Near-East Asian Regional GOOS (NEAR-GOOS)

Program Overview

NEAR-GOOS is the North-East Asian Regional GOOS  program. It is being implemented by China, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation as a WESTPAC project. It is intended to provide an operational demonstration of the usefulness of a regional ocean observing system in the achievement of its own specific goals and as a pilot project for other parts of the world.

NEAR-GOOS Data Access

Program Management

The NEAR-GOOS Co-ordinating Committee has been established as a management body with the following terms of reference.

• Review the Implementation Plan of the NEAR-GOOS;
• Keep updating the Operation Manual for data exchange;
• Review the situation of access to and data reporting by the participating countries and others;
• Review the achievements of the NEAR-GOOS and report to the IOC Sub-Commission for WESTPAC and through the Sub-Commission to the participating Member States.
• Make necessary recommendations and to advise the participating countries;
• Review data and information infrastructure and allocation of observing platforms by the participating countries and advise on their improvements;
• Prepare an annual report of NEAR-GOOS for distribution to the Member States through IOC Regional Secretariat for WESTPAC. This report shall be retained in the data base for reference by the registered users.

The Mission of NEAR-GOOS in the 2nd Phase:

To develop a comprehensive and sustained ocean observing network in the regional seas and coastal regionsespecially focused on observations, monitoring and other activities that can not be easily implemented by countries acting independently. This network will embrace a wide range of data types and will be accompanied by pilot observing experiments, trials and demonstrations, training and useful products for use by the participating members and as a contribution to the GOOS and other globlal observing initiatives. (from the NEAR-GOOS Presentation at the GRF-IV November 2008)

The Objectives of NEAR‐GOOS in the 2nd Phase:

In accordance with the overall mission, four major objectives will define the actions and tasks for its Second Phase:

1. Restructuring to provide a more comprehensive and flexible and expandable operational capability
2. Enhancing and consolidating the Database Networks established in phase I
3. Defining, planning and implementing NEAR‐GOOS labelledPilot Projects and Experiments
4. Developing outreach programs directed towards awareness raising, stakeholder recruitment (including more national
   agencies and participating experts), training and capacity
   building. (from the NEAR-GOOS Presentation at the GRF-IV November 2008)

Documents

• A Strategic Plan for NEAR-GOOS in Its Second Phase - GOOS Report No. 166
• Near-GOOS Progress report and Work Plan in the Near Future (November 2008)

NEAR-GOOS Data Management

Each country establishes a National Real Time Data Base (RTDB) and a National Delayed Mode Data Base (DMDB) to collect all the available oceanographic data in the country, and to make them available to users.

The Regional Real Time Database collects the real time data in the region from the national RTDBs or directly from the data producers. The Regional RTDB is maintained by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) for on-line access by NEAR-GOOS users via the Internet. Data in the data base are kept for 30 days and then transferred to the Regional Delayed Mode Data Base.

The Regional Delayed Mode Database also exists for archiving data. The Regional DMDB is maintained by the Japan Oceanographic Data Center (JODC).

The NEAR-GOOS Region

(diagram courtesy of the NEAR-GOOS home page operated by the GOOS Project Office.)

People in NEAR-GOOS and Contact Information