Ocean Carbon Network

About the Program

Monitoring and observing ocean carbon helps us understand the broader effects of climate-related challenges on our planet

The ocean absorbs approximately 25% of humankind’s carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. While this reduces the accumulation of this greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, slowing the rate of climate change, it also increases the acidity of seawater (ocean acidification), endangering marine organisms and ocean health.

NOAA’s Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing Program (GOMO) provides long-term observations of carbon from the sea surface to the sea floor. These measurements are recorded across the globe to capture differences between ocean basins at different time scales to capture both seasonal and year-to-year variability.

GOMO’s long-term monitoring and scientific analysis of how much carbon the ocean absorbs from the atmosphere is critical for understanding the role the ocean plays in regulating global climate, determining if ocean uptake of CO₂ will continue at the same rate with increasing emissions, and how we can prepare for potential future climate-related challenges. These global observations are critical for the development of climate policies and future climate projections.

What We Measure

Surface Ocean Carbon

Understanding changes in oceanic CO₂ uptake is essential for assessing the difference between human-caused climate change and the global carbon cycle. The Surface Ocean CO₂ Reference Network (SOCONET) provides information on how the global carbon cycle changes over time. This network utilizes commercial and research ships (Ship of Opportunity) and autonomous platforms to measure temperature, salinity, and pCO₂ (partial pressure of carbon dioxide) in surface water and the air. These observations are used to determine the amount of atmospheric CO₂ absorbed by the ocean on seasonal scales, document changes in the surface ocean carbon chemistry, and evaluate the variability in carbon exchange between the ocean and atmosphere to provide meaningful projections of future atmospheric CO₂ levels.

Ocean Interior Carbon

Ship-based ocean sampling remains the only method for obtaining high-quality physical, chemical, and biological measurements from the surface to sea floor on a global scale. The U.S. Global Ocean Ship-based Hydrographic Investigations Program (U.S. GO-SHIP), part of the international GO-SHIP network of 55 sustained hydrographic sections, collects ocean interior carbon measurements to determine changes in the storage of human-caused CO₂, including at depths greater than two kilometers, which is below what autonomous core Argo floats can measure.

How We Measure: Ocean Observing Tools

Ships

The Global Ocean Ship-based Hydrographic Investigations Program (U.S. GO-SHIP) is a network of global cruise tracks that cover the ocean basins from coast to coast and top to bottom. Each track is occupied every 10 years and the data collected provide information about changes in ocean heat, circulation patterns, carbon and oxygen content and more.

The Ships of Opportunity network utilizes volunteer commercial ships and research vessels. These ships are outfitted with sensors that collect data passively, greatly increasing our capacity to measure CO₂ all over the ocean.

CTD Rosette

CTD rosettes are deployed from research vessels to measure Conductivity (salinity), Temperature, and Depth (CTD) and collect discrete water samples. The rosette, equipped with Niskin water sample bottles, is lowered through the water column to the bottom of the ocean. Each bottle collects a water sample at a specified depth. Once back on the ship, scientists analyze the water to measure carbon and other variables.

Buoys

NOAA maintains a network of moored buoys (fixed, measuring in one place) that measure atmospheric and surface ocean CO₂. This provides a record of how CO₂ concentrations change over time at a particular location.

Autonomous Surface Vehicles

Autonomous surface vehicles (e.g. saildrones) sail across the ocean collecting atmospheric and surface ocean CO₂ measurements.

Biogeochemical (BGC) Argo Floats

These autonomous robotic profiling floats can collect vertical profiles of ocean temperature, salinity, pH, oxygen, nitrate, chlorophyll a, suspended particles, and downwelling irradiance from the surface to a depth of 2,000 meters every 10 days and transmit data in real-time via satellites.

GOMO's Role

GOMO is leading the coordination and integration of global ocean carbon observations across research and modeling activities

GOMO supports research that includes ocean carbon and biogeochemical observations, research, modeling, data synthesis, product development, and technology development. GOMO provides strategic programmatic support, facilitates partnerships, and supports capacity development. See who we work with by clicking the icons below.

Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory

Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory

Global Monitoring Laboratory

Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory

International Ocean Carbon Coordination Project

Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS)

Integrated Ocean Carbon Research (IOC-R) Working Group

Interagency Working Group National Oceanographic Partnership Program (IWG-NOPP)

Interagency Working Group on Ocean Acidification (IWG-OA)

NOAA Ocean Acidification Working Group (NOAWG)

Carbon Cycle Interagency Working Group (CCIWG)

Carbon Dioxide Removal Task Force

NOAA Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Technical Team

Global Ocean Ship-based Hydrographic Investigations Program (GO-SHIP)

US GO-SHIP

Bio-GO-SHIP

Surface Ocean CO₂ Observing Network

University of Washington

University of Miami/RSMAS

Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences

University of Colorado Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR)

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University

Woods Hole Oceanographic Instutution

Scripps Institution of Oceanography

University of California, Irvine

Oregon State University

Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences

University of Hawai’i

National Center for Atmospheric Research

University of Maryland

Data & Products

Data

Products

Ocean Carbon News

Discrepancies in ocean carbon sink estimates persist, how NOAA is making progress to close the gap

11/21/2024

2024 Global Carbon Budget Report Released Every year, scientists from around the world, including NOAA experts, work together to produce the Global Carbon Budget. This annual scientific report tracks the...

NOAA Ocean Acidification Program & GOMO fund $3M for optimizing ocean carbon observing

11/21/2024

The NOAA Ocean Acidification Program (OAP), in partnership with NOAA’s Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing (GOMO) Program is pleased to announce the awardees for the FY24 Coastal and Ocean Carbon...

Oceanic measurements of carbon dioxide continue to decrease, as reported in this year’s ocean carbon data atlas

11/21/2024

SOCAT annual update for 2024 released The release of this year’s Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (SOCATv2024) on June 19th revealed that the number of oceanic measurements of the climate change-driving...

What we’ve learned from two decades of observations in the Hawaiian Pacific

11/21/2024

On June 1, 2024, a collaborative group of scientists successfully deployed a 5,000-pound, sky-blue mooring approximately 60 miles north of Oahu, Hawaiʻi, from the NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette for...

Biden-Harris Administration invests $2.1 million for measuring surface ocean carbon through the Investing in America agenda

11/21/2024

Funding will expand observations, improve forecasting of carbon dioxide levels in the ocean surface and atmosphere This is a repost of a NOAA.gov press release published May 30, 2024. Today,...

Student Opportunity: participate on the GO-SHIP A16S cruise (deadline June 3)

11/21/2024

U.S. GO-SHIP is looking for students to participate in the upcoming occupation of the meridional hydrographic line known as A16S aboard the NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown. The cruise is...

We Support the Advancement of Ocean Science

GOMO provides support for institutions from around the country that foster advancements in understanding and protecting our global oceans. View the research projects that impact people, ecosystems, and the economy.