The Ship of Opportunity Program

Abstract

The Ship Of Opportunity Program (SOOP) is an international World Meteorological Organization (WMO)-IntergovernmentalOceanographic Commission (IOC) program that addresses both scientific and operational goals to contribute to building a sustained ocean observing system. The SOOP main mission is the collection of upper ocean temperature profiles using eXpendable BathyThermographs (XBTs), mostly from volunteer vessels. The XBT deployments are designated by their spatial and temporal sampling goals or modes of deployment (Low Density, Frequently Repeated, and High Density) and sample along well-observed transects, on either large or small spatial scales, or at special locations such as boundary currents and chokepoints, all of which are complementary to the Argo global broad scale array. A multi-national review of the global upper ocean thermal networks carried out in 1999 [1] and presented at the OceanObs'99 conference recommended evolving from broad-scale XBT sampling to increased spatial and temporal transect-based sampling anticipating the implementation of the Argo float network and continued satellite altimetry observations. The objective of the present manuscript is to review the present status of networks against the objectives set during OceanObs'99, to present key scientific contributions of XBT observations, and to offer new perspectives for the future of the XBT network. The commercial shipping industry has changed in the past decade, toward fewer routes and more frequent changes of ships and routing impacting the temporal continuity of some XBT transects. In spite of these changes, many routes now have, in addition to XBT sampling, measurements from ThermoSalinoGraphs (TSGs), eXpendable Conductivity Temperature and Depth (XCTD), partial pressure of CO 2 , Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP), Continuous Plankton Recorders (CPR), marine meteorology, fluorescence, and radiometer sensors. In addition, recent studies of the XBT fall rate are being evaluated

Measuring the Global Ocean Surface Circulation with Satellite and In Situ Observations

“…Other sources of in situ data come from instrumented ships of opportunity that perform XBT transect sampling and ADCP measurements complementary to the Argo sampling ( [10] and [11], and http://ilikai.soest.hawaii.edu/sadcp/).…”

The Data Management System for the Global Temperature and Salinity Profile Programme

“…[7] and the Ship Of Opportunity Programme (SOOP) [2], and (c.) Continuously Managed Database (CMD): The NODC provides data processing services for the long-term preservation of oceanographic data and the maintenance of the GTSPP CMD. GTSPP manages the acquisition, ingest processing, quality control and the long-term preservation for both low resolution data from the GTS, and the full resolution data from XBT"s (Expendable Bathythermograph), CTD"s (ConductivityTemperature-Depth), Moorings, profiling floats, and instrumented marine mammals.…”

Synthesis and Assimilation Systems - Essential Adjuncts to the Global Ocean Observing System

“…The most commonly used are seasurface height (SSH) anomalies from altimeters (e.g., TOPEX/Poseidon and JASON-1, -2 [15]), in situ temperature (T) profiles from XBTs/CTDs [16,17] , the global tropical moored buoy array [18], and Argo [19] and in situ salinity (S) profiles from Argo. Sea surface temperature (SST) estimates (e.g., [20], [21]) are either assimilated directly or used as a surface boundary condition.…”