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.

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.

Users

NEAR-GOOS provides a regional framework for gathering and distributing oceanographic data. It enables participating countries to make better use of their investments in ocean observations and research and is an element in the establishment of the Global Ocean Observing System. Oceanographic data and relevant products generated within NEAR-GOOS system are at free of charge through electronic communications for various forms of marine uses.

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).

Other

Training for the participating countries is an important aspect for the NEAR-GOOS operation and have been endorsed by the Coordinating Committee. See the NEAR-GOOS home page for more details.

The NEAR-GOOS Region

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