In the “BECAUSE” statements I would like to see the entire world ocean stressed. Also, if we are going to call out ocean acidification, should not heat, freshwater, CO2, and oxygen transport and storage be emphasized as well? Also, for AC4, what about data archeology and re-analyses?

two things:

1. “sustain”
The word “sustain” means a lot to us, but I believe the implied meaning is not obvious to an outsider. I suggest adding an explanation that much of the present system is funded through temporary research grants, rather than having a long-term perspective. Maybe add on page 1:
“…are fragile and insufficient, based on transient funding situations, and lack long-term perspective.”

2. “data management”
One repeated issue raised during the meeting was the need for reliable data management and archiving. I did not find these words directly in the statement, although they are implied in (AC4). I would suggest that in (AC4), “metadata” be replaced by:
“data management including archiving and metadata preservation”.

Thanks, M.L.

1. In the Vision statement, replace “useful hindcasts, nowcasts and forecasts” with “describing, understanding and forecasting”

2. In the paragraph beginning “Core principles…”, modify the last sentence to read “Observations must be openly shared in near realtime. They must therefore be collected, analyzed, archived, and distributed to international standards with agreed best practices”

3. In the list of “Becauses…”, add the following after the second “Because”:

“Because ocean observations are essential for developing a process understanding of variability from daily to centennial time scales”

“Because process understanding built upon ocean observations is central to validating and improving ocean models used for weather and climate forecasting”

1. The comment of 36 nations is made to emphasize representativeness of the group. This should be put into some further context (how many islands and countries have maritime interests) and further how many continents and ocean basins are represented.

2. It is noteworthy to recognise that due to the importance of the ocean to the climate, all nations regardless of maritime interest have a stake in the outcomes of this community. The statement could include a recognition of the responsibility placed upon this group to develop, conduct and monitor a coherent plan that responds to societies existing and future questions.

3. Status of GOOS-2009. A stronger statement could be made on behalf of the community on the status of the implementation of OceanObs’99. A related comment is required to determine if these requirements were right. The statement is weakened if it does not show that the knowledge gained over the past decade is refining our requirements for the next decade. An indication of the task to be dealt with by the working group.

4. The statement “BECAUSE global information for forecasting weather…”, could be strengthened to indicate the societal need for ocean information over all scales and to achieve seamless prediction.