Gonzàlez-Pola et al. 
ICES-WGOH Assessment on Ocean Climate 
Frontiers In Marine Science | www.frontlersln.org 
3 
March 2019 | Volume 6 | Article 103 
Extended Ellett Line - Rockall Trough 
- 
Upper Ocean 30-800m 
- 
О 
5? 
cc 
All IROCs 
XT 
published to date 
are provided as a 
comprehensive list 
Highlights for current year conditions 
agreed at the WGOH annual meeting 
are shown as an itemized list 
Faroe Bank Channel - West Faroe Islands 
Faroe Current - North Faroe Islands (Modified Nort 
Fram Strait • East Greenland Current 
Fram Strait • Return Atlantic Water 
Temperature °C • Mean, S.D. and Normalised Annual Anomaly 
Reference Period Mean S.D. 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 201E 
1988-2010 8.80 0.36 ll.30 1.41 0.73 1.28 -0.03 0.04 0.5S 0.13 -0.0* 
8.11 0.39 0.92 1.20 0.98 1.34 0.93 -0.32 0.43 -0.45-0.6! 
0.69 0.57 lo 69 0.49 0.01 0.40 -0.18*0.64 0.58 0.91 
1987-2010 
1983-2010 
1983-2010 
2.22 0.51 -0.44 1.41 1.33 0.44 0.06 -0.22 0.66 0.9S 1.22 
Timeseries can be 
browsed on an interactive 
map and downloaded 
Summary table allows 
scrolling and can be 
downloaded as a spreadsheet 
29 
Fram Strait - West Spitsbergen Current 
1983-2010 
3.11 
0.69 
1.28 
** 
1.49 
1.07 
1.14 I 53 1 98 
0.71 1 52 0.24 
0.64 
Cape Desolation Section • Station 3 - Greenland S.. 
1983-2010 
2.88 
0.11 
0.46 
0.28 
•0.05 
0.79 
1.81 
0.93 
3 
Cape Desolation Section - Station 3 - Greenland S.. 
1983-2010 
5.72 
0.66 
0.06 
0.70 
1.15 
0.57 
1.28 
0.18 0.83 -0.47 
-0.4: 
2 
Fylla Section • Station 4 • Greenland Shelf 
1983-2010 
2.64 
1.10 
•0.46 
•0.25 
2.22 
-0.81 
0.50 
-0.33 0.67 -0.30 
Nuuk Air Temperature 
1981-2010 
•1.36 
1.52 
0.17 
0.50 
2.61 
-0.22 
0.96 
0.70 Э.50 ll.Ol 1.29 
•0.45 -0.04 ¡1.35 7| 
4 
Extended Ellett Line • Hatton Rockall Basin 
1996-2010 
9.0S 
0.39 
0.45 
0.32 
0.26 
0.18 
FIGURE 1 | Composite of content provided by the web version of the IROC report as of 2018. The portal Is organized Into four tabs containing data and elaborated 
Information. 
level or as vertical averages across a relevant water layer. Other 
series include long-term records of surface hydrography, sea-ice 
extent, atmospheric variables or other derived products such as 
heat content or estimated flows. Some of the timeseries reported 
in the IROC are the longest in the world and become more 
valuable to climate science with each passing year of continued 
measurement. These timeseries are not just long but also carefully 
analyzed by regional experts, thus of high quality to study and 
detect climate variability. Figure 2 shows some statistics of the 
current timeseries used for the IROC as of its latest published 
issue (Gonzalez-Pola et al., 2018). 
3. THE WGOH AND THE GLOBAL OCEAN 
OBSERVING SYSTEM 
The WGOH has served as a network to physical oceanographers 
in the North Atlantic for decades. While most science emerging 
from the observational systems that feed the IROC are performed 
independently by WGOH members within their science groups, 
collaborative studies have also emerged (e.g., Holliday et al., 2008; 
Holt et al., 2012; Hughes et al., 2012; Mork et al., 2014). Besides 
science, most outreach is achieved through the production of 
the IROC, currently used as a quick guide to environmental 
conditions for assessments and in support of other scientific 
studies (e.g., Nottestad et al., 2015; Punzon et al., 2016; Widmer 
et al., 2016; Townhill et al., 2017; Brander, 2018). To continue the 
success of the IROC, the WGOH is continually seeking new ways 
to engage with a burgeoning global ocean observing community 
and to distinguish the IROC in an increasingly crowded field 
of ocean status reports. Generally speaking, internal concerns 
deal with the role of the WGOH in the future world of global 
ocean observations. 
3.1. Ocean Status Reports, End-User 
Needs and the Science-to-Policy Pathway 
The need for continuous monitoring, systematic analysis and 
quick release of data and derived products is the foundation 
of what is known as operational oceanography. The aim of 
the oceanographic community has long been to follow the lead 
of the more advanced meteorological services, expecting that 
monitoring programs are coordinated and oceanographic data