Integrated Ocean Observing System


The Integrated Ocean Observing System is an organization of systems that routinely and continuously provides quality controlled data and information on current and future states of the oceans and Great Lakes from the global scale of ocean basins to local scales of coastal ecosystems. It is a multidisciplinary system designed to provide data in forms and at rates required by decision makers to address seven societal goals.
IOOS is developing as a multi-scale system that incorporates two, interdependent components, a global ocean component, called the Global Ocean Observing System, with an emphasis on ocean-basin scale observations and a coastal component that focuses on local to Large Marine Ecosystem scales.
Large Marine Ecosystems in U.S. coastal waters and IOOS Regional Associations.
Many of IOOS' component regional systems are being dismantled for lack of federal funding, including the Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System . This has resulted in the loss of long term data sets and information used by Coast Guard search and rescue operations.

Regional associations

. The coastal component consists of Regional Coastal Ocean Observing Systems nested in a National Backbone of coastal observations. From a coastal perspective, the global ocean component is critical for providing data and information on basin scale forcings, as well as providing the data and information necessary to run coastal models.
Alaska Ocean Observing System
Central California Ocean Observing System
Great Lakes Observing System
Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System
Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System
Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System
Mid-Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association
Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems
Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System
Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association
Caribbean Integrated Ocean Observing System