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MILUTARENA-Formidlings- og koordineringstiltak knyttet for miljø- og utviklingsforskning

Global Ocean Observing for Climate

Alternative title: Globalt havobservasjon for klimakunnskap

Awarded: NOK 0.35 mill.

The ocean plays a fundamental role in determining the impact of climate change on society. This project supports McDonagh in delivering international leadership to the system that monitors and understands this role. Climate change is the greatest long-term challenge we face; rising temperatures already impact our wellbeing, capacity to address challenges and economy, trends which will likely continue. These consequences would have been even more severe and the associated costs even larger had the ocean not slowed warming and the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide by taking up 93% of the heat and 25% of the carbon dioxide we add to the earth system. We cannot rely on this continuing and need systems to quantify, understand and predict this uptake. The challenge is enormous, the ocean covers 70 % of the planet and has an average depth of 4 km. The challenge is met by a UN sponsored Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) including multiplatform (ships, satellites and autonomous robots) observing networks. GOOS requires governance to ensure it is fit for purpose, efficient, accountable and operating effectively. McDonagh was elected to the GOOS steering group in 2019 to represent 24 nations including Norway, and this project will support her work in strengthening GOOS. Her nomination and election was due in part to her leadership of the Global Ocean Shipboard Hydrographic Programme or GO-SHIP, one of the networks of GOOS. GO-SHIP makes ‘gold standard’ observations of heat and carbon on which other networks rely. This involves multiple shipboard expeditions lasting six weeks or more which traverse entire ocean basins, supported by different countries with common operating practices and data management systems. This project will support McDonagh as the co-chair of this system, a role which involves coordinating national efforts and providing the international leadership and oversight required to deliver an effective whole ocean survey.

The major outcome of GLOO-C which we expect to have sustained and ongoing impact is that it underpinned the successful submission and funding of EuroGO-SHIP. This is a 3MEuro Horizons Europe Grant that will address the long-term sustainability and operation of hydrographic observations across Europe. Currently these lack a coordination structure and as a result are not reaching their full potential in terms of supporting important policy areas such as the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and Ocean contributions to the Un framework Convention on Climate Change) UNFCCC. EuroGO-SHIP will address this via a series of consultations, demonstration missions and at sea innovation activities that will come together to propose a structure by which the activities of European hydrographers can be sustained and supported. The vision is that by pooling resources better outcomes can be achieved at lower expenditure. This activity will strongly support the UN Ocean Decade project GO-SHIP Evolve which will coordinate the next phase of GO-SHIP development internationally (i.e. beyond Europe). This is crucial given the pivotal role that hydrographic observations play in underpinning observing systems such as the Argo fleet which monitors ocean heat uptake and carbon storage and the OSNAP and Rapid arrays which inform heat transport in the North Atlantic basin and hence Northwest European and thus Norwegian climate.

This proposal requests support for McDonagh’s representation of 24 Nations from Europe and North America, including Norway at the GOOS (Global Ocean Observing System, see below) steering group and leadership activity for the international global ocean observing network GO-SHIP (Global Ocean Ship-based Hydrographic Investigations Programme, see below). Both GOOS and GO-SHIP are international research networks and McDonagh´s position in both is of high importance for the project owner (NORCE) and other Norwegian Institutes that take part in in situ Ocean Observing (including Univ. of Bergen, Institute of Marine Research, Norwegian Polar Institute, NIVA, NTNU Trondheim, Univ. of Oslo and Univ. of Tromsø). The oversight that McDonagh provides for both the network (GO-SHIP) and the system of observations (GOOS) is crucial to coordinate the component national contributions into an excellent, effective and efficient whole. This proposal is a fundamental contribution to the observing system for climate, forecasting and ocean health. These leadership and oversight activities also benefit the contributing nations (including Norway) by national contributions to and benefits from a network of excellence. Specifically, it will add value to Norwegian investments in observing through the international collaboration of ocean observers and best practice maintained and advocated by the networks. The oversight further allows McDonagh to ensure that the priorities of the observing newtorks and systems reflect those of Norway. GLOO-C will facilitate alignment with Norway´s ocean policy strategy (Blue opportunities, Pub. nr W-0026 E, October 2019), specifically regarding the development of knowledge of the oceans, for a sound ocean economy management as well as promote sustainability and blue economy as a key area of Norway´s Arctic Policy, vital for achieving the UN Sustainable Development goals.

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MILUTARENA-Formidlings- og koordineringstiltak knyttet for miljø- og utviklingsforskning