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| Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System | |
|---|---|
| Name | Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System |
| Abbreviation | PI-OOS |
| Formation | 2007 |
| Type | Regional ocean observing network |
| Region served | Pacific Islands, Micronesia, Polynesia, Melanesia |
| Parent organization | University of Hawaii System |
Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System
The Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System is a regional observing network coordinating oceanographic, meteorological, and coastal observations across the Pacific Islands. It integrates observational assets, data management, and stakeholder engagement to support navigation, fisheries, disaster response, and climate resilience for jurisdictions such as Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of Palau. The program connects academic institutions, national agencies, territorial governments, and international organizations to deliver interoperable products for science and society.
The program aggregates observations from platforms deployed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and regional partners like the University of the South Pacific, Pacific Islands Forum, and Secretariat of the Pacific Community. It interoperates with initiatives such as the Global Ocean Observing System, the Integrated Ocean Observing System, the Argo program, the Global Drifter Program, and the Ocean Observatories Initiative. Stakeholders include the US Geological Survey, Food and Agriculture Organization, World Meteorological Organization, Pacific Community, Asian Development Bank, and local authorities including Guam Department of Agriculture, Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources, and American Samoa Department of Commerce.
The network emerged amid regional calls for coordinated observing after events linked to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, the 2009 Samoa earthquake and tsunami, and rising interest from the National Science Foundation and NOAA. Early pilots involved partnerships with Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of Washington, CSIRO, and the Nippon Foundation. Funding and technical guidance were influenced by programs such as USAID, the European Union, Japan International Cooperation Agency, and initiatives like the Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System Pilot Project and collaborations with the Pew Charitable Trusts and Gulf of Maine Research Institute.
Governance blends academic leadership from institutions like the University of Hawaii and the University of Guam with oversight from federal agencies including NOAA Fisheries, NOAA National Weather Service, and the U.S. Department of the Interior. Funding streams derive from grants awarded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Program Office, the National Science Foundation Division of Ocean Sciences, philanthropic sources such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation, and multilateral lenders like the World Bank. Advisory inputs arrive from regional bodies like the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States where relevant for comparative lessons.
Observing assets include moored buoys deployed in coordination with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, coastal tide gauges part of the Global Sea Level Observing System, drifting buoys from the Global Drifter Program, and profiling floats under Argo. Remote sensing inputs come from Copernicus Programme satellites, Landsat, Sentinel-3, Jason-3, and missions like ICESat-2 and MODIS operated by NASA. Coastal and in situ sensors include ADCPs and CTDs supplied by vendors and labs affiliated with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, and the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. Autonomous systems such as gliders from Teledyne Webb Research and surface vehicles from Liquid Robotics are deployed alongside acoustic arrays used by the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center.
Data stewardship follows standards endorsed by the Open Geospatial Consortium, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, and the Group on Earth Observations. Data portals provide near-real-time feeds compatible with Data Observation Network for Earth (DataONE), THREDDS Data Server, and ERDDAP services developed by institutions like the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Products include tsunami advisories coordinated with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, marine forecasts from the National Weather Service Pacific Region, sea surface temperature maps used by NOAA Coral Reef Watch, habitat maps for Palau National Coral Reef Monument, and fisheries stock indicators used by Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission.
The program forges partnerships with multilateral organizations such as the Pacific Islands Forum, Secretariat of the Pacific Community, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Academic collaborations include University of the South Pacific, University of Hawaiʻi, University of Guam, James Cook University, University of Auckland, and University of the Philippines Diliman. International scientific partners include CSIRO, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Ifremer, Geoscience Australia, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, and Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology. Conservation and management partners include Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, IUCN, and regional commissions like the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency.
Operational products support maritime safety for entities such as the US Coast Guard, Pacific Forum International, and commercial shipping lines serving ports like Honolulu Harbor and Apia Harbor. Ecological applications assist reef managers at Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and fisheries managers for the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission. Community resilience projects coordinate with the Red Cross Pacific, Asia Development Bank Pacific Climate Change Program, and local disaster offices following guidance from the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. Research enabled by shared datasets has informed studies published by authors affiliated with Nature Geoscience, Science Advances, Journal of Geophysical Research, and Geophysical Research Letters.
Challenges include sustaining long-term financing from agencies like NOAA and NSF amid shifting priorities, technical hurdles integrating heterogeneous datasets across standards set by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, and logistical constraints across island chains including Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. Future directions emphasize expansion of observing capacity with deep-sea sensors supported by programs such as Horizon Europe, enhanced satellite coordination with ESA, greater community-based monitoring modeled after Micronesia Challenge approaches, and incorporation of machine learning tools developed by groups at MIT, Stanford University, and Carnegie Mellon University.