Understanding climate variability requires the development, evaluation and maintenance of a sustained global observing system. The Observing System Monitoring Center (OSMC) is being constructed in order to evaluate the current global ocean observing system as well as to aid in the development of new observing system components.

The OSMC currently shows types, location and timing of in-situ observations throughout the global oceans. It allows the user to view global observational data density, the maximum depth of global salinity and temperature profiles, and global sea surface temperature observations. The data available spans the time period from September 1991 through July 2003, and is being updated on a monthly basis. In addition, there are several animations available which show the number of monthly global observations at different thresholds for select variables.

A key integral future part of the OSCM is a Live Access Server (LAS), which will allow “live” access to global observational data. A prototype of the OSCM LAS will be available September 2003 providing “live” access to the NCEP 3 degree by 3 degree observational density data. The initial operational capability of the system is planned for January 2004.