Global Oceans

THE ATMOSPHERIC INSTRUMENTATION SUITE (AIS) PROJECT IS A NEW SCIENTIFIC INFRASTRUCTURE AND PROGRAM MANAGEMENT PROPOSAL DEVELOPED BY GLOBAL OCEANS AND ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY, A GOVERNMENT-CONTRACTED LABORATORY OF THE US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (DOE). JOINT OWNERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT IS PROPOSED TO BUILD AND OPERATE A SERIES OF MOBILE ATMOSPHERIC OBSERVATORIES CERTIFIED FOR INSTALLATION ON SHIPS. THIS PROJECT WILL EXPAND CAPACITY FOR ATMOSPHERIC OBSERVATIONS OVER THE WORLD'S OCEANS, WHICH CURRENT REPRESENTS A SIGNIFICANT GAP IN GROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS, ESPECIALLY FOR CLIMATE MODELING. THE PROJECT WILL BENEFIT FROM GLOBAL OCEANS' MARV VESSEL MODEL, INCLUDING USE OF CHARTERED POLAR ICEBREAKERS IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN, TO HOST THE AIS SYSTEMS. AS A NONGOVERNMENTAL, NONPROFIT, INTERNATIONAL PROJECT, THESE NEW OBSERVATORIES WILL EXPAND SCIENTIFIC CAPACITY IN A WAY THAT IS FLEXIBLE AND GLOBALLY COLLABORATIVE.

GLOBAL SEAMOUNTS PROJECT WILL HOST A MULTI-YEAR SERIES OF GLOBAL RESEARCH EXPEDITIONS TO 20 OR MORE DEEP-SEA SEAMOUNTS TO CONDUCT INTENSIVE SCIENTIFIC SURVEYS OF THESE UNDERSEA ECOSYSTEMS. AGGREGATED DATA FROM THE SURVEYS WILL BE HOSTED IN THE CLOUD AND MADE ACCESSIBLE TO INTERNATIONAL TEAMS OF BIOPHYSICAL MODELERS. MULTIPLE ECOSYSTEM AND PHSYICAL MODELS WILL BE MODIFIED AND HOSTED BY THE PROJECT AND RUN AS A MODELING ENSEMBLE, WITH COMMON DATASETS FROM THE FIELD SURVEYS, FOR GENERATING A RANGE OF OUTPUTS INCLUDING FUTURE POTENTIAL ECOSYSTEM SCENARIOS, STANDARD METRICS, AND EMERGENT PROPERTIES ARISING FROM CLIMATE CHANGE AND HUMAN IMPACT. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THIS NEW INTEGRATED COMPUTATIONAL MODEL FOR COMPLEX ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION FOR SEAMOUNTS, POPULATED WITH NEW FIELD DATA, WILL UNIQUELY CONTRIBUTE TO THE ABILITY TO SUSTAINABLY MANAGE AND CONSERVE ONE OF THE LARGEST BIOMES IN THE OCEAN.

THE SASX ARCTIC BASELINE PROJECT IS AN INITIATIVE UNDER DEVELOPMENT THAT PROPOSES TO CHARTER COMMERCIAL SECTOR ICEBREAKING VESSELS AND OTHER PLATFORMS, MOBILIZE THE VESSELS FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH WITH MODULAR SCIENCE WORKSPACE SYSTEMS, AND TO HOST AN INTERNATIONALLY-SUPPORTED ANNUAL SERIES OF RESEARCH EXPEDITIONS OVER THE NEXT 10 YEARS. THE EXPEDITIONS ARE DESIGNED TO REPLICATE AND EXTEND ON A SEASONAL BASIS SELECTED CORE DATASETS OBTAINED FROM NATIONAL ICEBREAKING RESEARCH VESSELS PARTICIPATING IN THE RECENTLY COMPLETED, SINGLE-YEAR INTERNATIONAL SYNOPTIC ARCTIC SURVEY (SAS). SASX WILL ADD VALUE TO SAS OCEAN DATA BY ADDING A TIME-SERIES DIMENSION TO THE ONE-YEAR SAS "SNAPSHOT" OF ARCTIC CONDITIONS, TO CAPTURE ANNUAL CHANGE AT GREATER RESOLUTION, REFLECTING THE FACT THAT THE ARCTIC IS CHANGING MORE RAPIDLY THAN OTHER REGIONS ON EARTH.

ENGINEERING AND COST PROPOSALS FOR REBUILDING GLOBAL OCEANS' DEEP-SEA ROVS AND TOWED SENSOR VEHICLE ACQUIRED FROM OCEANEERING IN 2020 HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED THAT WILL RESULT IN A NEW SUITE OF DEDICATED SCIENTIFIC DEEP-SEA ROBOTIC VEHICLES. THE REBUILT VEHICLES AND OPERATING SUPPORT EQUIPMENT WILL EXPAND DEEP-SEA (6,000 METER) RESEARCH AND OBSERVATION CAPACITY. GLOBAL OCEANS WILL UTILIZE THESE SYSTEMS IN ITS PROGRAM PROJECTS AND WILL OFFER TO OPERATE THEM FOR THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY AT LARGE FOR OTHER SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH PROJECTS.