NOAA’s Volunteer Observing Ship (VOS) Program:

Carrie Wolfe

Southwest NOAA VOS Coordinator

Overview - Ships - Summary - Agencies

The international scheme by which ships plying the various oceans and seas of the world are recruited for taking and transmitting meteorological and oceanographic observations is called the Voluntary Observing Ships’ (VOS) scheme. The forerunner of the scheme dates back as far as 1853.

From the very beginning, ships’ meteorological observations were recognized as being essential for the provision of safety related meteorological services for ships at sea, as well as for climatological purposes.

The Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) recruits ships to programs above and beyond meteorological observations, such as sub surface temperature profiles, salinity sampling, drifter and float deployments, atmospheric gas sampling, oceanic CO2 sampling, automated high-resolution meteorological sensors, and continuous plankton recorders. There is a great deal of interagency cooperation in the running of these programs.

The GOOS VOS fleet collects data and samples, or deploys equipment, along their normally scheduled runs. Sometimes scientific technicians ride on the ships in order to operate the equipment.

Most of the ships that SCMI coordinates have NOAA SEAS installations that are used to deploy sub surface temperature probes called expendable bathythermographs (XBT’s). The SEAS computer systems are also used for AMVER reports, synoptic meteorological observations and Wood Hole’s Oceanographic Institutes automated meteorological packages (AutoIMET). Data is saved to the SEAS computer, and also transmitted out as real-time XBT and weather observations. These ships deploy drift buoys for the Global Drifter Center as well. Since 1999 over 480 drifters have been deployed off of the VOS’s that SCMI coordinates.

Two ships in the south Pacific VOS fleet carry air samplers for the Carbon Cycle Greenhouse Gasses Group at NOAA CMDL and take discrete air samples between the US west coast and New Zealand. Two ships carry thermosalinograph (TSG) samplers, or for NOAA SEAS, and one for IRD Noumea. One ship does double duty as a NOAA SEAS low density XBT ship, and also carries ship riders for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s High Resolution XBT/XCTD Network. Another ship has an underway
PCO2 installation which is part of NOAA PMEL’s PCO2 program. Its not at all uncommon to have multiple agencies represented on one ship.

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SCMI coordinates and facilitates the recruitment, communications, installations, maintenance, training, loading and offloading of the ships listed below:

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VOS Project Summary

Carrie Wolfe, SCMI Research and Education Coordinator, NOAA Pacific
Southwest VOS Coordinator

The VOS program has been steadily growing over the years. Many scientific agencies have realized that cooperative efforts with commercial ships are extremely valuable. Typically, a commercial cargo ship that travels a route of interest is approached to see if they would be willing to carry and operate or deploy oceanographic equipment such as temperature probes, drift buoys, air sampler or other apparatus. If the Captain, officers, engineers and the shipping company agree, then the equipment is loaded, installed and then operated by the ships crew, usually the navigation officers. Why would the ship agree to volunteer for this program? Very often the Captain and officers are actually interested in these scientific endeavors. The amount of time we request from them is minimal. They can see that the information benefits the oceanographic and meteorological community in the abstract, and can be of benefit to the commercial fleet as a whole by the development of better climate models and weather forecasting. I have found the officers of these ships to be highly educated and positively enthusiastic about these programs.

After the recruitment of a ship, and the installation and training, the ship is met every time it arrives at the Port of Los Angeles or Long Beach. The ship meet can involve loading more expendable bathythermographs (or XBT’s – temperature probes), air sampling flasks, oceanographic drifting buoys for deployment at the equator, equipment maintenance and data download. I always organize the use of the ships crane with the crew and the stevedores, check in with the Captain and officers, perform routine maintenance and train any newofficers if necessary. I have been working with some of these ships since 1999, and have made some very good friends. One of our latest contracts requires a shiprider to travel on the ship from Los Angeles to New Zealand, so when that ship comes in there is quite a reunion! (read the article about the NOAA PMEL pCO2 program).

