” These gaps are a grave problem and would seriously degrade weather forecasts. Therefore, the agencies responsible for weather forecasting—NOAA, DOD, and NASA—should make filling the polar satellite data gaps the first priority in order to ensure that future forecasts are as good as possible. 1. [↵][4] U.S. GAO, “Polar-orbiting environmental satellites: Changing requirements, technical issues, and looming data gaps require focused attention,” GAO-12-604 (2012); [www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-604][5]. [1]: pending:yes [2]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.338.6108.734 [3]: #ref-1 [4]: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1 in text [5]: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-604

J. Frederick Grassle was chosen for pioneering research leading to our understanding of the unique deep-sea ecosystems associated with volcanic activity along the Mid-Ocean Ridge, the first ever found that are fueled by chemical energy from the Earth's interior instead of sunlight.

D James Baker(dagger 1) & Gary Richards(2) The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change has requested governments participating in Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Plus to establish reference emission levels and maintain robust and transparent forest monitoring systems. While the measurement and data coordination technology is available, much work remains to be done to develop national monitoring capability and institutions in developing countries, and the international framework for these systems. This paper draws attention to the useful insights to be drawn from the evolution of the delivery of routine global weather information, which stems from a partnership between National Meteorological Services and the World Meteorological Organization. These insights are already aiding in the ongoing development of national systems as well as in the Global Forest Observations Initiative led by the intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations.

International negotiations on the inclusion of land use activities into an emissions reduction system for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have been partially hindered by the technical challenges of measuring, reporting, and verifying greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the policy issues of leakage, additionality, and permanence. This paper outlines a five-part plan for estimating forest carbon stocks and emissions with the accuracy and certainty needed to support a policy for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, forest conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (the REDD-plus framework considered at the UNFCCC COP-15) in developing countries. The plan is aimed at UNFCCC non-Annex 1 developing countries, but the principles outlined are also applicable to developed (Annex 1) countries. The parts of the plan are: (1) Expand the number of national forest carbon Measuring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) systems with a priority on tropical developing countries; (2) Implement continuous global forest carbon assessments through the network of national systems; (3) Achieve commitments from national space agencies for the necessary satellite data; (4) Establish agreed-on standards and independent verification processes to ensure robust reporting; and (5) Enhance coordination among international and multilateral organizations.

C o m m e N ta r y INtroduCtIoN An ever-increasing volume of publications on the changing ocean environment underscores the requirement for long-term observations to understand and predict ocean and climate change.Such observations must be globally distributed and carried out over long time periods.But a means of obtaining those observations-particularly in the ocean-is not in place today.There is no global system of routinely funded, long-term, high-quality measurements to provide the necessary understanding of climate in general and the ocean in particular.The scientific literature is full of examples of tantalizing short records that do not illuminate the physical problems.Long-term biological measurements are in an even more limited state of development.With society

Author Posting. © Oceanography Society, 2007. This article is posted here by permission of Oceanography Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Oceanography 20, 4 (2007): 10-14.

![Figure][1] Keith Alverson ![Figure][1] D. James Baker Understanding human impact on the global environment requires accurate and integrated observations of all of its interconnected systems. Increasingly complex models, running on ever more powerful computers, are being used to elucidate dynamic links among the atmosphere, ocean, earth, cryosphere, and biosphere. But the real requirement for integrated Earth system science is a systematic, sustained record of observations, starting from as early as we can get quantitative information and extending reliably into the future. In particular, the ocean is critically undersampled both in space and time, and national and intergovernmental observational commitments are essential for progress. Ocean basins cover most of the planet and are filled with circulating turbulent fluid whose behavior can be modeled only by approximation. For instance, we talk of a “conveyor belt,” but this is an unrealistic cartoon of actual turbulent circulation, which by transporting heat and fresh water affects the planet's climate. Knowledge about the true variability of the circulation remains elusive because long-term systematic observations are lacking. Any seafarer knows that although one can look up from the deck of a ship and see the Moon clearly through 100 km of atmosphere, one cannot look down and see further than 1 m. Because the ocean is opaque to all wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, Earth-observing satellites can't see below the surface either. Thus, much of the ocean must be observed from a patchwork of drifting and moored buoys, neutrally buoyant floats, coastal installations, and ship-based measurements. ![Figure][1] CREDIT: FADLAN ARMAN SYAM/AP Great recent progress has been made with each of these individual observing-system components. The launch of the 1250th drifting surface buoy in Halifax Harbor last year completed a network that is vital for tropical storm track prediction. The rapidly expanding international network of Argo floats has rewritten our knowledge of the temperature and salinity of the upper oceans. Moored buoy arrays in the tropics have made seasonal climate and El Nino prediction a real possibility. With tide gauges reporting in real time, not only can we predict coastal inundation hazards, but we can also disentangle the myriad processes involved in changing global sea level. Although observing the ocean is challenging, in particular cases it can be done well. For 15 years, a global ocean-observing system under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of the United Nations' Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has been meeting important needs of global society. However, surprisingly little progress has been made toward a truly global system with long-term funding commitments. Lacking such a system and commitments, critical scientific hypotheses will remain untested. The IOC is now working with the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) to identify national focal points for ocean observation efforts and to integrate these efforts into a truly global system. Unfortunately, there is still no plan for sustaining individual measurement programs, for integrating them into a coherent observing system, or for supporting them with stable funding. With a few notable exceptions, substantial multilateral government support for coordination and integration remains elusive. To address this flaw, we propose the development of a UNESCO convention that commits nations to sustaining an integrated ocean-observing system that will lead to better understanding of the ocean and at the same time enable the provision of hazard warnings, monitoring of climate change, and management of marine and coastal resources. UNESCO's IOC stands ready to broker the development of such a convention. Preliminary discussions, including completion of the initial GEOSS tasks in ocean observation, begin at the next meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Global Ocean Observing System in June 2007 in Paris. Will your nation be at the table? [1]: pending:yes

Ecological ApplicationsVolume 6, Issue 3 p. 712-715 Article What do Ecosystem Management and the Current Budget Mean for Federally Supported Environmental Research? D. James Baker, D. James BakerSearch for more papers by this author D. James Baker, D. James BakerSearch for more papers by this author First published: 01 August 1996 https://doi.org/10.2307/2269468Citations: 3AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume6, Issue3August 1996Pages 712-715 RelatedInformation