Decadal Survey of Ocean Sciences

Dr. David Titley, Rear Adm. (Ret.)–well known to us as former oceanographer of the U.S. Navy, as chief operating officer at NOAA, now as a professor at Penn State’s Department of Meteorology–and of course as an AMS Fellow–writes to us asking for your input on a new project:

As you may know, the National Research Council (NRC) is now conducting a Decadal Survey of Ocean Sciences (DSOS 2015), sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Shirley Pomponi (Harbor Branch/Florida Atlantic University) and I are the co-chairs.
This study will review the current state of knowledge, identify compelling scientific questions for the next decade, analyze infrastructure needed to address these questions vs. the current NSF portfolio, and identify opportunities to maximize the value of NSF investments.
The DSOS committee feels strongly that this report must be informed by broad and thoughtful community input from across the entire spectrum of ocean sciences supported by NSF. The DSOS committee will be holding town hall sessions at the AGU Annual Meeting in San Francisco in December and at the ASLO/TOS/AGU Ocean Sciences Annual Meeting in Honolulu in February 2014. In addition to soliciting comments at the professional meetings, we are seeking community input through a “virtual” town hall: http://nas-sites.org/dsos2015/.
The website provides more detailed information on the statement of task, as well as a complete list of the DSOS committee members. Please go to the website and contribute your comments regarding the top ocean science priorities for the next decade. Thank you very much in advance for supporting the Ocean Studies Board and the NRC in this important effort.