Ocean partnerships [Naval Oceanographic Office]

The challenges of supporting operations at sea include the complexity of ocean forecasting in the coastal zone, the rapid evolution of ocean technology, and the impact of the Internet. The Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO), the U.S. Department of Defense´s lead organization for oceanography, maintains the world´s most extensive ocean databases, collects disparate types of ocean data, and runs a comprehensive suite of ocean models. Despite all of these resources, meeting these challenges will require collaboration between NAVOCEANO and the research and development (R&D) and operational activities of civil government agencies, academia, and other countries on an unprecedented scale. The Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment (GODAE), which are international ocean observation and prediction programs, are two activities of particular interest. At the national level, the Oceans Act 2000 mandates the establishment of a Commission on Ocean Policy that will conduct a comprehensive review of national ocean policy and recommend a policy for the next decade or more. In preparation for this review, naval oceanography needs a vision of how oceanography can be made more effective by leveraging naval and non-defense ocean programs toward each other´s missions. NAVOCEANO is considering several initiatives for collaboration with external ocean programs. Participation in GOOS and GODAE will be a high priority. This participation will include the release by NAVOCEANO of previously restricted data and the development of a Navy test bed for developing, testing, and validating ocean forecast systems. This test bed will expedite the leverage of non-defense R&D by focusing naval and non-defense oceanographers on specific issues. A key aspect of the test bed will be a new Web-based infrastructure that exploits distributed computing to enhance collaboration and data exchange among teams dispersed across the country