We are happy to inform you that the Ocean Colour Essential Ocean Variable (EOV) Specification Sheet has been published and is available for viewing and download (for more information on the EOV process visit our site HERE.) To access all the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) EOV Specification Sheets, please follow this link: www.goosocean.org/eov.

The document has been prepared as a joint effort by the International Ocean Colour Coordination Group (IOCCG) and GOOS Panels. The challenge of describing the multidisciplinary requirements and applications of ocean colour measurements was met by a task team of dedicated experts from IOCCG Committee and GOOS Expert Panels: Emmanuel Boss (University of Maine, USA), Frank Muller-Karger (University of South Florida, USA), Rosalia Santoleri (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy), Simon Bélanger (Université du Québec à Rimouski, Canada) and Taka Hirata (Hokkaido University, Japan). Extensive feedback was obtained through two rounds of review provided by the IOCCG Committee, which consists of members drawn from national space agencies and the ocean colour community. We hope that the observing community will find this document useful in the process of implementing the vision for multi-disciplinary and multi-platform sustained ocean observing system.

We would like to let you know that during its 51^st Executive Council Meeting in July 2018, the Member States of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO welcomed the Methodology for the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target Indicator 14.3.1. The SDG Target Indicator 14.3.1 calls for "average marine acidity measured at an agreed suite of representative sampling stations". The Methodology provides guidance to scientists and countries about how to carry out measurements following the best practices established by experts in the ocean acidification community, including members of the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON) and IOCCP, and explains how to report the collected information. You can view the accepted Methodology, available in English, French, Spanish and Russian HERE.

We would like to inform you about two critical dates for scientific paper submission and acceptance for proposed paper contributions to be used by the 1^st Working Group of the IPCC 6^th Assessment Report (AR6-WG1). Of particular interest to our community is Chapter 5: Global Carbon and other Biogeochemical Cycles and Feedbacks. The process is open to accepting drafts of papers under review - they will be provisionally included in the literature database. You can view the full IPCC AR6 WG1 timeline together with background information and chapter outlines at this link: https://wg1.ipcc.ch/AR6/AR6.html

Latest submission for review date: 31 December 2019

Latest acceptance for publication date: 30 September 2020

We are happy to share a recently published Summary for Policy Makers on "Declining Oxygen in the World's Ocean and Coastal Waters" developed by the Global Ocean Oxygen Network (GO₂NE).

We are excited to announce the publication of the report of the IOCCP-JAMSTEC 2018 Inter-laboratory Comparison Exercise of a Certified Reference Material (CRM) for Nutrients in Seawater. We would like to congratulate Prof. Michio Aoyama and the team for leading the activity, and the 69 laboratories that participated in this 6^th intercomparison exercise. It is heartening to see that most of these laboratories are able to analyse nutrients concentration within the certified uncertainty of the unknowns provided. The recommendations included in this report provide guidance for increasing the ability of the global community to answer questions about the changing marine macronutrient environment.

For more information about the activity, please see our site HERE.

On August 9, 2018, at 15:00 GMT Juliet Hermes from the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON) will give a webinar as part of the GOOS series. She will speak on the Ocean Best Practices global initiative, run by an international working group supported by a number of organisations including JCOMM, UNESCO-IOC/IODE, GOOS, AtlantOS, ODIP and IEEE (amongst others). Click this LINK to join the webinar to register and be reminded to join at the appropriate time.

Earlier this year the Oxygen Theme was added to IOCCP's portfolio and Véronique Garçon was appointed as the SSG member responsible for related IOCCP activities. Now we are happy to invite you to check out the new Oxygen Theme site at: www.ioccp.org/oxygen. You will find information about ongoing IOCCP activities related to oxygen observations, projects and programs involved, as well as links to relevant databases, information products, references and other resources potentially useful to the marine biogeochemistry observing community. If you have any questions or suggestions for how the website could be improved, please don't hesitate to contact the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

As the deadline for submitting abstracts and Town Halls for the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting is drawing near (1 August 2018, 11:59 P.M. EDT), please take a look at a subjective selection of some of the sessions which might be of interest to the marine carbon and biogeochemistry community.  The meeting will take place in Washington, D.C., USA, on 10-14 December 2018. Please let us know if there are any other sessions you think should be on this list. 

We would like to let you know that the 6^th Argo Science Workshop (ASW-6) on "The Argo program in 2020 and beyond: Challenges and opportunities" will be held at Hitotsubashi Hall in Tokyo, Japan, on 22-24 October 2018. The workshop will be a mix of invited and submitted plenary talks and posters, including a dedicated session on Biogeochemical Argo. Contribution towards any of the workshop objectives (see below) and presentations of underpinning science and technology are encouraged.

Abstract submission will close on 10 August 2018. Because of the capacity of the venue, the number of registrations will be limited to 200. Authors are advised not to delay registration.

On behalf of more than 100 contributing scientists worldwide, we proudly announce the release of Version 6 of the Surface Ocean CO₂ Atlas (SOCAT). SOCAT (www.socat.info) is a synthesis activity by international marine carbon scientists with annual public releases. SOCAT version 6 has 23.4 million quality-controlled in situ surface ocean fCO₂ (fugacity of carbon dioxide) measurements from 1957 to 2017 for the global oceans and coastal seas, as well as additional calibrated sensor fCO₂ measurements. The poster handout has further details on version 6 key features, findings and other information.