Building a Community of Biogeochemistry Float Data Users: an OCB and US CLIVAR Report

Abstract

The Global Ocean Biogeochemistry (GO-BGC) array is a 5-year effort funded by the US National Science Foundation to produce and deploy 500 profiling floats equipped with biogeochemical sensors in the world ocean. Deployments began in the first quarter of 2021. To inform and engage a broad oceanographic user community, the Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry (OCB) and the US Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) Programs worked with GO-BGC leadership to host a virtual GO-BGC Scientific Workshop from June 28-30, 2021. The objectives of the workshop were to: • Introduce the GO-BGC plan to the global scientific community • Discuss and innovate on scientific applications of GO-BGC data • Provide background information on the flow of data and archiving • Deliver hands-on tutorials and computer code for accessing GO-BGC data Presentations and discussions were scheduled for 3-4 hours on each day using the Zoom platform. Some pre-recorded presentations were available online prior to each day’s events, so that participants could consider discussion items before the meeting. A Slack channel was also created prior to the meeting so that participants could communicate with organizers, presenters, and other attendees during the event.