“Coastal and ocean observations provide critical information…While the technology currently exists to integrate data gathered from a variety of sensors…, implementation of a sustained, national Integrated Ocean Observation System (IOOS) is overdue and should begin immediately.” (U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, 2004).

National Priorities
The U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy provides a concise and relevant rationale for implementing a national Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS). The National Office for Integrated and Sustained Observations, Ocean.US, is currently responsible for planning the IOOS, including developing an implementation plan and a data management and communications (DMAC) plan.

SCOOP Origins
The SCOOP program is an outgrowth of a vision proposed by SURA University Trustees, and endorsed by the Southern Governors Association in February 2002. The vision was to create an open access network of distributed sensors and linked computer models for the southeastern coastal zone. SURA is uniquely suited to implement this vision by bringing together the extensive and widely dispersed intellectual talent of the coastal science and computer science communities at SURA universities to address the challenges of creating such a network.

SCOOP Program
The Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) Coastal Ocean Observing and Prediction (SCOOP) program is a multi institution collaboration sponsored by the Office of Naval Research and NOAA's Coastal Services Center. SCOOP brings together a diverse group of researchers with expertise in both oceanography and information technology (IT). SCOOP partners are helping to implement the goals of the IOOS and the plans developed by Ocean.US by developing a service-oriented architecture to support community collaboration on shared scientific goals. The SCOOP Program addresses priorities in the " U.S. Ocean Action Plan," (2004), the Bush Administration's response to the Ocean Commission Report. The SCOOP Program is also working toward integrating the independently-operating, diverse, coastal and land-based observing systems into a "system of systems" - a key priority for the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) and the Integrated Earth Observing System (IEOS).

SCOOP Service Oriented Architecture
The concept of a service-oriented architecture is both an outgrowth of the early advances in information technology and a framework for future evolution of the World Wide Web. The concept is also increasingly recognized by the Ocean.US DMAC Steering Team as a framework for creating the IOOS. The SCOOP service-oriented architecture reflects the combined effort of a team of coastal and computer scientists from SURA institutions working for over a year to implement the initial elements of the system. Each stage in the incremental implementation revisits design requirements that reflect lessons learned in earlier stages. The basis for system requirements are being developed from a set of core use cases that reflect both the research and operational needs of an information system that can integrate environmental observations with predictive models. Common elements of the various use cases are organized into modular components that interact with one another through well-defined application programming interfaces (API's). The basic system components include numerical models, information catalogs, distributed archives, computing resources and network infrastructure. Coordination of these system components and management of multi-purpose workflow's is accomplished by using best-of-breed technologies (proprietary or open source) based on open standards. The distributed nature of the system components leads to a heavy emphasis on web services. The SCOOP service-oriented architecture will provide a cost-effective a framework for broad collaboration that can be operated, maintained, improved and utilized for both research and applications.

SURA/SCOOP, 1201 New York Ave, NW, Suite 430, Washington, DC 20005
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Sponsored by The Office of Naval Research and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration