A Recent (and Likely Incomplete) History

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A Recent (and Likely Incomplete) History of the
Personnel and Education Requirements for the
Evolving Profession of Operational Oceanographer
Scott M. Glennglenn_at_imcs.rutgers.edu Oscar M. E.
Schofield oscar_at_imcs.rutgers.edu Robert J.
Chant chant_at_imcs.rutgers.edu J. Frederick
Grassle grassle_at_imcs.rutgers.edu
Coastal Ocean Observation Lab Institute of Marine
and Coastal Sciences Rutgers University marine.rut
gers.edu/cool www.theCOOLroom.org
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A Recent (and Likely Incomplete) History of the
Personnel and Education Requirements for the
Evolving Profession of Operational Oceanographer

• January, 2000 - Almanac for Seapower
• Admiral Richard West
• Navy's Operational Oceanography Program comprised
  of more than 3,000 military and civilian
  personnel.
• 430 Oceanography officers (2 year M.S. degree)
• 1600 Enlisted METOC Specialists (10 week
  introduction, 28 week weather forecasting)
• 1400 civilian personnel in the naval
  oceanographic community
• forecasts for weather, aviation flight,
  amphibious assault beach, electromagnetic, ocean
  acoustic, electro-optic, specific weapon systems
  and special operations warfare.
• New littoral emphasis while maintaining deep
  water proficiency
• January, 2000 - Oceanography
• Scott Glenn, Tommy Dickey, Bruce Parker and
  Bill Boicourt
• Long-term Real-time Coastal Ocean
  Observation Networks
• Training a new generation of science support
  staff
• Masters level
• Cross trained in oceanography and computer
  science, electronics, or engineering
• Sole purpose of graduate education should not be
  to produce another Ph.D.

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• March, 2000 - EOS
• Chris Mooers
• Operational Oceanography Shall We Dance?
• Supported by a highly educated workforce to
  maintain, evaluate and upgrade the observing,
  modeling and telecommunications systems.
• Skilled regional forecasters to combine numerical
  guidance with local observations and knowledge
• Current operational oceanographers Navy between
  100 to 4000 (depending on definition) and about
  100 at NOAA.
• June, 2000 - EOS
• Richard Spinrad
• Comment on Operational Oceanography Shall
  We Dance?
• U.S. Navy operational oceanographic community
  comprises approximately 2800 individuals
  worldwide.
• Development of new operational oceanography
  capabilities, data acquisition, and product
  dissemination.
• Includes remotely sensed, in situ and predictive
  data from a multitude of sources
• July, 2000 - Physics Today
• Toni Feder
• Argo Begins Systematic Global Probing of the
  Upper Oceans
• Howard Freeland (leader of Canadian Argo effort)
  - the primary result of Argo will be the
  identification of a new profession - operational
  oceanography.
• Purely scientific gains pale into insignificance.
  Success measured by the quality of the product
  supplied, not research papers.

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• November, 2000 - EOS
• Stan Wilson and Muriel Cole
• Comment on "Operational Oceanography Shall
  We Dance?"
• 1317 NOAA FTEs in operational oceanography.
• Collect data, derive products, produce analyses
  and generate forecasts.
• Chris Mooers
• Reply
• Sticking with 4,000 individuals and assuming a 40
  year work career, 100 new graduates are needed
  each year.
• Professional and educational needs should become
  planning factors.
• Meteorological paradigm is one model
• January, 2001 - Letter from Naval Oceanographic
  Office to the Office of Navel Research
• Landry Bernard, James Rigney
• Oceanographic Education
• Requirements - Scientists in all of the
  subspecialties of oceanic sciences, engineers and
  computer scientists.
• Challenges in operational oceanography - due to
  rapid changes in PO in the last 10 years,
  including satellite data and dynamical forecast
  models.
• Greatest challenge - setting up models in new
  areas and assessing forecast quality.

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• October, 2001 - Letter to James Rigney at
  NAVOCEANO.
• Robert Lorens
• Operational Oceanography Curricula
• Personal Communication Skills- written and oral
• Computer Communication Skills - Fortran, C,
  scripting
• Statistics - data errors and limitations
• Numerical Analysis - numerical recipes, analysis
  libraries, Matlab,
• GIS - ARCVIEW
• Descriptive and Dynamical Oceanography
• Applied Ocean Modeling - model is a black box and
  operations are emphasized.
• Data Analysis - time series and spectral
• Ocean Acoustics
• Field Experience
• October 2001 - email responses
• Chuck Weigand, NLMOC
• Core oceanography courses - physics, chemistry,
  biology and geology.
• Basic meteorology
• At sea experience

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Operational Oceanography Program Requirements

• Rutgers Requirements for Masters without Thesis
• 30 Credits of Course Work (typically ten 3-credit
  courses)
• Expository Essay Defense
• Typical Course Load
• Summer Fall
  Spring
• Year 1 Field Experience 3 Courses
  3 Courses
• Year 2 Field Experience 2 Courses Essay
  2 Courses Essay
• Year 3 Field Experience

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Potential Operational Oceanography Courses
Introductory Core Courses Physical
Oceanography Biological Oceanography Chemical
Oceanography Marine Geology Advanced
Physical Oceanography Meteorology Atmosphere
and Ocean Dynamics Coastal and Estuarine
Dynamics Atmospheric Boundary Layers Waves,
Currents Sediment Transport Transport
Processes in Geophysical Environments Graduate
Seminar Observations Modeling Remote
Sensing Geophysical Data Analysis Ocean
Modeling 1 2 Engineering Coastal
Engineering Robotic Systems Engineering Computer
Graphics Virtual Reality Technology
Interdisciplinary Courses Synoptic Meteorology
Ocean Optics Ocean Acoustics
Computer/Math Tools Statistics Numerical
Analysis Techniques Data Visualization Computer
Language - Fortran, C, Java
3 (PO 2) 2 2 1 1 1 ______ 10
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Whats Missing?
Practical Training in an Operational Environment

• How do we fix this?
• Change in academic philosophy
• Education program linked to an Operational
  Observatory
• Internships at Government Labs
• Co-ops with Industrial Partners

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