Scientists warn dismantling US ocean monitoring system could degrade forecasts
5 reported1 unconfirmed
The Trump administration’s plan to dismantle a U.S. ocean observation system would “severely degrade” the accuracy of weather predictions and El Niño forecasts, with economic consequences, according to European and American scientists. Research published last month in Nature Climate Change found that decommissioning the U.S. system, a major part of the global ocean observation network, would lead to a massive increase in error in annual estimates of ocean heating rates. The Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), run by the U.S. National Science Foundation, is a network of seafloor systems, underwater gliders and moored surface platforms that feeds data to researchers and policymakers worldwide. Removing U.S. observations alone would produce a 163% increase in error for annual ocean heating rates, the research found. On Thursday, the European Union announced a €92m ($107m) initiative called OceanEye to boost its own ocean monitoring, though the announcement was long-planned and not a direct response to the U.S. move. A statement by the National Science Foundation said the program was not being cancelled entirely and described the plans as a “descope,” or reduction of elements, though it was not clear what data collection capacity would be left.
What’s reported
The Trump administration plans to dismantle the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), a U.S. ocean observation system.
Research published last month in Nature Climate Change found that losing U.S. observations would produce a 163% increase in error for annual ocean heating rates.
The OOI is run by the U.S. National Science Foundation and includes seafloor systems, underwater gliders, and moored surface platforms.
The European Union announced a €92m ($107m) initiative called OceanEye to boost its own ocean monitoring, but the announcement was long-planned.
A National Science Foundation statement said the program was not being cancelled entirely and described the plans as a “descope.”
Open questions
It is not clear what data collection capacity would be left after the “descope” of the OOI.
Key figures
Sabrina Speich, expert in global ocean monitoring at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Paris and chair of the ocean expert panel of the Global Climate Observing System.
John P Abraham, professor of engineering at the University of St Thomas, Minnesota, and co-author of the research paper.
Samantha Burgess, strategic climate lead at the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
Sources: The Guardian
