About - Surface Ocean CO2 Reference Observing Network (SOCONET)

Urgent, deep and sustained emission reductions are needed to peak and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, to reach net zero by 2050, as agreed by the 196 Parties to the Paris Agreement. The concentrations of GHGs in the atmosphere are regulated by both emissions and uptake by the land and ocean. However, ocean CO₂ uptake varies significantly in time and space and a large number of high-quality continuous measurements is needed to monitor and predict the ever-changing scales and patterns of the air-sea interactions and any adverse impacts of this uptake such as ocean acidification.

Over the past three decades, a key surface ocean effort that addressed the fate of man produced and natural carbon released to the atmosphere, was a loose affiliation of observing platforms (from merchant and research vessels, moorings as well as sailing boats and uncrewed surface vehicles) that so far lacked formal integration and coordination, which translates to limited presence of the surface ocean carbon observing system as part of information delivery to UNFCCC assessments, Global Greenhouse Gas Watch and other critical management and policy making bodies.

SOCONET provides a critical improvement in coordination of these efforts and is designed to be the backbone of constraining the understanding of the global surface ocean CO₂ fields and air-sea CO₂ flux, significantly improving the effectiveness of planned mitigation actions, as well as monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) efforts to properly incorporate ocean sinks in global carbon assessments and stocktakes. A uniquely designed and distributed SOCONET aims at creating monthly surface ocean CO₂ fields and air-sea CO₂ flux maps helping to assess surface ocean health as it pertains to ocean acidification; and to quantify ocean mitigation potential.

Much more detailed description of the scientific rationale, societal ambitions and existing and planned mechanisms to implement those is provided in two “founding” documents: the SOCONET Prospectus 2018 and the OceanObs’19 Community White Paper.