The Global Ocean Ship-Based Hydrographic Investigations Program (GO-SHIP) receives the Ocean Observing Team Award

(Press-News.org) The Oceanography Society (TOS) has awarded the Ocean Observing Team Award to the Global Ocean Ship-Based Hydrographic Investigations Program (GO-SHIP), recognizing the program’s groundbreaking and sustained contributions to ocean observing that have transformed scientific understanding of the global ocean and delivered profound societal benefits. Team members will be recognized during The Oceanography Society’s Awards Breakfast taking place on Tuesday, February 24, 2026, during the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.

GO-SHIP is the international community’s premier program for full-depth, high-accuracy, repeat observations of the global ocean, providing the climate-quality data required to detect and understand long-term changes in ocean heat, carbon, circulation, oxygen, and biogeochemistry. Coordinated by 19 nations across a global network of 55 hydrographic sections, GO-SHIP represents a breakthrough in the design, implementation, and long-term operation of an integrated global observing system. As noted by the International Ocean Carbon Coordination Project, the “GO-SHIP Team has been a champion in providing opportunities for multinational execution of individual tasks as well as in assuring completion of decadal surveys across participating nations.”

GO-SHIP established the first globally coordinated and interoperable framework for repeat hydrography, integrating ships, sensors, calibration protocols, and open data systems into a unified observing strategy. These observations underpin many of the most consequential advances in modern ocean and climate science. Its data have revealed deep-ocean warming below 2,000 meters, quantified the ocean’s dominant role in absorbing excess heat and anthropogenic carbon, documented ocean deoxygenation and acidification, and improved understanding of large-scale circulation and sea-level rise. 

“GO-SHIP is the foundation of sustained global ocean observations,” wrote Professor Sabrina Speich, Co-Chair of the Ocean Observations for Physics and Climate Panel (OOPC) of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS). “Its consistency and precision make it the benchmark against which all other ocean observations are calibrated and evaluated.” 

In addition, GO-SHIP serves as the essential reference backbone for the global ocean observing system. Its foundational measurements are used to calibrate a wide array of autonomous platforms, ranging from Argo floats to satellite-based sensors. By providing this standard, GO-SHIP ensures that the broader observing network remains integrated, trustworthy, and characterized by high data quality over the long term.

These scientific advances have direct societal relevance. GO-SHIP data form a key empirical foundation for international climate assessments and policy processes, supporting evidence-based decision-making under the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement. “Without GO-SHIP, our understanding of Earth’s energy and carbon budget would be severely limited,” wrote Professor Nicolas Gruber of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. “We would lack the critical data needed to assess the ocean’s central role in moderating climate change.” 

A defining strength of GO-SHIP is its inclusive, multidisciplinary team structure, integrating engineers, data scientists, technicians, ship operators, modelers, and observational scientists across all phases of observing-system design, implementation, and application. GO-SHIP cruises routinely host early-career researchers and students, providing hands-on experience in open-ocean measurement, data stewardship, and international collaboration. More information about GO-SHIP team members is available at: https://tos.org/ocean-observing-team-award.

“GO-SHIP’s achievements rest on the shoulders of individual principal investigators and teams who commit enormous effort—often voluntarily—to maintaining a global reference system for the benefit of the entire community,” Speich wrote, highlighting the program’s culture of service, mentorship, and open science.

GO-SHIP leadership has played a central role in establishing and sharing best practices for ocean observing, with openly accessible, FAIR data streams that are now widely adopted across the Global Ocean Observing System. “This initiative has transformed the way our community shares protocols, metadata, and inter-calibrations, ensuring that ocean data are interoperable and comparable across platforms and generations,” Speich noted.

Collectively, the GO-SHIP team has sustained nearly two decades of exceptional global collaboration and technical excellence. As Kathy Tedesco, NOAA/UCAR, stated in the nominating letter, GO-SHIP has “fundamentally transformed how the global community measures and stewards the ocean.”

By delivering climate-critical data with unmatched accuracy, fostering inclusive and interdisciplinary team science, and enabling interoperable global observing systems, GO-SHIP exemplifies the goals of the TOS Ocean Observing Team Award and sets a lasting standard for sustained ocean observation worldwide.

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About The Oceanography Society

Founded in 1988, The Oceanography Society’s mission is to build the capacity of its diverse global membership; catalyze interdisciplinary ocean research, technology, policy, and education; and promote equitable access to opportunities for all. More information about TOS Honors is available at https://tos.org/honors.

 

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