PROGRAM TITLE:	U.S. Joint Global Ocean Flux Program (U. S. JGOFS)
ACTIVITY STREAMS:	Process, Model, Observe, Data, Assess
SCIENTIFIC ELEMENT:	Biogeochemical Dynamics 

 NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

SCIENTIFIC MERIT:  The goal of the U.S. JGOFS Program is to investigate the 
fluxes of carbon and related biogenic elements between air and sea, and 
within the ocean, using ships, aircraft, satellites, and in-ocean 
instrumentation, to achieve its goals.  The Program elements consist of 
time-series stations, process studies, a global survey of ocean CO2 chemistry, 
data management and modeling.  Each year some 40% of the fossil fuel CO2 
added to the atmosphere is transferred to the sea, and the imprint of this 
signal now provides a significant perturbation of ocean chemistry.  Policy 
makers are concerned with regulating the build up of atmospheric CO2, and 
need accurate information on current status and future trends. Models 
accounting for this process typically use a simple abiological ocean, and the 
fossil fuel signal appears in such models as written on a blank, or constant 
background.  The true ocean contains large time-varying gradients of the 
natural cycle on which the fossil fuel signal is superimposed.  U.S.JGOFS 
experiments are designed to observe and constrain this natural cycle so that 
the changes of man are truly discernible.  In the future it is quite possible that 
climatic change can perturb this natural cycle, forcing further changes in the 
CO2 system, and affecting life processes over 70% of the earth's surface.  U.S. 
JGOFS seeks to attain national and international consensus and scientific 
understanding of these issues.  The potential role of increased atmospheric 
CO2 in influencing the marine animal populations will be addressed by the 
linking of JGOFS and GLOBEC.  In a similar linkage, the interaction of the 
ocean and continental margins will be realized through coordination with 
LIOCZ.  Two major process studies, both multi-agency and multi-national, 
have been executed, two time-series stations, are in operation, and 
approximately one third of the global survey goals have already been met.  A 
research satellite dedicated to the program is scheduled for a 1994 launch.
 
STAKEHOLDERS:  The U.S. JGOFS Program grew out of the 
recommendations of a 1984 National Academy of Sciences workshop. It is a 
major and leading component of the international program JGOFS, 
established three years later, which now numbers more than 30 nations 
among its participants, and is a "Core Project" of the IGBP.  National and 
international partners include related global change programs which 
cooperate with JGOFS (i.e., WOCE, GLOBEC, TOGA and IGAC and their U.S. 
equivalents).  In addition, NOAA's Global Change Program and NASA's 
Ocean Biogeochemistry Program are integral components of the U.S. JGOFS.  
Beneficiaries include the scientific community, at large, who need a better 
description of the ocean's role in the global carbon cycle and policy makers 
who rely on this community for advice.
 
POLICY RELEVANCE:  Preliminary information from the JGOFS Program 
will prove essential to policy makers as they look forward to the EOS Era and 
assess how such programs as JGOFS can help to tackle the questions which are 
to be addressed in the post-JGOFS period. Long term benefits will derive 
naturally from the insights which flow from an increased understanding of 
the global carbon cycle and policy issues which relate to it. 

PROGRAM CONTACTS:	
Neil Andersen, Chemical Oceanography Program Director
Phillip Taylor, Biological Oceanography Program Director