Description: The tools of geodesy have the potential to transform the Ocean Observing System. Geodetic observations are unique in the way that these methods produce accurate, quantitative, and integrated observations of gravity, ocean circulation, sea surface height, ocean bottom pressure, and mass exchanges among the ocean, cryosphere, and land. These observations have made fundamental contributions to the monitoring and understanding of physical ocean processes. In particular, geodesy is the fundamental science to enable determination of an accurate geoid model, allowing estimate of absolute surface geostrophic currents, which are necessary to quantify ocean’s heat transport. The present geodetic satellites can measure sea level, its mass component and their changes, both of which are vital for understanding global climate change. Continuation of current satellite missions and the development of new geodetic technologies can be expected to further support accurate monitoring of the ocean. The Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS) of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG) provides the means for integrating the geodetic techniques that monitor the Earth's time-variable surface geometry (including ocean, hydrologic, land, and ice surfaces), gravity field, and Earth rotation/orientation into a consistent system for measuring ocean surface topography, ocean currents, ocean mass and volume changes. This system depends on both globally coordinated ground-based networks of tracking stations as well as an uninterrupted series of satellite missions. GGOS works with the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) and space agencies to ensure the availability of the necessary expertise and infrastructure. In this white paper, we summarize the community consensus of critical oceanographic observables currently enabled by geodetic systems, and the requirements to continue such measurements. Achieving this potential will depend on merging the remote sensing techniques with in situ measurements of key variables as an integral part of the Ocean Observing System.

Description: Marine plastic debris floating on the ocean surface is a major environmental problem. However, its distribution in the ocean is poorly mapped, and most of the plastic waste estimated to have entered the ocean from land is unaccounted for. Better understanding of how plastic debris is transported from coastal and marine sources is crucial to quantify and close the global inventory of marine plastics, which in turn represents critical information for mitigation or policy strategies. At the same time, plastic is a unique tracer that provides an opportunity to learn more about the physics and dynamics of our ocean across multiple scales, from the Ekman convergence in basin-scale gyres to individual waves in the surfzone. In this review, we comprehensively discuss what is known about the different processes that govern the transport of floating marine plastic debris in both the open ocean and the coastal zones, based on the published literature and referring to insights from neighbouring fields such as oil spill dispersion, marine safety recovery, plankton connectivity, and others. We discuss how measurements of marine plastics (both in situ and in the laboratory), remote sensing, and numerical simulations can elucidate these processes and their interactions across spatio-temporal scales.

Description: In 2018 we celebrated 25 years of development of radar altimetry, and the progress achieved by this methodology in the fields of global and coastal oceanography, hydrology, geodesy and cryospheric sciences. Many symbolic major events have celebrated these developments, e.g., in Venice, Italy, the 15th (2006) and 20th (2012) years of progress and more recently, in 2018, in Ponta Delgada, Portugal, 25 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry. On this latter occasion it was decided to collect contributions of scientists, engineers and managers involved in the worldwide altimetry community to depict the state of altimetry and propose recommendations for the altimetry of the future. This paper summarizes contributions and recommendations that were collected and provides guidance for future mission design, research activities, and sustainable operational radar altimetry data exploitation. Recommendations provided are fundamental for optimizing further scientific and operational advances of oceanographic observations by altimetry, including requirements for spatial and temporal resolution of altimetric measurements, their accuracy and continuity. There are also new challenges and new openings mentioned in the paper that are particularly crucial for observations at higher latitudes, for coastal oceanography, for cryospheric studies and for hydrology. The paper starts with a general introduction followed by a section on Earth System Science including Ocean Dynamics, Sea Level, the Coastal Ocean, Hydrology, the Cryosphere and Polar Oceans and the “Green” Ocean, extending the frontier from biogeochemistry to marine ecology. Applications are described in a subsequent section, which covers Operational Oceanography, Weather, Hurricane Wave and Wind Forecasting, Climate projection. Instruments’ development and satellite missions’ evolutions are described in a fourth section. A fifth section covers the key observations that altimeters provide and their potential complements, from other Earth observation measurements to in situ data. Section 6 identifies the data and methods and provides some accuracy and resolution requirements for the wet tropospheric correction, the orbit and other geodetic requirements, the Mean Sea Surface, Geoid and Mean Dynamic Topography, Calibration and Validation, data accuracy, data access and handling (including the DUACS system). Section 7 brings a transversal view on scales, integration, artificial intelligence, and capacity building (education and training). Section 8 reviews the programmatic issues followed by a conclusion.