Abbreviation POGO Region Global | Formation 1999 Membership 40 | |
Type Consortium of major oceanographic institutions around the world Purpose To promote global operational oceanography | ||
The Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO), which was founded in 1999, is a consortium of major oceanographic institutions around the world, represented by their Directors. POGO's goal is to promote global operational oceanography, the implementation of a Global Ocean Observing System, and the importance of ocean observations for society. In 2011, POGO had 40 Members. The current Chairman (2011-2012) is Prof. Peter Herzig (GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany). The incoming Chairman is Prof. John Field (Marine Research Institute, University of Cape Town, South Africa).
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It is supported from annual dues subscribed by the Members, as well as by grants from charitable foundations. The funds to explore the value of, and then establish, POGO were provided by the Alfred P. Sloan and Richard Lounsbery foundations.
POGO provides a forum (at the annual meetings and intersessionally) for Members to meet with their peers, and with senior officials of partner organisations, to discuss issues of mutual concern (it is a talking shop). It also serves as a credible voice for the marine science community, through its leadership role in the informal grouping Oceans United, and an advocating body for the establishment of an integrated, global ocean observing system. As a means to ease the shortage in trained observers of the ocean in developing countries, It has developed a suite of programmes in capacity building, and works with relevant partner organisations in the marine field SCOR, IOC, GOOS, GEO). It engages in outreach activities to the general public, a current example being its exhibit at the Ocean and Coasts Best Practices Area Pavilion at the Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea.
History
In March 1999, the Directors of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the Southampton Oceanography Centre in the UK, convened a planning meeting in the headquarters of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organisation (IOC-UNESCO) in Paris. This meeting confirmed the value of creating a new partnership and defined the initial mission statement and terms of reference.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography hosted the first formal meeting in early December 1999, with g included senior officials from 17 institutions in 12 countries (as well as representatives of the IOC, the Scientific Committee for Oceanic Research (SCOR) of the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) and several international scientific programs. At this meeting, there was agreement on an initial work plan, including development of an advocacy plan for observing systems; participation in processes to secure governmental commitments to fund ocean observing systems; a data interchange demonstration pilot project; and establishment of a clearinghouse for information exchange among POGO members, as well as the broader community.
POGO Capacity Building
Although not funded by POGO, the EAMNet Fellowship Programme, under which scientists from African countries can visit major oceanographic laboratories for training in use of remote sensing for ocean observations, is modelled on the POGO-SCOR Fellowship Programme. It is administered from Plymouth and is an example of the synergy resulting from the co-location of the POGO Secretariat in a member institution.
Under POGO capacity-building schemes, some 450 young scientists from 63 countries have received advanced training. Former scholars or alumni of NF-POGO training become members of the rapidly developing NF-POGO Alumni Network for Oceans (NANO), whose first newsletter appeared in September 2011.
Activities
In its São Paulo declaration of 2001, POGO drew attention to the world imbalance between Northern and Southern Hemispheres in the capacity to observe the oceans, resulting in its establishment of a capacity-building programme (above). It also underlined the relative paucity of ocean observations in the Southern Hemisphere compared with the Northern Hemisphere, and POGO member JAMSTEC, organised a circumnavigation of the Southern Hemisphere, the BEAGLE Expedition, using its ship RV Mirai, at a cost estimated to be around $35M. More recently, selected Antarctic Expeditions of Alfred Wegener Institute have been labelled POGO Expeditions,n. POGO also supports the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS).
Around the time POGO was being started, the Argo programme was also beginning.
The GEO Secretariat was established during the early years of POGO. Oceans did not appear among the nine societal-benefit areas around which GEO is structured. POGO has led the creation of a new Ocean Task (SB01, Oceans and Society: the Blue Planet) in the 2012-2015 GEO Work Plan. Trevor Platt, Executive Director of POGO, is the overall Coordinator for this Task.
POGO contributed to OceanObs'09 in Venice in 2009, which led to the opening up of sustained ocean observations to a broader community, including chemical, biological and biogeochemical observations. POGO also participated in the post-Venice Framework for Ocean Observing Committee.
POGO member institutions have been driving the establishment of OceanSites (coordinated, deep-ocean, multi-disciplinary time-series reference sites), which has made significant progress in recent years.
The idea for an "International Quiet Ocean Experiment" first came up during one of the POGO Annual Meetings. With seed funding from the Sloan Foundation, the idea was further developed in partnership with SCOR. An Open Science Meeting was convened under the auspices of SCOR and POGO at IOC-UNESCO, Paris, in August–September 2011, to develop a Science Plan for the project, which could last up to ten years.
Members
Secretariat personnel
The executive director is Dr. Trevor Platt.