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Right now seven ships that call in Los Angeles are cooperating with four different agencies:

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric (NOAA) Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS).

http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/goos

The GOOS center manages and operates NOAA’s Global Drifter, Expendable Bathythermograph (XBT) and SEAS Metorological Programs. The goal is to provide timely, high quality and cost effective oceanographic instrumentation that can transmit data in real time to observational centers such as the National Center for Environmental Prediction. The Pacific Southwest VOS Fleet contributes over 40% of the XBT observations for the GOOS center. In 2002 same fleet deployed 103 drift buoys, and in 2003 they deployed 87. This year we will probably deploy about 100 drifters in the tropical Pacific. Typically in one month I load over 300 XBT’s and 12 drift buoys on the ships that come into Los Angeles or Long Beach. Many of these ships cooperate with more than one of the programs listed below.

Recently I have been testing and implementing new computer systems and software for these programs. The software is called SEAS2000, and it can process and transmit via satellite data from weather observations, XBT’s, and automated weather systems. Current implementations include high-density XBT’s, thermosalinographs and better data handling.

NOAA Climate Monitoring & Diagnostics Laboratory (CMDL) Carbon Cycle
Greenhouse Gases.

http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/ccgg/flask/index.html

The NOAA CMDL Carbon Cycle Greenhouse Gases group makes ongoing discrete measurements from land and sea surface sites. These measurements document the spatial and temporal distributions of carbon-cycle gases and provide essential constraints to our understanding of the global carbon cycle. The network is an international effort, which includes regular discrete samples from the 4 NOAA CMDL baseline observatories, cooperative fixed sites, and commercial ships. Samples are analyzed in Boulder by CCGG for CO2, CH4, CO, H2, N2O, and SF6; and by INSTAAR for the stable isotopes of CO2 and CH4. Measurement data are used to identify long-term trends, seasonal variability, and spatial distribution of carbon cycle gases. Two VOS ships that travel between Los Angeles and New Zealand collect air samples across the Pacific for this effort.

VOS Climate Project at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

http://uop.whoi.edu/vos/

The Upper Oceans Processes Group (UOP) at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has outfitted a small subset of VOS ships with IMET (Improved METeorology) instrumentation packages to collect high quality surface meteorological data and fluxes. The instruments are turned around at intervals of roughly six months for recalibration at WHOI. At that time, internally recorded one-minute averages are downloaded. The sensors are also used to provide real-time input to also provide input to NOAA’s SEAS2000 for automated VOS weather reports At present, the data are internally recorded and downloaded during the sensor turn-around.

Hourly AutoIMET observations are transmitted from the ship, and have proved to be a huge benefit to the climate models. I recently just heard from the Meteorological Service of New Zealand that the hourly data reports from the M/V Columbus Florida are especially appreciated when the ship is transiting the volatile Tasman Sea.

NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) Carbon Dioxide Program

http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/uwpco2/

NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory Carbon Dioxide Program, located in Seattle, Washington, conducts ocean carbon cycle research from ships and moorings in all of the major ocean basins in collaboration with Atlantic Oceanic and Meteorological Laboratory’s CO2 Program. The ocean plays an important role in regulating the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and in regulating climate variability and the impact that humans have on the global environment.

This is the most recent of SCMI’s VOS contracts. The M/V Columbus Waikato was recruited for the installation of a system that reads the CO2 levels of both the atmosphere and the ocean. This system, affectionately nicknamed “the beast” is located in the engine room of the ship. It has been plumbed for both seawater (for oceanic CO2 analysis) and freshwater (for system back flushing). An airline is run from the bow of the ship to the pCO2 system for atmosphere analyses. There is also a NOAA thermosalinographs connected to it, and data cables strung from the engine room to the bridge for data transmission via Irridium. This system still needs a technician to operate it, so a shiprider travels with the ship every southbound run to Auckland, New Zealand.

SCMI is contracted to provide at least three shiprides per year in order to keep the pCO2 system operating. I rode the ship in April, and Kerry Flaherty rode with the ship in June. I will ride again in October. The crew and officers are Ukrainian. Kerry and I really enjoyed working with them, and the PMEL was very happy about the data that we collected. The Columbus Waikato is my hardest working ship right now. In addition to the pCO2 system, the watch officers also drop XBT’s for NOAA GOOS four times per day and collect air samples for NOAA CMDL every day while transiting the Pacific. Oh, and they usually deploy drifters at the equator as well!