Understanding climate variability requires the development, maintenance and evaluation of a sustained global climate observing system. The purpose of the Observing System Monitoring Center (OSMC), which is being funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Office of Climate Observation (OCO), is to provide a tool that will assist managers and scientists with monitoring the performance of the global in-situ ocean observing system, identifying problems in real-time, and evaluating the adequacy of the observations in support of ocean/climate state estimation, forecasting and research.

The OSMC is built of two components -- a data base of metadata and tools to assist with the interpretation of that metadata. The metadata is derived primarily from the Global Telecommunications System (GTS) at present, with continual growth into other metadata sources as part of the project plans. The tools for interpretation of the metadata include those that give the user a visual overview of the global ocean observing system, as well as the ability to drill down and discover metadata associated with specific observations. These tools can provide both observing system managers and scientists insight as to where the global ocean observing system is meeting expectations as well identifying regions which may be excellent candidates for observing system expansion.

We will be showcasing the current capabilities of the OSMC as well as discussing the challenges inherent in building such a system. Furthermore, we will be discussing the evolution of the system to meet the changing needs of diverse users as well as how to integrate the OSMC with other climate products and modeling efforts.