WHILE THE ROLE OF OCEANS IN THE GLOBAL CARBON CYCLE AND ITS EXCHANGES WITH THE ATMOSPHERE ARE INDISPUTABLE IT IS LESS CLEAR HOW THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE UPPER OCEANS DETERMINE THE VERTICAL TRANSFER OF ORGANIC MATTER AND HOW THEY INFLUENCE THE EFFICIENCY OF THESE VERTICAL FLUXES. USING THE EXPERTISE IN OSSES AT THE NASA GLOBAL MODELING AND ASSIMILATION OFFICE (GMAO) WE WILL ASSESS DIFFERENT OBSERVATIONAL STRATEGIES ALLOWING FOR BEST USE OF RESOURCES TO MAXIMIZE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE EXPORT FLUXES PRIOR TO THE EXPORTS FIELD CAMPAIGNS. THE STATE-OF-THE-ART GMAO MODEL WILL ALLOW US TO TEST THESE OBSERVATIONAL STRATEGIES AT DIFFERENT SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL SCALES TO INFORM VARIOUS ASPECTS OF THE PLANNING. THESE SIMULATION EXPERIMENTS WILL PROVIDE THE LOCATIONS FREQUENCY AND PARAMETERS NEEDED TO REPRESENT THE OCEAN CARBON PATHWAYS OVER A RANGE OF CONTRASTING ECOSYSTEM/CARBON CYCLE STATES. ADDITIONALLY THE COMBINATION OF EXPERTISE AT GMAO IN SEASONAL TO DECADAL FORECAST WITH THE EXPERTISE OF NASA GISS IN DECADAL TO CENTURY CHANGES WILL PROVIDE SHORT- AND LONG-TERM FORECASTS OF BIOGEOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS INVOLVED IN CARBON EXPORT. THESE FORECASTS WILL HELP IN ASSESSING HOW REPRESENTATIVE THE VARIOUS SAMPLING STRATEGIES ARE FOR SEASONAL AND DECADAL VARIABILITY AND CHANGES. THE REPRESENTATION OF THE EXPORT OF PRIMARY PRODUCTION FROM THE SURFACE WATERS TO THE DEEP OCEAN IN THE NASA OCEAN BIOGEOCHEMICAL MODEL WILL BE USED TO ASSESS FUTURE RESPONSES TO CHANGES IN OCEAN ECOSYSTEMS AND CARBON TRANSPORT.