The Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans, POGO, is a forum created in 1999 by directors and leaders of major oceanographic institutions around the world to promote global oceanography, particularly the implementation of an international and integrated global ocean observing system. POGO includes institutions performing ocean observations as well as representatives of existing international and regional programs and organizations. POGO is a partnership of institutions involved in oceanographic observations, scientific research, operational services, education and training.

The long-term aim of POGO is to participate in the creation and operation of an integrated global ocean observing strategy, addressing information needs of decision-makers, researchers, service providers, and the general public. POGO’s contribution to that goal is to provide an informal forum for dialogue among leaders of key oceanographic institutions. POGO can help to integrate the observational needs of different ocean disciplines (such as ocean circulation, biology and climate) and to reduce barriers between research and operational activities. By facilitating collaborative partnerships, POGO can encourage developing countries to participate fully in collecting and using environmental information for their own needs. POGO can help make the case for extensive and sustained observations, along with research and modelling, to meet society’s need to understand the oceans that cover three-quarters of the Earth’s surface and are fundamental to life itself on our planet.

 

As a means of attaining its objective, POGO:

• Initiates key actions to enable effective coordination, integration, and implementation of international ocean observing strategies in close collaboration with the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS);
• Establishes collective agreements among institutions to promote timely developments in ocean science;
• Develops and promotes coordinated views of ocean institutions concerning ocean observation and science to governments, international bodies, and others;
• Facilitates linkages between oceanographic research and operational institutions in relation to their goals, plans, and programs;
• Undertakes capacity building;
• Promotes sharing of facilities and infrastructure;
• Encourages interdisciplinary use of observing infrastructure;
• Conducts public outreach.

 

 

POGO's successes have been several and far-reaching. A few of these are highlighted below. A comprehensive list of programmes that POGO has helped to establish can be accessed here.

 

In its Sao Paulo declaration of 2001, POGO drew attention to the world imbalance between Northern and Southern Hemispheres in the capacity to observe the oceans, recommending immediate action to enhance such capacity in developing countries. The result was establishment by POGO of a capacity-building programme. In the Sao Paulo declaration, POGO also underlined the relative paucity of ocean observations in the Southern Hemisphere compared with the Northern Hemisphere and called for intensification of observing in the Southern Hemisphere. A direct response was made by POGO member JAMSTEC (Japan Agency for Marine Earth Science and Technology), which organised, at quite short notice, a circumnavigation of the Southern Hemisphere, the BEAGLE Expedition. It was an excellent example of a direct and significant action resulting from a public statement of POGO.

 

Around the time POGO was being started, the Argo programme was also beginning. One of the first crusades of POGO was to throw the collective weight of its members behind the world expansion of Argo. A collaboration among 50 research and operational agencies from 26 countries, Argo now has charge of more than 3,000 floats around the world’s oceans. Because the members of POGO are directors with the power to commit resources and influence decision makers, a resolution to accord full support to Argo had immediate effect, and the distribution of floats around the world ocean improved rapidly. This was an instance in which direct action by POGO had a profound effect on enhancing the ocean observing system.

 

POGO member institutions have been driving the establishment of OceanSITES, a network of deep-ocean, multi-disciplinary time-series reference sites, measuring many variables and monitoring the full depth of the ocean from the surface down to 5,000 metres. This network comprises about 30 surface and 30 sub-surface arrays. At its 2011 meeting in Seoul, POGO’s directors decided to give immediate priority to increasing support for OceanSITES. They also agreed to encourage all OceanSITES parties to maintain a minimum set of common measurements. OceanSITES moorings are integral to the Global Ocean Observing System, as they complement satellite imagery and Argo float data by adding time and depth, and by expanding what is observed.

 

The POGO Secretariat and POGO member institutions contributed significantly to OceanObs'09 in Venice in 2009, and POGO was able to lobby successfully to open up sustained ocean observations to a broader community, including chemical, biological and biogeochemical observations. POGO also contributed in an important manner to the post-Venice Framework for Ocean Observations.